INSERT INTO `news_details` (`id`, `news_id`, `details`, `ticker`, `representative`, `keyword`, `video_link`, `google_drive_link`, `audio_link`, `shoulder`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES
(12221, 12221, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Raging floods and mudslides have killed at least 55 people in southern Brazil and forced nearly 70,000 to flee their homes, the country\'s civil defense agency said on Saturday.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">At least 74 people were injured and another 67 missing from the catastrophic flooding, civil defense said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The toll did not include two people who died in an explosion at a flooded gas station in Porto Alegre, witnessed by an AFP journalist, where rescue crews were attempting to refuel.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fast-rising water levels in the state of Rio Grande do Sul were straining&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">dams and particularly threatening economically important Porto Alegre, a city of 1.4 million.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Guaiba River, which flows through the city, is at a historic high of 5.04 meters (16.5 feet), well above the 4.76 meters that had stood as a record since devastating 1941 floods.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Authorities scrambled to evacuate swamped neighborhoods as rescue workers used four-wheel-drive vehicles -- and even jet skis -- to maneuver through waist-deep water in search of the stranded.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In addition to the 69,200 residents forced from their homes, civil defense also said more than a million people lacked access to potable water amid the flooding, describing damage as incalculable.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite said his state -- normally one of Brazil\'s most prosperous -- would need a \"Marshall Plan\" of heavy investment to rebuild after the catastrophe.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In many places, long lines formed as people tried to board buses, although bus services to and from the city center were canceled.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Porto Alegre international airport suspended all flights on Friday for an undetermined period.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva posted a video of a helicopter depositing a soldier atop a house, where he used a brick to pound a hole in the roof and rescue a baby wrapped in a blanket.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Joao Guilherme, a 23-year-old salesman, found his way to safety in the state capital -- but without his cell phone.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"I have no communication with anybody, I\'m very shaken,\" he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The speed of the rising waters unnerved Greta Bittencourt, 32, a professional poker player.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"It\'s terrifying because we saw the water rise in an absurd way, it rose at a very high speed,\" Bittencourt said.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">- \'Going to be much worse\' -</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">With waters starting to overtop a dike along another local river, the&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Gravatai, Mayor Sebastiao Melo issued a stern warning on social media&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">platform X, saying, \"Communities must leave!\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He urged people to ration water, after four of the city\'s six treatment&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">plants had to be closed.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a live transmission on Instagram, Governor Leite said the situation was&nbsp; \"absolutely unprecedented,\" the worst in the history of the state, home to&nbsp; agroindustrial production of soy, rice, wheat and corn.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Residential areas were underwater as far as the eye could see, with roads destroyed and bridges swept away by powerful currents.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rescuers faced a colossal task, with entire towns inaccessible, reports AFP&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">At least 300 municipalities have suffered storm damage in Rio Grande do Sul&nbsp; since Monday, according to local officials.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-05 09:42:47', '2024-05-05 09:42:47'),
(12222, 12222, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Manipulated videos are taking center stage as campaigning heats up in India’s election, with fake clips involving two top aides of Prime Minister Narendra Modi triggering police investigations and the arrest of some workers of his rival Congress party.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In what has been dubbed as India’s first AI election, Modi said last week fake voices were being used to purportedly show leaders making “statements that we have never even thought of,” calling it a conspiracy “to create tension in society.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Indian police — already investigating the spread of fake videos showing Bollywood actors criticizing Modi — are now investigating a doctored online clip that showed federal home minister Amit Shah saying the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party will stop certain social guarantees for minorities, a subject sensitive for millions of voters.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Shah retorted on X, posting his “original” and the edited “fake” speech and alleging — without providing any evidence — that the main opposition Congress was behind the video it created to mislead the public. The minister said “directions have been issued to the police to address this issue.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Indian police arrested at least nine people, including six members of Congress’ social media teams, in the states of Assam, Gujarat, Telangana and New Delhi last week for circulating the fake video, according to police statements.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Five of the Congress workers were released on bail, but the most high-profile arrest made by the cybercrime unit of New Delhi police came on Friday, when they detained a Congress national social media coordinator, Arun Reddy, for sharing the video. New Delhi is one region where Shah’s ministry directly controls police. Reddy has been sent into three-day custody.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The arrest has sparked protests from Congress workers with many posting on X using the #ReleaseArunReddy tag. Congress lawmaker Manickam Tagore said the arrest was an example of “authoritarian misuse of power by the regime.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Congress’ head of social media, Supriya Shrinate, did not respond to messages and an email seeking comment. Source: Reuters&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-05 10:04:22', '2024-05-05 10:04:22'),
(12223, 12223, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said the country’s army has earned public trust and confidence by standing beside the people.</b><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">“Our army now stands beside the people and has gained public trust and confidence,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister made these remarks while addressing a darbar at Army Central Auditorium in Dhaka cantonment.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">Earlier, the premier opened the newly constructed Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) Bhaban and Sena Prangan (Army Central Auditorium) Bhaban in Dhaka Cantonment.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The PM said the common people had lost their trust and confidence in the army after August, 1975. She mentioned this in reference to the role of a few disgruntled army men in the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most members of his family on August 15, 1975.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;She said since coming to power for the first time in 1996&nbsp; she has taken steps to restore public trust and confidence in the army.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“I endeavored in creating trust and confidence among the people regarding our army, which is very essential for an army to protect the independence and sovereignty (of their own country),” she added.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">If any adverse situation emerges, the army now stands by the people, said Hasina.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said her government formulated the Forces Goal-2030 in line with the Defence Policy 1974 framed by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now the AL government has been implementing programmes designed to build the country’s armed forces as modern and equipped with the latest knowledge, she added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;“Our goal is that our armed forces would be equipped with modern technological knowledge. We’ve been working accordingly,” she stated.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The PM said the Bangladesh armed forces are widely acclaimed in the world for their outstanding contribution to the United Nations Peacekeeping missions. Now her government’s goal is to brighten the image of the armed forces further, she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-05 10:25:48', '2024-05-05 10:25:48'),
(12224, 12224, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Ninety seven percent of the Boro paddy in haor areas have been harvested, said the Agriculture Ministry on Sunday.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This year, a total of 4,53,400 hectares of land in seven haor districts -Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Sunamganj, Kishoreganj, Netrakona and Brahmanbaria- were brought under Boro cultivation and so far body paddy on 4.38 lakh hectares land have been harvested while only 33 percent Boro paddy harvested across the country, according to a release of the ministry.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The government is working to make haor crops risk-free and that’s why the government has been providing combine harvesters, and reapers to the haor farmers at 70 percent subsidy, so that ripe paddy can be harvested in a short time, said the release.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This year, a total of 50.58 lakh hectares of land have been brought under boro cultivation across the country, which is over 20,000 hectares more land than the previous year.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The ministry also set a target to produce 2.22 crore tonnes of paddy this year.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">During a visit to Srimangal of Moulvibazar district recently, Agriculture Minister Dr Md. Abdus Shahid said Boro paddy supplies more than half of our total rice production throughout the year and that’s why the government puts importance on Boro cultivation, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">To raise the Boro cultivation, the government has provided seeds and fertilizers worth Tk 215 crore at free of cost, he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-05 10:44:46', '2024-05-05 10:44:46'),
(12225, 12225, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Israel has long been accused of acting with impunity in the Palestinian territory it occupies, relying on support from the United States and the broader West to protect it from repercussions.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Yet a recent flurry of media reports out of Israel indicates that Israeli officials may be worried about the winds changing with the International Criminal Court (ICC) reportedly planning to charge top Israeli military and political figures with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Israeli media reports indicate that arrest warrants could be issued as soon as this week and that Israel has asked the US to pressure the court to not issue them. Al Jazeera has been unable to independently confirm the potential warrants.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The ICC has spoken to medical staff in Gaza about possible war crimes, according to the Reuters news agency on Tuesday, reviving discussion of possible warrants.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In March 2021, an ICC investigation of Israeli conduct in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since 2014 was launched under former ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In November last year, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, Djibouti and South Africa referred Israel’s conduct to the court again, resulting in current Prosecutor Karim Khan announcing that the ongoing investigation had been expanded to include violence since Israel’s latest war in Gaza began in October.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A month later, on a visit to the West Bank and Israel, he said the court would investigate crimes by both Israel and Hamas on and since October 7.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Why an investigation that has been under way for three years has caused such sudden concern within Israel has raised some questions. Source: Al Jazeera&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-05 10:48:37', '2024-05-05 10:48:37'),
(12226, 12226, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">My student journalist colleagues and I had stayed late into the night on Columbia University’s campus the previous couple of days, reporting on a story that had grabbed the world’s attention: the pro-Palestine protests and encampment that had inspired similar campaigns in schools across the United States and globally.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">As I slung my camera bag on my back and began to leave campus, walking by the camp, I got a tip from a passing protester: “I would stick around till about midnight,” they said. “Maybe go home first, though.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Got it. I went home to charge the backup camera batteries and grab spare memory cards before leaving for campus again.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Back at Columbia, it appeared that more than one of us had gotten the tip. Crowds of student journalists, all of us with matching paper badges and blue tape on our clothes, waited next to the encampment for whatever was to come. Our journalism faculty stood by our side, as they had been doing throughout.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Protesters grouped into “platoons”, and while we didn’t know what to expect, we kept eyes on different corners.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">We split up to make sure different spots were covered; a few of us stuck by Pulitzer Hall, the home of Columbia Journalism School, where a small number of protesters had convened, while some others stood ready with cameras and recorders by the encampment.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">That is when it all began. Campers began walking their tents off the lawn. One group began chanting. Another at the opposite end of the lawn sang protest hymns. I was with a small cohort of journalists who followed the tents to another small lawn, a clever decoy – whether intended or not – that meant many of us missed the moment, at the opposite end of campus, when protesters entered Hamilton Hall.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By the time we had run over, tens of student protesters had gathered to link arms outside the building, which their predecessors had taken over in 1968 to protest against the Vietnam War, and in 1985 to demand that Columbia divest from firms tied to apartheid South Africa.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Two of my colleagues were in the middle of the scrum, up against the doors watching two counter-protesters attempt to stop the occupation before being pushed out. Protesters rushed metal picnic tables, wooden chairs, trash cans, and planters to the doors where they were zip-tied together, effectively forming a barricade.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Two masked individuals appeared from a second-floor balcony to cheers and applause. They unfurled a hand-painted sign, “Hind’s Hall”, a reference to the six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed with her family in their car in January as they tried to escape Israel’s military assault in Gaza, reports Al Jazeera&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">That night, I fell asleep on the floor of a sixth-storey classroom in Pulitzer Hall to the echoes of song, one lone voice amplified through a megaphone, coming from Hamilton Hall, “This joy that I have, the world didn’t give it to me, the world can’t take it away.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-05 11:55:52', '2024-05-05 11:55:52'),
(12227, 12227, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">A driver died after crashing a vehicle into a gate at the White House Saturday night, authorities said.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The driver was found dead in the vehicle following the crash shortly before 10:30 p.m. at an outer perimeter gate of the White House complex, the US Secret Service said in a statement.</div><div><br></div><div>Security protocols were implemented but there was no threat to the White House, the agency said.</div><div><br></div><div>The driver was not immediately identified, reports AP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>The Secret Service will continue to investigate the matter, while turning over the fatal crash portion of the investigation to the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, the agency said.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-05 12:09:17', '2024-05-05 12:09:17'),
(12228, 12228, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, currently in Saudi Arabia, performed the holy Umrah on Saturday night.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">BNP’s Makkah unit president Abul Kalam Azad said the BNP secretary general and his wife Rahat Ara Begum arrived in Makkah from Medina on Saturday evening.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">They performed the Umrah along with some local BNP leaders and activists after Esha prayers.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Following the completion of the Umrah rituals, Azad said the couple offered prayers at Masjid-al-Haram, reports unb</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the other hand, Fakhrul offered a munajat praying for the continued peace, prosperity, and progress of the people of Bangladesh, the country, and the entire Muslim Ummah.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Azad said the BNP secretary general also prayed for divine blessings for BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, Acting Chairman Tariq Rahman, and millions of party leaders and workers.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also said Fakhrul and his wife would visit various historical places in Makkah such as Mount Arafat, Mina-Muzdalifah, Maqam-e-Ibrahim, Jabal-e-Rehmat, Jabal-e-Noor, Zamzam Well, Namirah Mosque, and Makkah Museum on Sunday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Makkah BNP president informed that Fakhrul is scheduled to go to Jeddah from Makkah on Monday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The BNP leader and his wife are expected to return home on May 8 (Wednesday) via a flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Earlier on May 2, Fakhrul and his wife traveled to Medinah from Dhaka and offered fateha at the grave of the Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Pbuh). They also attended Jumma prayers in the Prophet\'s Mosque on Friday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mirza Fakhrul was arrested on October 29, a day after the BNP\'s grand rally in Dhaka\'s Naya Paltan was foiled by the police. He was released on bail on February 15 after nearly three and a half months of imprisonment.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The BNP secretary general has long been suffering from various physical complications, and his condition worsened since he went to jail. His wife Rahat Ara Begum was also sick.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-05 12:49:50', '2024-05-05 12:49:50'),
(12229, 12229, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">The purchasing power of marginal, middle class and lower middle class has decreased due to the direct impact of double-digit inflation, said Distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya on Sunday.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">So the main budget for the next fiscal year 2024-2025 will be how to restore the stability of the macro economy and reducing the high inflation.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said this at a press briefing when unveiling a survey report titled \"New Government, National Budget and Citizen\'s Aspirations\", which was conducted in collaboration with the Citizen\'s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh. The event was held in a hotel in Gulshan on Sunday (May 5).</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the press briefing also urged for the government to allocate more funds for social protection, education, and health in the next budget.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Unveiling the report, Dr. Debapriya said the number of child marriages, malnutrition, and population under the poverty line has increased along with widening the income discrimination in the society.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“The inflation situation improved globally including the South Asian countries, while in Bangladesh the inflation situation is totally opposite, people are crying in manage their family expenditure as they have been experiencing a deteriorated inflation for two years,” he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The survey revealed that decent employment is the top aspiration for Bangladeshi people.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In terms of decent employment, 44.9 percent of citizens surveyed also called to reduce unemployment, 36.44 percent wanted increased job opportunities, and 11.02 percent aspired for allowances for the unemployed.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;The second major aspiration was education, with 49.72 percent of the respondents saying they wanted quality education. A total of 28.53 percent also asked that a stipend or scholarship be provided.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Another agenda was social protection, with 33.25% aspiring for food security.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Parliament has a standing committee on budget, let them meet. Such a meeting was not seen in the previous Parliament,” Dr. Debapriya pointed out.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Besides, the finance minister has to present the economic situation to the parliament every three months, but this has not been practiced, he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">CPD executive director Dr. Fahmida Khatun said that tax management should be improved. Those who are paying taxes are being taxed more. They are often harassed, reports unb</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Many people are not paying taxes, they are evading taxes. Besides, money is going abroad through money laundering, she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“In the tax structure, direct tax is a tax on direct income, which is 30 percent of the total tax. On the other hand, indirect taxes such as VAT and duties are 70 percent. Change must be made here, she pointed out.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-05 13:29:56', '2024-05-05 13:29:56'),
(12230, 12230, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi likened the upcoming upazila polls to the ‘sham’ election of January 7, urging the voters of the country to boycott the elections to be held in four phases.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“The government is going to hold dummy elections to upazila parishads like January 7, as no democratic party is participating in these polls,\" he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rizvi said this while distributing leaflets, containing the party’s call to boycott the upazila polls, in the capital’s Bailey Road area on Sunday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He slammed the current government for depriving the people of their right to vote and choose their representatives through rigged elections.&nbsp; “This situation has been created by the head of the current government, which came to power through a dummy election.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">“So, I urge the country\'s people not to participate in any election under this dummy government. Those present here belong to various upazilas. None of you should cast your votes,” the BNP leader said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rizvi also lambasted the government for what he said was destroying the electoral system in the country merely to perpetuate its power.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said the government is ruining the country by indulging in widespread plundering and siphoning off money abroad since it has no accountability to the people.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A total of 152 upazilas across the country are scheduled to go to polls in the first phase on May 8, as announced by the Election Commission. The elections to 492 upazilas will be held in four phases, with the second phase slated for May 23, the third phase for May 29, and the fourth phase for June 5.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">BNP remains steadfast in its decision not to participate in the upazila elections, mirroring its stance on the last national election, asserting that fair elections are impossible under the Awami League government.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the other hand, The party also expelled 140 of its grassroots leaders for participating in the first and second phases of the upcoming upazila elections in violation of the party\'s decision.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"1\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-05 15:02:07', '2024-05-05 15:02:07'),
(12231, 12231, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Bangladesh and Italy will work together to fight disinformation campaign through social media that lures the common people to choose the illegal path to migrate into Europe.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat and Italian Ambassador to Bangladesh Antonio Alessandro reached this agreement at a meeting at the state minister\'s office in Bangladesh Secretariat here this afternoon.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Human traffickers carry out disinformation campaign on social media to lure people over migration to European countries through illegal channels. As a result, they are exposed to danger and even fall into life risk,” Arafat told reporter, emerging from the meeting.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Not only immigration seekers, but also people in different other sectors also fall the victims to that disinformation campaign, he said, adding, “Therefore, we talked how we can effectively address the problem together”.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Noting that Italy will share their laws and regulations over tackling the disinformation campaign, the state minister said, “We will fully support each other to combat the disinformation campaign and make the people aware so that they don’t pay attention to the campaign as it leads to human trafficking”.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Pointing out that misinformation is not a matter of politics, Arafat said many women and children also become victims of misinformation in urban and rural areas.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Some fall into risk by choosing the illegal way of migration. Therefore, there is a necessity of coordination among the government, local stockholders and foreign missions in Bangladesh regarding the flow of correct information,” he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Replying to a question over this year’s World Press Freedom Index of the RSF\'s (Reporters Without Borders), the state minister said the report has many methodological weaknesses.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"I had sent a letter to the RSF showing their methodological weakness in their 2023 report and they acknowledged the mistakes and corrected the data,\" he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">But this year, they also followed the same process in making the report, Arafat said, questioning the credibility of their sources from which they take information, saying, “Are those sources giving objective information with honesty or do they have any agenda?”&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mentioning that the report will lose its credibility if there is any methodological weakness and information is incorporated without verification, he said, “I welcome the RSF’s ranking initiative. But I would urge them to remove the methodological weaknesses and verify information before making the report”.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Earlier, talking to reporters, the Italian ambassador said that they discussed about how they can counter disinformation and fake news together, particularly concerning the illegal migration issues.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He emphasized on making correct information available and creating awareness among the people about legal migration to stop illegal migration, reports BSS</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Antonio Alessandro said safer and legal path to migrate into Europe should be promoted.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We also discussed about the people to people relation,” he said, adding that they also discussed about how Bangladesh can present its cultural heritage in Italy through cinema and participate in some important art exhibitions in Venice and Milan.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-05 15:32:51', '2024-05-05 15:32:51'),
(12232, 12232, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">The Health Emergency Operation Center and Control Room (HEOC & CR) of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) confirmed the deaths.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The DGHS reported the fatalities from the information it received at its control room till Sunday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Besides, one person died and three people suffered injuries due to heatstroke across the country in the past 24 hours till Monday morning.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The DGHS started recording heatstroke related deaths from April 22.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A mild to very severe heat wave swept through the country for about a month staring from first week of April. Later the temperature started to fall across the country after rains in the first week of the current month.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The heat wave also forced the government to shut the primary and secondary schools, colleges and madrashas till May 2. According to UNB reports </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 10:52:34', '2024-05-06 16:37:14'),
(12234, 12234, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>A major fire that erupted in the Chandpai range of the Sundarbans East Zone on Saturday afternoon has been successfully contained after over 29 hours of continuous efforts by multiple emergency teams.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mongla Station Officer Md Kaymuzzaman from the Fire Service confirmed that the coordinated efforts of the Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Forest Guard, and Fire Service brought the blaze under control by around 8 pm Sunday. “The fire is under control but will remain under observation,” he stated, highlighting the caution with which the situation is being handled.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The incident drew immediate attention from senior officials, including Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) Md Amir Hossain Chowdhury, Deputy Commissioner of Bagerhat Mohammad Khalid Hossain, and Superintendent of Police Abul Hasnat Khan, who visited the site on Sunday afternoon.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Post-visit, CCF Chowdhury briefed the media, estimating that approximately 5 acres of forest land had been affected. Water has been sprayed over the affected area, and starting Monday morning, drones will be used to ensure no hidden fires remain, he explained.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Furthermore, Chowdhury announced the formation of a high-level committee to assess the fire’s impact on the Sundarbans’ biodiversity. The committee is expected to deliver a report with recommendations within the next ten working days, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The response underscores the ongoing commitment to preserving the unique ecosystem of the Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its rich biodiversity and as a habitat for the endangered Bengal tiger. </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 11:05:29', '2024-05-06 11:05:46'),
(12235, 12235, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>As student protests advocating for Palestinian statehood gain momentum worldwide, universities in Bangladesh today saw the largest solidarity rallies.&nbsp;</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Organized by the Bangladesh&nbsp; Students\' League (BSL), the event marked a significant moment of support against the brutalities by Israeli forces.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The rallies, simultaneously held on various campuses at 11:00 am, saw the national flags of Bangladesh and Palestine being raised in unity. The event attracted thousands of students, showcasing the overwhelming support for BSL\'s initiative.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">At Dhaka University, the solidarity event centered around the Raju Sculpture, where BSL’s central unit president and general secretary delivered speeches. Students across the campus carried placards and banners with messages such as \"Free Palestine, stop the genocide,\" amplifying their call for action.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The events were not confined to the capital. Major educational institutions like Jahangirnagar University, Chittagong University, and Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, along with Shah Azizul Haque College in Bogura and Mymensingh’s Agricultural University, also witnessed significant turnouts.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The rallies were live-streamed by major media outlets, attracting nationwide attention and support. This media coverage helped spread the word and garner applause from various quarters.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Echoing the words of Bangladesh’s founding father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, \"The world is divided into two camps, the oppressed and the oppressors. I am with the oppressed,” BSL reaffirmed its commitment to justice.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This sentiment was further emphasized in a media release that drew historical parallels between the current situation in Palestine and the genocide during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The statement also highlighted the continued support for Palestinian independence under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, reaffirming Bangladesh\'s long-standing policy towards global peace and solidarity against human rights violations. The initiative by BSL underscores a broader movement advocating for peace and justice for Palestinian civilians, aligning with global efforts to end ongoing atrocities and massacres. Source: UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"34\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 11:11:22', '2024-05-06 11:11:22'),
(12236, 12236, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">A prolonged heatwave has significantly increased patient admissions in hospitals throughout Dhaka, with the city\'s medical facilities struggling to cope with the additional burden.&nbsp;</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Most admissions involve heatstroke, fever, cold, diarrhoea, and pneumonia, ailments that disproportionately affect children.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Patients and their families face severe heat within hospital premises as well, worsening conditions for those already suffering. Many hospitals, including Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), have reported a surge in cases since Eid, with no space left even on the floors, forcing many to resort to makeshift solutions like hand fans or small table fans.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Abul Malek, from Dhaka’s Nodda area, was admitted at DMCH. His son Nadim told UNB, \"The heat is unbearable, and the lack of available beds has left my father to receive treatment on the floor. The situation would have been somewhat manageable with lower temperatures.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In response to the dire situation, Brigadier General Md. Asaduzzaman, Director of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, emphasized their efforts to improve conditions. \"We\'re swapping out all malfunctioning fans and adding new ones wherever possible. Additionally, technicians have been instructed to ensure separate lines for fans and lights to prevent electrical issues.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Patient admissions have reportedly doubled at Kurmitola General Hospital, Mugda Medical College and Hospital and Dhaka Shishu Hospital as well since Eid. The majority of these patients are suffering from diarrhoea and pneumonia. The emergency and outpatient medicine departments are under the most pressure, facing the highest patient load.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Professor Dr. Farid Ahmed, Head of General Pediatrics at Dhaka Shishu Hospital, highlighted the impact of the heatwave on young patients: \"With the heat continuing, children are particularly vulnerable to heatstroke and other diseases, which have led to an alarming rate of hospital admissions. We are struggling to provide enough beds.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Public health expert and former director of Disease Control at Directorate General of Health Services, Professor Dr. Be-Nazir Ahmed, stressed the severity of the situation, noting, \"The current heatwave is unbearable. It not only raises the risk of cholera but also heightens the likelihood of other diseases. Extreme temperatures disrupt normal bodily functions, posing life-threatening risks and increasing susceptibility to various infections.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The authorities have urged the public to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary and avoid direct exposure to extreme temperatures. With schools reopening, there is an increased concern for children\'s safety, necessitating heightened awareness and preventive measures against foodborne diseases and dehydration.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This crisis underscores the pressing need for improved infrastructure and preparedness to handle climate-induced health emergencies, particularly for the most vulnerable populations such as children. According to UNB reports&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"6\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 11:25:27', '2024-05-06 11:25:27');
INSERT INTO `news_details` (`id`, `news_id`, `details`, `ticker`, `representative`, `keyword`, `video_link`, `google_drive_link`, `audio_link`, `shoulder`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES
(12237, 12237, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>The Israeli army on Monday ordered tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza\'s southern city of Rafah to start evacuating from the area, signaling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The announcement complicates last-ditch efforts by international mediators, including the director of the CIA, to broker a cease-fire. The militant Hamas group and Qatar, a key mediator, have warned that invading Rafah - along the border with Egypt - could derail the talks, and the United States has repeatedly urged Israel against the invasion.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, Israel has described Rafah as the last significant Hamas stronghold after seven months of war, and its leaders have repeatedly said the invasion is necessary to defeat the Islamic militant group.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said some 100,000 people were being ordered to move to a nearby Israel-declared humanitarian zone called Muwasi. He said Israel was preparing a “limited scope operation” and would not say whether this was the beginning of a broader invasion of the city. But after Oct. 7 and the unprecedented attack on southern Israel by Hamas, Israel did not formally announce the launch of a ground invasion that continues to this day.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Overnight, Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, told U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin that Israel had no choice but to act in Rafah. On Sunday, Hamas carried out a deadly rocket attack from the Rafah area that killed four Israeli soldiers.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">Shoshani said Israel published a map of the evacuation area, and that orders were being issued through air-dropped leaflets, text messages and radio broadcasts. He said Israel has expanded humanitarian aid into Muwasi, including field hospitals, tents, food and water.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Israel\'s army said on the social platform X that it would act with “extreme force” against militants, and urged the population to evacuate immediately for their safety.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Israel\'s plan to invade Rafah has raised global alarm because of the potential for harm to more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">About 1.4 million Palestinians&nbsp; more than half of Gaza’s population —are jammed into the city and its surroundings. Most of them fled their homes elsewhere in the territory to escape Israel’s onslaught and now face another wrenching move or the danger of staying under a new assault. They live in densely packed tent camps, overflowing U.N. shelters or crowded apartments, and are dependent on international aid for food, with sanitation systems and medical facilities infrastructure crippled.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The U.N. agency that has helped millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank for decades, known as UNRWA, warned Monday of devastating consequences of a Rafah offensive, including more civilian suffering and deaths. The agency said it would not leave but stay in Rafah as long as possible to continue providing lifesaving assistance.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Egypt’s Rafah crossing, a main transfer point for aid going into Gaza, lies in the evacuation zone. The crossing remained open on Monday after the Israeli order.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">But even as the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have pushed for a cease-fire agreement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated last week that the military would move on the city “with or without a deal” to achieve its goal of destroying the Hamas militant group.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On Monday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of “torpedoing” the hostage deal and not budging from its “extreme demands” while vowing to stop the militants from retaking control of Gaza. In a fiery speech Sunday evening marking the country’s annual Holocaust memorial day, he rejected international pressure to halt the war, saying that \"if Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Hamas official told The Associated Press that Israel is trying to pressure the group into making concessions on the cease-fire, but that it won\'t change its demands. Hamas wants a full end to the war, withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the eventual reconstruction of the strip in exchange for the Israeli hostages held by the militants.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Shoshani would not say whether the upcoming Rafah operation is a response to Sunday\'s attack by Hamas that forced Israel\'s key border crossing for aid to close. He said it would not affect how much aid enters Gaza as other crossing points remain operational.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He wouldn\'t comment, however, on U.S. warnings not to invade and wasn\'t clear on whether Monday\'s evacuation order was coordinated with Egypt.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Egypt, a strategic partner of Israel, has said that an Israeli military seizure of the Gaza-Egypt border — which is supposed to be demilitarized — or any move to push Palestinians into Egypt would threaten its four-decade-old peace treaty with Israel.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In Rafah, people received flyers Monday morning in Arabic detailing which neighborhood blocks needed to leave and where humanitarian zones had expanded to. The flyers said that aid services would spread from Deir al Balah in the north to the center of Khan Younis city in the middle of the Gaza Strip.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Anyone found near (militant) organizations endangers themselves and their family members. For your safety, the (army) urges you to evacuate immediately to the expanded humanitarian area”, it read.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Palestinians in Rafah said people gathered to discuss their options after receiving the flyers. Most said they did not want to move alone and preferred to travel in groups.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“So many people here are displaced and now they have to move again, but no one will stay here it’s not safe,” Nidal Alzaanin told The Associated Press by phone.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A father of five, Alzaanin works for an international aid group and was displaced to Rafah from Beit Hanoun in the north at the start of the war. He said people are concerned since Israeli troops shot at Palestinians as they moved during previous evacuation orders.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Alzaanin said he has packed his documents and bags but will wait 24 hours to see what others do before relocating. He said he has a friend in Khan Younis whom he hopes can pitch a tent for his family.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">But some people say they\'re too tired and fed up of months of devastation to flee again, reports AP&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sahar Abu Nahel was displaced to Rafah with 20 of her family, her husband is being held by Israel, her son-in-law in missing, she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Where am I going to go? I have no money or anything. I am seriously tired as are (my) children,\" she said wiping tears from her cheeks. “Maybe its more honorable for us to die. We are being humiliated,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 11:59:03', '2024-05-06 11:59:03'),
(12238, 12238, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Students of Pabna University of Science and Technology (PUST) protest against Israeli aggression in Palestine on banner of PUST Bangladesh Students League.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">Students held an assembly program in front of the Independence Square of PUST campus on Monday. </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">During the demonstration, the protesting students held placards with messages such as ‘Free Palestine’, ‘Palestine needs to be free’, ‘Solidarity with the Palestine’, Stay with Palestine and \'Stop Genocide in Gaza.\'</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Besides, they chanted slogans like ‘free Palestine’, ‘Stay with Palestine’</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">After rally,  BSL PUST Branch president Mr. Faridul Islam Babu said, ‘All of you know Israel has started the killing mission in Palestine illegally. We Protest it and condemn for the Israel genocides. We are giving a message of sympathy to the Palestine People.’    </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">At that time Mr. Kamal Hossain the proctor of PUST, former proctor Mr. Awal Kabir Joy, Co-Proctor Mr. Masud Rana, Mr. Yeahiya Bapary Akash, Mr. Lokman Khan, officers, employees and students were present.  </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/T/fas</div>', NULL, 'PUST Correspondent', '[\"38\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 12:31:02', '2024-05-06 12:38:28'),
(12239, 12239, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Dhaka University will resume in-person classes and exams from May 8.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The decision came with a notification issued from the DU public relations office on Monday.</div><div><br></div><div>The intense heat wave is now at bearable level, and so Dhaka University will resume its in person classes from Wednesday (May 8) and the examinations will be held in person as usual, the notification reads.</div><div><br></div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"38\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 12:35:21', '2024-05-06 12:35:21'),
(12240, 12240, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today asked the public representatives to work for fulfilling people\'s expectations as she administered oath to newly elected Lalmonirhat Zilla Parishad Chairman Abu Bakar Siddique Shyamol.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">\"Keep in mind the needs of the people and work to fulfill their expectations accordingly,\" Prime Minister\'s Deputy Press Secretary KM Shakhawat Moon quoted her as saying at the oath taking ceremony at her office.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a media briefing Moon said the prime minister also emphasized coordination in the local level to accomplish responsibility.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Md. Tazul Islam and PM\'s Principal Secretary M Tofazzel Hossain Miah were present at the oath taking ceremony at the PMO.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Local Government Division Secretary Muhammad Ibrahim conducted the function.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Abu Bakar Siddique Shyamol won the Lalmonirhat Zilla Parishad Chairman by-election held on April 3. Source: BSS</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 13:15:52', '2024-05-06 13:15:52'),
(12241, 12241, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has taken 10 decisions to stop the illegal broadcasting of domestic and foreign TV channels and operation of unlicensed commercial activities on the broadcast media.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The ministry took the decisions at a meeting with the Posts, Telecommunications and ICT Ministry at the Information and Broadcasting Ministry\'s conference room on April 2, said an official release today.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat chaired the meeting.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The decisions are: only service providers permitted under the Cable Television Network Management Act, 2006 can transmit domestic and foreign channels approved by the government to the subscribers.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Foreign channels or any unauthorized channel cannot be downlinked, broadcast, transmitted or distributed without clean feed.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Set-top boxes cannot be imported and marketed illegally.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is completely illegal to carry out campaigns inspiring the use of apps for streaming TV channels or selling such apps by installing in set-top-boxes. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) should take legal action against this illegal act.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and ICT will take necessary steps in accordance with the existing laws and regulations against any illegal activity for Bangladesh\'s security and increasing government revenue collection, preventing money laundering and preserving the country\'s art, literature, culture and values.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the Section 3(1) of the Cable Television Network Management Act, 2006, no distributor or service provider shall downlink, market, transmit or broadcast any channel in Bangladesh other than the channels approved by the government on the basis of designated application form. Furthermore, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued instructions regarding clean feed broadcasting of foreign TV channels programmes, so no person or organization could broadcast or transmit foreign TV channel programmes without clean feed.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the Section 3(2) of the Cable Television Network Management Act, 2006, no distributor or service provider can market, transmit or broadcast any channel in Bangladesh through their own programmes like video, VCD, DVD or any other means except the government approved channels. No person or institution shall broadcast or transmit the feed of a domestic or foreign TV channel or any channel of its own violating the law.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">As per the Section 4(1) of the Cable Television Network Management Act, 2006, no person shall operate activities as a distributor or service provider without holding license. Therefore, no person or organization except license holding distributors or service providers can operate or broadcast TV channels or programmes.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Authorized distributors should inform their foreign TV channel broadcasters about the decisions in written form.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Legal action will be taken against persons or organizations involved in unlawful, illegal or unauthorized broadcasting. According to BSS reports&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 14:01:42', '2024-05-06 14:01:42'),
(12242, 12242, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Monday said, \'The common people are not joining the upazila polls. The pro-democracy eople are not showing interest in contesting the polls.\'</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>He said that the list of candidates for the Upazila Parishad polls has exposed how Awami League has turned into an empty vessel, as genuine politicians are being sidelined from the election race.</div><div><br></div><div>Speaking at a human chain programme, the BNP leader also said the majority of ruling party ministers, MPs are primarily businessmen and opportunists. “They’re buying nominations while those who do politics are no longer there in the elections.\"</div><div><br></div><div>Pointing to the Awami League General Secretary, he said, \"Your party has become an empty tin box. So, think of your party first, then talk about BNP. An empty vessel makes much noise. Your voices are louder because your Awami League has become an empty vessel.\"</div><div><br></div><div>Rizvi said the ruling party leaders often talk about BNP’s weakness, failures and frustration just to cover up their own party’s crumbling and dismal condition.</div><div><br></div><div>\'Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel Mukti Parishad\' arranged the human chain programme in front of the Jatiya Press Club, demanding the unconditional release of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia (from house arrest), joint secretary general Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel and other jailed leaders of the party and its associate bodies.</div><div><br></div><div>Rizvi said the ruling party made frantic efforts but failed to garner public support for the sham elections to the upazila Parishads. “Those who belong to Awami League are saying, if the relatives, including children, wives and brothers-in-law, of the ministers and MPs can contest the upazila polls what will the party’s other leaders do?</div><div><br></div><div>He said although the high command asked the relatives of the ministers and MPs not to be candidates in the upazila polls, hardly anyone paid heed to it.</div><div><br></div><div>\"The wives, sons, daughters, and brothers-in-law who are contesting the elections are arguing that if 20 or 30 of the Prime Minister\'s relatives can participate in the Upazila elections, then why should they be excluded? This is the situation,\" Rizvi said.</div><div><br></div><div>Rizvi said those who betray the people\'s trust and those who snatch the people’s ownership of the country cannot get public support: “Awami League is currently encircled by a handful of opportunists, loan defaulters and members of the market syndicate. They’re the mass enemies”</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Staff Correspondent', '[\"1\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 14:40:59', '2024-05-06 14:40:59'),
(12243, 12243, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Pro-Palestinian activists have presented a list of 18 demands to the leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party and said they will not vote for the party at the next general election if he does not fulfill them.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Muslim Vote, a campaign to get Muslim voters to back pro-Palestine candidates, has called for Sir Keir Starmer to promise to cut military ties with Israel, implement a travel ban on Israeli politicians involved in the war in Gaza and impose sanctions on companies operating in occupied territories. </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The group told Starmer he must commit to “real action” and deliver on its requests if he was “serious” about his pledge to rebuild trust with those angered by his stance on the conflict in Gaza, The Telegraph reported.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Supporters would vote for the Green Party or Liberal Democrats if he could not commit to their demands, it said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Labour’s campaign chief Pat McFadden acknowledged that Starmer’s approach to the conflict had cost the party votes at last week’s local elections. Support for Labour dropped dramatically in areas with a high Muslim populations, including Oldham in Greater Manchester, where the party lost overall control of the council in a shock defeat.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">After the result, Starmer said he was determined to regain the trust of those who abandoned Labour as a result of his stance on the Gaza war but did not make any concrete pledges on the matter.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Muslim Vote challenged Starmer with committing to the 18 demands and implementing them should he become the next prime minister.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">They include removing the definition of extremism introduced by Secretary of State for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove and issuing guidance that allows Muslims to pray at school. - Arab News </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 14:53:41', '2024-05-06 14:54:05'),
(12244, 12244, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>The UK considered sending asylum-seekers to Iraq for processing, new documents have shown.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Iraq is considered very dangerous, with the UK government advising against all travel to the country.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">But a plan similar to the Rwanda scheme to process migrants in a third-party country was floated at one stage by Whitehall officials, with negotiations said to have achieved “good recent progress.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The UK has struck a returns agreement with Baghdad for Iraqi citizens, which was achieved without a formal announcement or acknowledgement and a plea for “discretion,” the documents, seen by Sky News, suggest.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The cache of papers casts new light on the UK government’s approach to dealing with asylum-seekers and illegal migration, including a desire to improve relations with the Iranian Embassy in London in order to ease the repatriation of Iranian citizens, and moves to establish return agreements with Eritrea and Ethiopia. According to Arab News&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">bnbd/fas</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 15:04:32', '2024-05-06 15:04:32'),
(12245, 12245, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Despite Bangladesh\'s convincing victories in the first two T20I matches against Zimbabwe in Chattogram, BCB President and Sports Minister Nazmul Hasan has voiced his dissatisfaction with the national team\'s batting performance.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>While acknowledging the comfortable wins, Nazmul expressed his concerns.</div><div><br></div><div>“We have won two matches against Zimbabwe convincingly, it’s true, but I did not like the batting,” he said today in Mirpur.</div><div><br></div><div>He specifically highlighted the struggle of the batting unit to post competitive totals, even against a relatively weaker opponent. “There is a gap between our approach to T20 and the IPL,” he observed. “Even a total of 250-260 doesn\'t guarantee a win, and we still struggle to reach 140-145.”</div><div><br></div><div>Nazmul, however, commended the bowlers for their impressive performances, praising the return of Mohammad Saifuddin and the contributions of Mahedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed. He also praised Mustafizur Rahman for his IPL performance.</div><div><br></div><div>Critics have questioned the effectiveness of playing against Zimbabwe as preparation for the upcoming T20 World Cup, given the team\'s recent struggles. Nazmul acknowledged that the series was not specifically chosen for preparation but was part of the ICC Future Tours Program, reports UNB</div><div><br></div><div>Bangladesh will look to seal the series with a win in the third T20I before heading to the USA for another three-match T20I series as part of their build-up to the World Cup.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Sports Desk', '[\"20\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 16:16:02', '2024-05-06 16:16:02'),
(12246, 12246, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>The influence of businessmen is increasingly evident in local government elections, leading to a predominance of politics for profit or personal interest over public welfare, according to Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The corruption watchdog made this observation during a press conference on Monday, that was arranged to present their analysis of the affidavits the contenders submitted with their nomination papers for the first phase of the Sixth Upazila Parishad Election.</div><div><br></div><div>The same analysis revealed astonishing increases in wealth among incumbent Upazila Parishad representatives, outdoing even MPs - although most of them would have started from a lower base compared to MPs.</div><div><br></div><div>TIB said there is a growing tendency to view elections as an \'investment opportunity\' ignoring public interest, and this has now evidently spread to the grassroots level as well.</div><div><br></div><div>According to TIB\'s analysis of candidate affidavits, the growing influence of businessmen in local government elections is now almost similar to the national election, where the influence of businesses has been noted from even earlier.</div><div><br></div><div>The proportion of candidates with business backgrounds has risen by 8 percentage points compared to the fourth election, reaching 56 percent.</div><div><br></div><div>Among these candidates, some 69.86 percent of chairman candidates, 66.59 percent of vice chairman candidates, and 24.37 percent of female vice chairman candidates are involved in businesses.</div><div><br></div><div>Additionally, 19.5 percent of candidates listing their occupation as housewife or housekeeper derive income from business ventures.</div><div><br></div><div>Speaking at the press conference, TIB Executive Dr Iftekharuzzaman said, “In our country, politics and public representation are power-oriented. Personal gain often takes priority over public welfare. Additionally, principles such as respect for the law, party discipline, and adherence to party decisions, which are expected from democratic institutions like political parties, are now held hostage to power politics.”</div><div><br></div><div>He said the pursuit of political power is seen as a pathway to unlimited wealth expansion, resulting in unhealthy competition.</div><div><br></div><div>“Of concern is whether businessmen entering politics are following proper procedures and engaging in fair competition. Those who still aspire to promote a healthy, people-oriented political culture are now nearly extinct or marginalised in the face of power politics,” he added.</div><div><br></div><div>In continuation of their regular analysis of candidates\' affidavits ahead of parliamentary elections in the country, TIB conducted dashboard analysis and reviewed affidavits of candidates participating in Upazila Parishad elections.</div><div><br></div><div>The TIB executive director termed the results of the analysis of the candidates\' wealth statements as \'shocking\'.</div><div><br></div><div>Over a 5-year period, the highest spike in movable assets among parliamentarians, according to TIB\'s own analysis, had been recorded at a staggering 3065%, prior to the 12th parliamentary election. </div><div><br></div><div>But among incumbent Upazila Parishad chairmen - starting from a comparatively lower base in most cases - who are running again in this year\'s election (phase 1), the highest spike in movable assets has been recorded at an astounding 4251%.</div><div><br></div><div>When it comes to income, the highest growth recorded among Upazila Parishad chairmen was an eye-watering 3319% over 5 years,  which went up to an incredible 18233% for a chairman incumbent for 10 years now.</div><div><br></div><div>The highest increase in assets belonging to wives and dependents among the UP chairmen running again is an almost obscene 12,400%.</div><div><br></div><div>“From the analysis, we see that the earnings of many candidates have increased astonishingly, and in some cases, the rate of increase of income and wealth is even higher than that of national election candidates. There are also doubts whether the information provided in the affidavits are legit or correct. Some candidates have presented very low income, which is unbelievable.”</div><div><br></div><div>The analysis of affidavits also portrayed how at least nine candidates own more land than the legal limit of 100 bigha or 33 acres.</div><div><br></div><div>Moreover, 23.41 percent of candidates have loans or liabilities. Among them, the highest amount of loan is BDT 1,528 crore.</div><div><br></div><div>The analysis further shows that 16.64 percent candidates in the first phase of the Upazila elections have been accused in legal cases.</div><div><br></div><div>On the other hand, only 7 percent of candidates of the first phase of Upazila Elections are multi-millionaires based on movable assets, while some 9 percent candidates have movable assets less than a crore BDT.</div><div><br></div><div>Among them, 94 chairman aspirants and 23 vice chairman aspirants, including six hopefuls for reserved seats are multi-millionaires. But there were 37 multi-millionaires in the 5th election.</div><div><br></div><div>TIB\'s analysis showed that the participation of women is less compared to the national election. There are only 25 women candidates for the chairman post in the Upazila Elections. Overall, analysis shows that 40 per cent of the candidates do not have taxable incomes as they stated their incomes less than BDT 3.5 lakhs annually.</div><div><br></div><div>TIB’s Director of Outreach and Communication, Mohammad Tauhidul Islam presented the analysis. Source: UNB</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 16:19:06', '2024-05-06 16:36:32'),
(12247, 12247, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>UK Minister for the Indo-Pacific, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, will arrive in Bangladesh on a two-day visit on Tuesday morning in an effort to \"strengthen modern economic, security and migration partnership\" between Bangladesh and the UK.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The UK-Bangladesh cooperation is set to increase on priority areas including migration, economic reform and security, said the British High Commission in Dhaka in an announcement on Monday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On her second visit to Bangladesh in her role as Indo-Pacific Minister, she will reaffirm the UK’s commitment to strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two countries.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">During her visit to Dhaka, Minister Trevelyan will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Discussions are expected to focus on UK-Bangladesh migration cooperation, trade and economic ties, and the UK’s support to the Rohingya refugee response.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Minister will also meet business leaders, humanitarian actors, climate experts and, in meetings with civil society organisations and political leaders, she will recognise the importance of democracy and human rights as foundations for long-term growth and prosperity.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Minister Trevelyan will also announce new UK support to equip and empower youth and vulnerable groups in Bangladesh to engage in climate action.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Minister for the Indo-Pacific, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, said, “I’m pleased to be back in Bangladesh with our new trade policy project marking an important step forward towards closer UK-Bangladesh collaboration, boosting our economic ties.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said they remain steadfast in their support for the Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh, and will provide £12 million of new humanitarian assistance, to increase access to clean water, healthcare, shelter, and protection services for Rohingya refugees and host communities in Bangladesh.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Sarah Cooke, said, “Delighted to welcome UK Minister for the Indo-Pacific, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, to Bangladesh. The UK’s long-standing friendship with Bangladesh is cemented by the deep cultural and people-to-people links between our two countries.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">\"The UK-Bangladesh partnership continues to go from strength to strength. From our joint work to tackle economic challenges, to our steadfast support for the Rohingya, and our partnership on climate change, we are determined to do more together.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Reaffirming the UK’s sustained support for the Rohingya people, Minister Trevelyan will announce £12 million (over 163 Crore Taka) of new UK humanitarian assistance to support Rohingya refugees and neighbouring host communities in Bangladesh.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The new funding will provide clean water, healthcare, shelter and protection services. It will also support the development of the camp’s infrastructure to help protect it from natural disasters.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Minister Trevelyan will also announce a new trade policy project with the Government of Bangladesh.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The UK will provide technical assistance to Bangladesh to strengthen trade policy capability and implement reforms, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The project will support Bangladesh tackle economic challenges and graduate successfully from Least Developed Country status in 2026.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The new package of funding to support Rohingya refugees totals £12 million.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This assistance will be implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and UN Population Fund (UNFPA).</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the other hand, Since 2017, the UK has provided £391 million ($487 million) to support the Rohingya, and neighbouring host communities in Bangladesh.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd24/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-06 16:33:14', '2024-05-06 16:33:14'),
(12248, 12248, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday urged the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to search for new partners to increase the international fund for Rohingyas who have taken shelter in Bangladesh to escape persecution in Myanmar.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Since the the assistance for Rohingyas has declined, the IOM should look for new partners to raise more funds for them,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The premier made this call when IOM Director General Amy Pope paid a courtesy call on her at the latter’s official residence Ganabhaban.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">PM’s Speechwriter Md Nazrul Islam briefed reporters after the meeting.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">During the meeting, they discussed the UN joint response plan for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis as the international fund for supporting Rohingya refugees has significantly declined.  </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"> Hasina also asked IOM to help relocate more Rohingyas to Bhashanchar (island) from Cox’s Bazar camps as accommodation and livelihood facilities are there including self-employment, education for their children, healthcare services and infrastructures for some 100,000 people in Bhashanchar.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some 30,000-35,000 Rohingyas have already relocated to Bhashanchar from Cox’s Bazar camps.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The IOM Director General who visited Cox’s Bazar Rohingya camps on Monday raised the security issue in the camps, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In this context, the premier said now conflict continues in Myanmar and Rohingya people are also divided in different groups and sub-groups in the overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar. So, they are engaged in internal conflicts, she added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Besides, the Rohingya people have outnumbered the host community  in Cox’s Bazar. So, there are,conflicts for limited resources there, she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She, however, said adequate number of law enforcement agencies have been deployed to maintain the law and order in the Rohingya camps areas.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 08:14:27', '2024-05-07 08:30:48'),
(12249, 12249, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">The term \"World Literature\"&nbsp; is a translation of the German word Weltliteratur, which was coined by Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832).&nbsp; Goethe was a prolific writer and is credited with beginning the literary movement known at Romanticism through the publication of his epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774).&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>After surviving a particularly tumultuous time period in history, Goethe realized that the best way to help his country was to create a national identity for Germany through the medium of literature.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Once that national identity was established and accepted throughout Europe, then the literature would carry weight and become interesting to readers in other countries, leading to translations and the dissemination of works not only throughout Europe, but also to European colonies.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>His theories about Weltliteratur would inspire not only the unification of Germany under Otto von Bismark (1871), but they also lead to a movement that would take hold in the Twentieth Century for an expansion of inclusive literature and the creation of departments devoted to the study of World Literature. - Solano</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"30\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 08:19:42', '2024-05-07 08:19:42'),
(12250, 12250, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) forecast rain or thundershowers in seven divisions including Dhaka and Chattogram in 24 hours commencing 9 am on Tuesday.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at many places over Rajshahi, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Khulna, Barishal, Chattogram and Sylhet divisions and at a few places over Rangpur division with hails at isolated places,\" said a Met office bulletin.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Day and night temperatures may remain nearly unchanged over the country, reports unb</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Meanwhile, a mild heat wave is sweeping Gopalgonj, Jashore and Chuadanga districts and it may abate, it said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The country’s highest temperature was recorded in Jashore at 37.6 degree Celsius over the past 24 hours till 6 am on Monday while the lowest temperature in Bandarban at 18.8 degree Celsius on Tuesday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the other hand, the highest 130mm rainfall was recorded in Feni till 6am today.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"4\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 08:30:26', '2024-05-07 08:30:26'),
(12251, 12251, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>The Sri Lanka government on Monday decided to maintain the existing 50 U.S. dollar fee for a 30-day single entry visa for foreigners visiting the country, the President\'s Media Division (PMD) said.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The PMD added that the free visa service currently offered to citizens of India, China, Russia, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia will also continue.</div><div><br></div><div>Sri Lanka recently revised its visa fees, and introduced several new categories that visitors eligible for on-arrival visas can apply for.</div><div><br></div><div>These revised fees were criticized by tourism stakeholders. Taking these concerns into account, President Ranil Wickremesinghe proposed to the Cabinet of Ministers on Monday to keep the visa fee for a 30-day single entry visa at 50 dollars, PMD said.</div><div><br></div><div>The Cabinet of Ministers approved the president\'s proposal, the PMD added. - XINHUA</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 08:36:51', '2024-05-07 08:36:51'),
(12252, 12252, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Rescue teams worked through the night searching for dozens of construction workers buried for more than 12 hours under the rubble of concrete after a multi-story apartment complex that was being built collapsed in a coastal city in South Africa.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Authorities said early Tuesday that the death toll had risen to five, while 49 workers remained unaccounted-for in the mangled wreckage of the building, which collapsed on Monday afternoon. Authorities said a further 21 workers had been rescued from the rubble and taken to various hospitals, with at least 11 of them suffering severe injuries.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The collapse happened in the city of George, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Cape Town on South Africa\'s south coast.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">More than 100 emergency personnel and other responders were on the scene, using sniffer dogs to try to locate the workers, some of whom were feared buried under huge slabs of concrete that fell on them when the five-story building came down.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Large cranes and other heavy lifting equipment were brought to the site to help with the rescue effort and tall spotlights were erected to allow search and rescue personnel to work through the night.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">There were 75 workers on the construction site when the building collapsed, the George municipality said. It said three teams of rescuers were working at separate sites around the collapsed building where they believed construction workers were likely to be, reports AP</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Family and friends of the workers gathered at the nearby municipal offices.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Our thoughts are with the families and all those affected who continue to wait on word of their loved ones,” George Executive Mayor Leon Van Wyk said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Authorities were investigating what caused the tragedy and a case was opened by police, but there was no immediate information on why the building suddenly collapsed. CCTV footage from a nearby home showed the concrete structure and metal scaffolding around it come crashing down at 2.09 p.m. on Monday afternoon, causing a plume of dust to rise over the neighborhood.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 09:10:37', '2024-05-07 09:10:37'),
(12253, 12253, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Twenty-one students of the Madinatul Ulum Madrasah in Nagarkanda upazila of Faridpur were injured by a lightning strike on Monday, with 11 of them having to be hospitalised.&nbsp;</span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The hospitalised students\' names are Hossain, Samiul, Mujahid, Rezaul, Oliullah, Mustakim, Sajim, Maruf, Abdur Rahman, Riyad, Bayezid.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to Maolana Keramot Ali, the mohtamim (trustee) of the madrasah, as evening fell amid rain on Monday, a thunderbolt struck the courtyard of the madrasah.&nbsp; &nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the time, some 21 students, all third-graders at the Nurani section of the school, who were enjoying the cool shower from the madrasa building\'s balcony, were injured.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fellow students and teachers rushed all 21 of them to the Nagarkanda Upazila Health Complex, where 10 could be released after primary treatment.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The rest remain under treatment. According to UNB reports</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"34\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 09:24:14', '2024-05-07 09:24:14');
INSERT INTO `news_details` (`id`, `news_id`, `details`, `ticker`, `representative`, `keyword`, `video_link`, `google_drive_link`, `audio_link`, `shoulder`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES
(12254, 12254, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>An Israeli tank brigade seized control Tuesday of the Gaza Strip side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, authorities said, moving forward with an offensive in the southern city even as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remain on a knife’s edge.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">The move comes after hours of whiplash in the Israel-Hamas war, with the militant group on Monday saying it accepted an Egyptian-Qatari mediated cease-fire proposal. Israel, meanwhile, insisted the deal did not meet its core demands. The high-stakes diplomatic moves and military brinkmanship left a glimmer of hope alive — but only barely — for an accord that could bring at least a pause in the 7-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Israeli 401st Brigade entered the Rafah crossing early Tuesday morning, the Israeli military said, taking “operational control” of the crucial crossing. It’s the main route for aid entering the besieged enclave and exit for those able to flee into Egypt. Israel fully controls all access in and out of Gaza since the war began.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Footage released by the Israeli military showed a tank entering the crossing. Details of the video matched known features of the crossing and showed Israeli flags flying from tanks that seized the area.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Israeli military claimed it seized the crossing after receiving intelligence it was “being used for terrorist purposes.” The military did not provide evidence to immediately support the assertion, though it alleged the area around the crossing had been used to launch a mortar attack that killed four Israeli troops and wounded others near the Kerem Shalom Crossing.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The military also said that ground troops and airstrikes targeted suspected Hamas positions in Rafah.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, acknowledged Israeli forces had seized the crossing and had closed the facility for the time being. He said strikes had targeted the area around the crossing since Monday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">An Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson declined to immediately comment on the Israeli seizure. Egypt previously has warned any seizure of Rafah could see Palestinians fleeing over the border, a scenario that could threaten a 1979 peace deal with Israel that’s been a linchpin for regional security.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The offensive again raised the risks of an all-out Israeli assault on Rafah, a move the United States strongly opposes and that aid groups warn will be disastrous for some 1.4 million Palestinians taking refuge there.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Egyptian officials said the proposal called for a cease-fire of multiple stages starting with a limited hostage release and partial Israeli troop pullbacks within Gaza. The two sides would also negotiate a “permanent calm” that would lead to a full hostage release and greater Israeli withdrawal out of the territory, they said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hamas sought clearer guarantees for its key demand of an end to the war and complete Israeli withdrawal in return for the release of all hostages, but it wasn’t clear if any changes were made.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Israeli leaders have repeatedly rejected that trade-off, vowing to keep up their campaign until Hamas is destroyed after its Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war. According to AP reports&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 11:07:44', '2024-05-07 11:07:44'),
(12255, 12255, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>International migration remains a driver of human development and economic growth, highlighted by a more than 650 percent increase in international remittances from 2000 to 2022, rising from USD 128 billion to USD 831 billion, according to a new global report released today.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The growth continued despite predictions from many analysts that remittances would decrease substantially because of COVID-19.</div><div><br></div><div>The International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched the World Migration Report 2024, which reveals significant shifts in global migration patterns, including a record number of displaced people and a major increase in international remittances.</div><div><br></div><div>IOM Director General Amy Pope formally released the report in Bangladesh, which stands at the \"forefront of migration\" challenges, including emigration, immigration and displacement.</div><div><br></div><div>\"We hope the report inspires collaborative efforts to harness the potential of migration as a driver for human development and global prosperity,\" DG Pope said.</div><div><br></div><div>By choosing Dhaka as the report\'s launch site, IOM not only highlights the country\'s efforts in supporting vulnerable migrants and fostering pathways for regular migration but also recognizes Bangladesh\'s important role in shaping global migration discourse and policy, IOM said.</div><div><br></div><div>As a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration Champion country, Bangladesh has demonstrated a strong commitment to addressing migration issues and implementing policies that safeguard migrants\' rights, it said.</div><div><br></div><div>This proactive engagement aligns with IOM\'s strategic objectives, making Bangladesh an ideal location to launch the 2024 World Migration Report.</div><div><br></div><div>Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said as one of the GCM champion countries, Bangladesh will not only continue to act upon the pledges it has made for its domestic context but would also take up emerging issues and challenges pertaining to migration and development for informed deliberations at the international level.</div><div><br></div><div>“The World Migration Report 2024 helps demystify the complexity of human mobility through evidence-based data and analysis,” Pope said at the launch.</div><div><br></div><div>“In a world grappling with uncertainty, understanding migration dynamics is essential for informed decision-making and effective policy responses, and the World Migration Report advances this understanding by shedding light on longstanding trends and emerging challenges.”</div><div><br></div><div>Of that 831 billion in remittances, 647 billion were sent by migrants to low and middle-income countries. These remittances can constitute a significant portion of those countries\' GDPs, and globally, these remittances now surpass foreign direct investment in those countries.</div><div><br></div><div>Highlighting key findings, the report reveals that while international migration continues to drive human development, challenges persist.</div><div><br></div><div>With an estimated 281 million international migrants worldwide, the number of displaced individuals due to conflict, violence, disaster, and other reasons has surged to the highest levels in modern-day records, reaching 117 million, underscoring the urgency of addressing displacement crises.</div><div><br></div><div>Migration, an intrinsic part of human history, is often overshadowed by sensationalized narratives.</div><div><br></div><div>However, the reality is far more nuanced than what captures headlines.</div><div><br></div><div>Most migration is regular, safe, and regionally focused, directly linked to opportunities and livelihoods.</div><div><br></div><div>Yet, misinformation and politicization have clouded public discourse, necessitating a clear and accurate portrayal of migration dynamics.</div><div><br></div><div>IOM’s World Migration Report, with its innovative digital tools and comprehensive analysis, aims to help dispel myths, provide critical insights, and inspire meaningful action in addressing the challenges and opportunities of human mobility.</div><div><br></div><div>This launch is part of IOM Director General’s first three-day visit to Bangladesh.</div><div><br></div><div>Chief of IOM Mission in Bangladesh Abdusattor Esoev, former Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque, senior government officials and diplomats stationed in Dhaka were present at the report launching ceremony. According to UNB reports&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 11:10:51', '2024-05-07 11:10:51'),
(12256, 12256, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>A total of 418 platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have been deployed to maintain law and order situation ahead of the first phase of Upazila Parishad Election tomorrow in 150 upazilas across the country.&nbsp;</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to a BGB media release, signed by its Public Relations Officer Md Shariful Islam, the members of the paramilitary force will remain deployed till May 10.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Under “In Aid to the Civil Power’’, the BGB personnel will perform duty as mobile and striking force to assist the local civil administration to hold a free, fair and peaceful election, it reads.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the Election Commission’s announced schedule, upazila parishad elections to 150 upazilas will be held on May 8 in the first phase. In the second phase, 160 upazilas will go to polls on May 21, and in third phase, 112 upazilas will go to polls on May 29. In the 4th phase, elections will be held in 55 upazilas on June 5.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">As per the EC’s plan, Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) will be used in 22 upazila parishad polls in the first phase, 24 in second phase, 21 in third phase, and two in the fourth phase. Source: UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"42\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 11:33:37', '2024-05-07 11:33:37'),
(12257, 12257, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>A half-century from Towhid Hridoy propelled Bangladesh to a competitive total of 165 in the third T20I today against Zimbabwe at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Put in to bat first after losing the toss, Bangladesh\'s openers, Litton Das (12) and Tanzid Hasan Tamim (21), failed to provide a solid start.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Litton’s dismissal, bowled while attempting a scoop shot for the third consecutive delivery, raised eyebrows and questions about his batting approach. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto also departed cheaply for 6, failing to make an impact.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, Towhid Hridoy and Jaker Ali resurrected the innings with a well-paced partnership.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Towhid played aggressively, smashing 57 runs off 38 balls before falling to Zimbabwe\'s best bowler, Blessing Muzarabani. Jaker Ali continued the momentum, scoring 44 off 34 deliveries before being dismissed by the same bowler.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bangladesh, having already won the first two matches of the series at the same venue, will be looking to secure a series victory with another win against Zimbabwe. According to UNB reports&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Sports Desk', '[\"20\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 12:06:43', '2024-05-07 12:06:43'),
(12258, 12258, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday asked the authorities concerned to first consider the benefits the people and economy would get before taking up any development project.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"We should first think about what the return we would gain, how much it would develop the country’s people and how much it would be used in the welfare of the country’s people,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The premier said this while witnessing a presentation on the programme outlines of the Roads and Highways Department in building the Smart Bangladesh by 2041 at her official residence Ganabhaban.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She also asked the authorities concerned to attach priority to avoiding unnecessary costs as well as expedite the implementation of the projects, said PM’s Deputy Press Secretary KM Shakhawat Moon at a press briefing.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In case of taking up any plan and scheme, all will have to keep in mind that how much the country\'s&nbsp; economic activities will be accelerated and how much the local people will be benefited and what would be result if a project is implemented or a bridge is constructed, said&nbsp; Hasina</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said the countrymen are now enjoying the benefits as some infrastructural developments have taken place quickly.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister said her government announced the Vision 2021 and has successfully implemented it and thus Bangladesh has got the recognition of a developing nation, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"Now, our target is to transform Bangladesh into a developed and prosperous and smart country by 2041. We’ve been working to implement the vision,\" she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader and PM\'s Principal Secretary M Tofazzel Hossain Miah, among others, were present.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 12:17:10', '2024-05-07 12:17:10'),
(12259, 12259, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his chief opponent Rahul Gandhi called on voters to cast their ballots on Tuesday, as India’s massive general election reached its halfway mark with a turnout lower than expected.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">More than 968 million people have been registered to vote and the polls are held in seven phases from April 19 until June 1. Some of India’s 28 states and eight federally governed territories complete the process on a single day, while others spread it out.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The first two phases of the election were held on April 19 and April 26 in 190 constituencies, with a voter turnout of 66.1 percent and 66.7 percent respectively — about 4 percent lower than in 2019.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the third phase on Tuesday, citizens from 94 constituencies in 12 states went to the polls, including in Modi’s home state of Gujarat.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Urging all those who are voting in today’s phase to vote in record numbers. Their active participation will certainly make the elections more vibrant,” the incumbent prime minister said on X after casting his ballot.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Modi is eyeing a rare third straight five-year term in power, targeting 400 seats for the National Democratic Alliance led by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been in power since 2014.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He is challenged by an alliance of two dozen opposition parties — the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA, led by the Congress Party, which has ruled the country for close to 45 years since its independence in 1947.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Gandhi, Modi’s key contender and Congress leader, is the son of Rajiv Gandhi, a grandson of Indira Gandhi, and a great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru — all of whom had served as prime ministers of India.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Congress plunged to a historic low when it was swept out of power by the BJP in the 2014 election, and won its second-lowest number of 52 seats in 2019.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">As the turnout showed a declining trend in the first and second phases of the ongoing poll, Gandhi also took to social media to ask voters to show up.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“I request all of you to come out in large numbers and vote to protect your rights,” he said. “Remember, this is not an ordinary election, it is an election to protect the democracy and constitution of the country.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">More than 498 million people were eligible to vote in the first three phases, or 60 percent of all registered voters. The total number of parliamentary seats up for grabs is 283 out of 543.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The party or coalition that wins at least 272 seats will form the government.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Although surveys suggest Modi will win a majority in parliament easily, analysts say a repeat of his landslide victories in 2014 and 2019 is unlikely.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“I think the election has not gone very satisfactorily for the ruling party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The results may be well below their expectations,” said Anand K. Sahay, a columnist and commentator based in Delhi.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“My own broad sense is that the government is in the doldrums.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said Modi was repeating his previous strategy of mobilizing voters through majoritarian Hindu sentiment, omitting the voters’ main concerns, which pre-poll surveys have identified as unemployment and inflation.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“The prime minister of India is holding on to one single narrative, that is ranting against the Muslims of India. A man who regards himself as a very successful prime minister for 10 consecutive years is not talking about issues and the records of the governance. There is a deafening silence on that front,” Sahay told Arab News.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Apoorvanand Jha, a public intellectual and professor at the University of Delhi, said voters were now “weary” of the rhetoric propagated by the BJP, but it was not clear whether that would result in a regime change, reports Arab News</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“What people have realized now is that it is only political rhetoric and, actually, there is no governance, so that has created a feeling of unease even in the supporters of this regime,” he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“One does not know whether that will lead to a major change or not. But this is a major shift. The myth of the invincibility of Narendra Modi is broken and the myth of the popularity of Narendra Modi is also something that people have started questioning.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 12:23:42', '2024-05-07 12:23:42'),
(12260, 12260, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was up the West to choose between confrontation and cooperation as he was sworn in for a new six-year term on Tuesday at a Kremlin ceremony that was boycotted by the United States and many of its allies.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">More than two years into the war in Ukraine, Putin said he wanted to “bow” before Russia’s soldiers there and declared in his inauguration speech that his landslide re-election in March was proof the country was united and on the right track.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“You, citizens of Russia, have confirmed the correctness of the country’s course. This is of great importance right now, when we are faced with serious challenges,” he told dignitaries in a gilded Kremlin hall where a trumpet fanfare sounded to greet his arrival.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“I see in this a deep understanding of our common historical goals, a determination to adamantly defend our choice, our values, freedom and the national interests of Russia.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">At 71, Putin dominates the domestic political landscape. Leading opposition figures are in prison or exile, and his best known critic, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony in February.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Yulia Navalnaya, the late dissident’s wife, urged supporters in a video on Tuesday to keep up the struggle against Putin. “With each of his terms, everything only gets worse, and its’ frightening to imagine what else will happen while Putin remains in power,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the international stage, Putin is locked in a confrontation with Western countries he accuses of using Ukraine as a vehicle to try to defeat and dismember Russia.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Putin told Russia’s political elite after being sworn in that he was not rejecting dialogue with the West, including on nuclear weapons.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“The choice is theirs: do they intend to continue trying to restrain the development of Russia, continue the policy of aggression, incessant pressure on our country for years, or look for a path to cooperation and peace?” he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">With Russia’s troops advancing gradually in eastern Ukraine, the top US intelligence official said last week that Putin appeared to see domestic and international developments trending in his favor and the conflict was unlikely to end anytime soon.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It remains unclear how far Putin will seek to press the war and on what terms he might discuss ending it — decisions that will depend in part on whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump wins the US presidential election in November. Ukraine says peace can only come with a full withdrawal of Russia’s troops, who control nearly 20 percent of its territory. Source: Reuters&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 13:01:01', '2024-05-07 13:01:01'),
(12261, 12261, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Distinguished Fellow of Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and convener of Citizen Platform, Bangladesh for SDG implementation Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya on Tuesday&nbsp; said that data anarchy in the country has now turned into data breach.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said the recent ban on entry of journalists to Bangladesh Bank (BB) is proof of that situation, as the powerful corrupt groups/syndicates are fearing to face the truth.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dr Debapriya said this while speaking on ‘Macroeconomic Challenges and Way Forward’ in Moazzem Hossain Commemorative Lecture at the auditorium of the Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF) on Tuesday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;FRF organised the lecture in honour of its founding president and late editor of the Financial Express Moazzem Hossain.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also said that the central bank is the place of people\'s expectations and the big pillar of getting the right information.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said, “We depended on central bank data on financial indicators including export-import even before BBS data. Now why has the information fallen in a barrier banning journalists in the BB, Is it the result of a compromise with a group of influential, it will damage the reputation of the central bank.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dr. Debapriya said, some are getting the information, and some are not getting it. Today businessmen are getting information while journalists are not. If information is given to the trader, the market is affected, and the price increases. Bangladesh Bank is a state institution. Journalists are not allowed to enter there.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Why expressing the correct information will be face trouble, why it is being seen as a major sabotage? How economic journalists become saboteurs?,” he asked the central bank.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">Remembering journalist Moazzem Hossain, Dr Debopriya said, the late editor was a completely professional and pure journalist, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Moazzem always performed his duties with integrity, ethics, and complete impartiality. He was the pioneer of economics journalism in Bangladesh,” said Dr Debopriya.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">Shamsul Haque Zahid, editor of the English daily Financial Express, ERF President Refayet Ullah Mirdha, and General Secretary Abul Kashem also spoke at the event.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"30\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 13:14:41', '2024-05-07 13:14:41'),
(12262, 12262, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Amy Pope has laid emphasis on broader use of data and data analytics to understand which communities will be impacted the most by climate change so that they can identify those communities.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“So understanding what\'s happening in Bangladesh will require much more analysis and research,” she said in a group interview with five journalists representing local and international media outlets including UNB while responding to a question on climate migration.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The IOM DG said that is exactly the kind of investment that they are asking governments to make because governments will spend billions of dollars in their border enforcement but they do not spend the same kind of funds in understanding the drivers of migration and then helping to enable communities to adapt or stabilize movements of people.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Pope, who became Director General of the IOM on 1 October 2023, said their goal is also to teach people either new skills, or new ways of working or in some cases using migration as an adaptation strategy. “So that means not waiting until millions of people are displaced because they have no other option.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Responding to a question from UNB, she said it is not just in Bangladesh, last year, the number of new displacements more were caused by climate impact and conflict around the world. “And we know that hundreds of millions of people now live in communities that are extremely vulnerable to climate impact.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2022 alone, disasters triggered over 1.5 million displacements in Bangladesh, according to World Migration Report 2024.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The subregion has experienced devastating disasters in recent years, some of which have been linked to climate change. Southern Asia is extremely vulnerable to climate shocks and has experienced extreme weather events such as heatwaves and floods in recent years.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Long monsoon seasons, hotter weather and increased droughts are all expected to become the “new normal” in the subregion as temperatures continue to rise.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Responding to another question, she said when there are large movements of displaced people globally, it often is to neighboring countries and neighboring countries that just do not have the capacity themselves to respond to those pressures.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“So our key message to donors and this is true, particularly with Bangladesh, is that we need to continue to invest in a response of the neighboring country, a neighboring country which is really shouldering a much greater burden as a result of the conflict,” Pope, the first woman to hold the post in IOM’s 73-year history, told UNB.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">And as a gesture of solidarity, she said, governments make a wise investment in the capacity of that host government to be able to continue to host those populations.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“So for example, yesterday, when I went to the [Rohingya] camps, we invited a number of donors to go with us. We invited the World Bank to go with us who\'s made some investments in the camps. And we invited some private sector partners, recognizing that we need a wide range of partners to help support,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The IOM DG said they know that the government is challenged by the current population density in Bangladesh of Bangladeshi nationals and the availability of job opportunities or economic for charities for them.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“So that\'s kind of a starting point for the government. But we do know as a best practice, for any displaced community, there are two things. Our evidence shows that when they have stable shelters, they\'re more likely to be able to move forward. And it helps to prevent a number of related consequences. So shelters and shelter stability is key,” Pope said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The second is the ability to integrate into the job market, she said, adding that, “So where we\'ve seen better outcomes, it\'s because people can have access to education, and they can have access to jobs. If not, then they\'re wholly dependent on humanitarian aid.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">And the worry there is that humanitarian aid is decreasing, including to the Rohingya population, frankly, as a result of economies that have been impacted by COVID, and inflation, and other challenges, but also because a number of complex around the world have grown quite considerably over the last several years, so the pressures on the humanitarian system are higher, the DG said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said they are encouraging all governments, not just Bangladesh, but any government that is hosting a large number of displaced people to enable them to access the job market so that they are able to build out solutions for themselves and not be so reliant on humanitarian assistance.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“I had the opportunity to discuss the Rohingya crisis in quite a lot of detail with her (PM Sheikh Hasina) and about how we can build out better outcomes, especially for women and girls, who we know are particularly vulnerable right now in the camps,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The IOM DG said the smugglers are very sophisticated when using social media and they see this around the world.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“There are simply not enough regular pathways for people to access, not enough investment in enabling communities to access those regular pathways, or information about what someone needs to do or what skills they might need,” she said, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“So if we want to have any hope of countering the digitalization of the smuggling economy, we need to do better at providing access both to regular migration opportunities, but to communities who might otherwise migrate irregularly and help them figure out how to migrate regularly,” she added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said the mapping around what drives people to migrate is uneven and this is where they are encouraging governments to invest.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“The ideal solution is for every person who\'s coming across and we need to understand what drove them to migrate, where they\'re coming from, and when they came. So in some cases, we have a pretty comprehensive displacement tracking matrix,” said the DG, adding that “But we are seeing increasingly people are being driven by climate change.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 14:27:33', '2024-05-07 14:27:33'),
(12263, 12263, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Ukraine announced on Tuesday that it had detained two Ukrainian security officials involved in a plot coordinated by Russia to assassinate senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Kyiv says that the Ukrainian leader has been targeted by Russia on multiple occasions, including at the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Security Service of Ukraine said in a statement that it had exposed a network of agents run by Russia’s Federal Security Service whose aim was to assassinate Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian political and military officials.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“The network, whose activities were supervised by the FSB from Moscow, included two colonels of the State Security Department who were leaking classified information to Russia,” the SBU said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It said that Russia had worked to identify individuals close to Zelensky’s security detail who could take the Ukrainian leader hostage and kill him.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors announced last month they had detained a man suspected of aiding a Russian assassination plot on Zelensky.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The SBU also said last August that a woman had been arrested over a plot to kill the Ukrainian leader by trying to uncover details of his movements outside Kyiv. - AFP&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 14:44:15', '2024-05-07 14:44:15'),
(12264, 12264, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">The first phase of the country’s sixth Upazila Parishad Election is set to be held amid the balloting in 139 upazilas of 59 districts in the country on Wednesday.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The votes will be cast from 8:00am to 4:00pm without any recess.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some 1630 candidates, including nearly 570 chairman contenders are in the electoral race in the 139 upazila parishads against a total of 417 posts –-chairman post, vice chairman and women vice chairman posts in each upazila.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">More than 2.80 crore people would have voting rights in the upazilas, according to the data of the Election Commission.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A security team of 17-19 members would guard each polling station in the plain districts, while a security team of 19-21 members would protect a polling station in the Chittagong hill tracts and very remote areas. The balloting will be held in some 10,400 polling stations, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On March 21, the Election Commission announced the election schedule for 152 upazila parishads in the first phase.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">But all the candidates in five upazilas – Hatia in Noakhali, Munshiganj Sadar, Bagerhat Sadar, Parshuram in Feni and Shibchar in Madaripur– have already been elected uncontested, finding no rival contestant for their respective posts.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the other hand, the elections to eight other upazilas were postponed on different grounds. The eight upazilas are Narayanganj Sadar, Kumarkhali in Kushtia, Thanchi and Rowangchhari in Bandarban, Gopalpur in Tangail, Mohadevpur in Naogaon, Nangalkot in Cumilla and Sarishabari in Jamalpur.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 15:02:05', '2024-05-07 15:02:05'),
(12265, 12265, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">UNICEF on Tuesday said the city of children, Rafah, \"must not be invaded,\" urging the continuation of humanitarian aid flow into Gaza.</span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"Our worst fear - Gazans\' nightmare - appears to be a reality. A reality that those holding power have the ability to prevent,\" spokesperson James Elder told a UN press briefing in Geneva.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Elder noted that every warning and every \"mind-boggling piece of data\" on the number of children and mothers killed and of homes and hospitals destroyed\" are all ignored.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Underlining that Rafah is a city of children as more than half of the children in Gaza live in Rafah, he said: \"This past weekend’s events in Gaza - the continued killing of children, more attacks from the warring parties, and now evacuation orders – yet again expose how parties to this conflict continue to utterly disregard the lives and protection of children and civilians.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"That has to change. Indeed, this is the last chance for this to change,\" he urged, and added: \"Aid must flow. Hostages must be freed. Rafah must not be invaded. And children must no longer be killed.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He reiterated UNICEF\'s call for cessation of hostilities, saying: \"For the children of Rafah, we need a cease-fire, now.\"&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"6\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 15:18:49', '2024-05-07 15:18:49');
INSERT INTO `news_details` (`id`, `news_id`, `details`, `ticker`, `representative`, `keyword`, `video_link`, `google_drive_link`, `audio_link`, `shoulder`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES
(12266, 12266, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that strong and decisive leadership will be essential in shaping a more resilient and prepared world against future pandemics.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“As we navigate the complexities of future pandemics, strong and decisive leadership will be essential in shaping a more resilient and prepared world,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The premier made the remarks joining a virtual meeting with Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, from Ganabhaban here in the city on Tuesday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said political leadership’s engagement and commitment are essential in driving systemic changes that can enhance our ability to prevent, detect, and respond to future pandemics effectively.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“High-level political leadership ensures that pandemic preparedness and response remain a priority on the national and international agenda,” said Hasina.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It facilitates the mobilization of financial resources, promotes collaboration between countries, and fosters innovation in public health systems towards achieving the shared commitment to Universal Health Coverage by 2030, she added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“High-level political leadership is indispensable in driving reforms related to pandemic preparedness and response,” she said, adding that it sets the tone for global cooperation, instills confidence in public health interventions, and ultimately saves lives.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We must also mobilize collective political will and commitment to strengthen WHO’s knowledge, technical, and financial capacity for pandemic prevention and response by addressing the highly fragmented global health governance system,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The PM said the lessons from Covid-19 emphasise the need for a coordinated approach to pandemic preparedness and response, grounded in scientific evidence, global cooperation, and fairness and equity.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“A meaningful application of these lessons will be essential for mitigating the impact of future pandemics and safeguarding global health security,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In this context, Sheikh Hasina stressed five recommendations.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Raising the recommendations, she first said international cooperation and collaboration are essential for sharing information, expertise, and resources to effectively respond to global health crises that respect no borders.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She in her second recommendation said the race for vaccines revealed stark inequalities in access between developed and developing countries. Addressing these disparities requires concerted efforts to ensure equitable distribution and access to vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Placing her 3rd recommendation, she said Covid-19 highlighted the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health. Adopting a One Health approach, which considers the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems as interconnected, can help prevent future pandemics, she added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">About the 4th recommendation, Sheikh Hasina said the rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines demonstrated the importance of investing in research and development for pandemic preparedness. Continued investment in R&amp;D for vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics is essential for combating emerging and fatal infectious diseases, she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The PM in her 5th and final recommendation said adequate and sustainable financing mechanisms are needed to support preparedness efforts, including early warning systems, stockpiling of medical supplies, and capacity building in at-risk regions.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Turning to Bangladesh, she said the Covid-19 pandemic hit Bangladesh like many other countries, in early 2020. “But due to the continuation of our long-standing activities in the health sector and the timely action of the government, we have been able to reduce the loss of human lives and keep the economy running,” she added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sheikh Hasina said her government had to strike a judicious balance between saving lives and protecting livelihoods. In parallel, her government rolled out a substantive stimulus package for industries and a comprehensive social protection portfolio for our low-income and marginalized people, she mentioned.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Due to our efforts, Bangladesh ranked among the top five countries in the world in overall Covid-19 management and recovery,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">About the vaccine, the prime minister said, “In Bangladesh, we are also in a position to contribute to vaccine research and production in a cost-effective manner. Among other policy support measures, I have already allocated a piece of land for setting up a state-of-the-art Vaccine Research Institute.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said Covid-19 has been a global wake-up call, underscoring the critical need for comprehensive reform in international pandemic preparedness and response.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“This pandemic has shown us that we are all connected. None of us can be truly safe until we make sure everyone is safe. Now is the time to work together globally to achieve the public health goals outlined in Sustainable Development Goal-3 and Goal-17,” she went on.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Over the last 15 years, Bangladesh has continuously strengthened its preparedness and response capacity, incorporating the results of health security assessments and lessons from past emergencies, said Sheikh Hasina, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Covid-19 pandemic in Bangladesh, as in other countries, was a test of resolve for preparedness, response, and resilience, she continued.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Covid-19 showed that prior investment in health security in Bangladesh was very useful as the country was able to quickly leverage existing preparedness and response plans, surveillance platforms, laboratories, and workforce for emergency response, she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Our health systems could rapidly expand the laboratory network for prompt diagnosis and provide accessible clinical care. Drawing on those lessons, we are now maximizing our efforts to prevent, detect, and better respond to future outbreaks and emergencies, including silent epidemics such as antimicrobial resistance,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister assured that Bangladesh will continue to play a constructive role in this regard, considering its past success in protecting public health and dealing with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 15:33:29', '2024-05-07 15:33:29'),
(12267, 12267, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Khulna Circle Forest Conservator Mihir Kumar Doe on Tuesday evening said the Sundarbans fire has been completely doused, almost four days since it started.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said that rain started falling on the affected location from 5:30pm on Monday. Besides, the members of the Forest Department and Fire Service arrived at the spot and started monitoring the fire site again through drones.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hourly drone monitoring has been done since morning, but no sign of fire was found anywhere in the forest, reports unb</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Besides, several teams visited the spot on foot inside the forest but found no sign of fire anywhere.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Inspection revealed that the fire site was substantially soaked with water as a result of rainfall. Water has accumulated somewhere.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the review of the overall situation, it has been confirmed that the fire in the forest area under the Amarbunia camp of Sundarbans has been extinguished.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"4\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 15:56:47', '2024-05-07 15:56:47'),
(12268, 12268, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">Rajib Moni Das has been appointed as the Organizing Secretary of the Television Playwrights\' Association. The new executive committee of the Bangladesh Television Playwrights\' Association for 2024-2026 was formed yesterday, Friday, May 3, 2024, at 4 PM during the biennial general meeting held in the seminar room of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Rajib Moni Das, a novelist, playwright, and producer, was elected as the Organizational Secretary in this newly formed committee, having previously served as the Office Secretary in the 2022-2024 committee.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rajib Moni Das expressed his gratitude to everyone involved for his election as the Organizational Secretary. He said, \"I was committed to my previous responsibilities, and I am overwhelmed to have received my current role. I pray to everyone that I can fulfill this responsibility appropriately.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">To date, Rajib Moni Das has written nearly one hundred and fifty single plays and thirteen serial dramas. He has composed about 30 songs and written four novels. Additionally, he has created and produced concepts for over 25 advertisements.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">When asked about the current state of drama, Rajib Moni Das commented, \"Due to budget constraints, the number of characters in our dramas is decreasing. However, I have never written to order. Family-centric stories are the essence of my dramas. Establishing a character often requires many other characters, which are the ornaments of the drama. It is impossible to produce a good drama without these ornaments.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">In the new committee, the President elected was the playwright and producer Ejaz Munna, and the General Secretary elected was Zakir Hossain Uzzwal. The 19-member panel includes Vice-Presidents - Panth Shahriar, Shafiqur Rahman Shantanu, Mostafa Mamon; Joint General Secretaries - Azam Khan, Tuku Mojniul, Sazin Ahmed Babu; Organizing Secretary - Rajib Moni Das; Treasurer - Monsur Chanchal; Secretary of Publicity and Publication - Kamrul Ahsan; Secretary of IT and Events - Elina Shammi; Secretary of Law and Welfare - Manas Pal; Office Secretary - Afrin Jessica; Secretary of Research and Training - Jewel Kabir. The executive secretaries include Dr. Lipi Monowar, Ahmed Shahabuddin, Mejbah Uddin Sumon, Litu Sakhawat.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">bnbd24/kh</div>', NULL, 'news desk', '[\"13\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-07 16:29:24', '2024-05-07 16:29:24'),
(12269, 12269, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Describing Islam as a religion of peace, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday asked the people not to do anything that goes against the religious sentiments.&nbsp;&nbsp;</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">“No one should do anything - like taking to in alcohol, gambling, corruption, terrorism and militancy -- that hurts our religious sentiments,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The premier said this while opening the hajj programme 2024 (1445 hijri) in the capital’s Ashkona area. The first hajj flight is scheduled to depart Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport for Saudi Arabia on Thursday, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said Islam is a sacred religion that has ensured the rights of the people of all classes.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is very unfortunate that a handful of people would earn a bad name for Islam by carrying out militancy.&nbsp; \"I always protest it,\" she added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The PM said the people of all religions would continue to enjoy equal rights to follow their respective religion in the country.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She asked the pilgrims to pray for Bangladesh and its people while performing the holy hajj.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This year, a total of 85,257 pilgrims from Bangladesh are going to perform the holy hajj. Of them, 4,562 pilgrims will perform hajj under the government management, while 80, 695 pilgrims under the private management.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 08:27:27', '2024-05-08 08:27:27'),
(12270, 12270, '<div><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">A Union Parishad (UP) member was jailed and another was arrested for obstructing voters from entering polling stations in Damurhuda and Jibannagar upazilas of Chuadanga as voting for the first phase of the 6th Upazila Parishad Election is underway across 139 upazilas on Wednesday.</span><br></b></div><div><br></div><div>Abu Siddik is member of ward no. 2 under Kurargachhi union parishad in Damurhuda upazila while the arrestee Shakhawat Hossain is a supporter of Jibannagar upazila chairman candidate Hafizur Rahman.</div><div><br></div><div>Jakia Sultana, assistant superintendent of police (ASP) in Damurhuda-Jibannagar circle, said they arrested UP member Abu Siddik, who was working for chairman candidate Ali Mansur Babul, for barring voters from entering Chandipur Government Primary School centre in the morning.</div><div><br></div><div>Later, a mobile court led by Executive Magistrate and Assistant Commissioner Saiful Islam sentenced him to seven days in jail, said the police officer.</div><div><br></div><div>She said the law enforcers also arrested Shakhawat for restricting voters from casting votes at Katapole Government Primary School centre in Jibannagar upazila in the morning.</div><div><br></div><div>The arrestee was taken to the concerned police station and legal actions against him were underway, the ASP said.</div><div><br></div><div>District deputy commissioner Dr. Kissinger Chakma said they were constantly monitoring the situation and voting was underway peacefully.</div><div><br></div><div>In Damurhuda, three candidates are contesting for the post of chairman while 2,47,820 voters are expected to cast their votes.</div><div><br></div><div>In Jibannagar, two chairman candidates are contesting with votes from 1,53,215 voters. - UNB</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 08:30:13', '2024-05-08 08:30:13'),
(12271, 12271, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir returned home on Wednesday after performing the holy Umrah in Saudi Arabia.&nbsp;</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The BNP secretary general and his wife Rahat Ara Begum arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport via a flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines around 12:35pm from Jhedda, his personal assistant M Yunus Ali told UNB.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Talking to reporters at the airport, Fakhrul said, “I went to perform Umrah and prayed for the people of the country…I have nothing more to say now.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Earlier on May 5, they performed Umrah along with some local BNP leaders and activists and offered prayers in Masjid al-Haram.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">They also offered mujajat praying for continued peace, prosperity and progress of the people of Bangladesh and the country as well as the entire Muslim Ummah And the for divine blessings for BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, Acting Chairman Tariq Rahman and millions of party leaders and workers, according to UNB reports&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On May 2, Fakhrul and his wife went to Medinah from Dhaka and offered fateha at the grave of Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Pbuh). They also offered Jumma prayers in the Prophet\'s Mosque on Friday.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The couple went to Makkah on May 5 and visited various historical places after performing Umrah.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"1\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 08:35:04', '2024-05-08 08:35:04'),
(12272, 12272, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>All-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and batsman Soumya Sarkar return to the T20I squad as the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced the team for the final two matches of the five-match series against Zimbabwe.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Shakib, who missed the first three matches due to Dhaka League commitments, rejoins the squad alongside Mustafizur Rahman, who returned from the IPL on May 2. Soumya Sarkar also makes a comeback after recovering from a knee injury.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">To accommodate their return, the selectors have left out Parvez Hossain Emon and Afif Hossain for the remaining matches, while Shoriful Islam has been rested.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bangladesh has already secured the series with victories in the first three matches, but Zimbabwe will be looking to salvage some pride in the final two games, scheduled for May 10th and 12th in Dhaka.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This series marks Bangladesh\'s final home fixtures before the ICC Men\'s T20 World Cup, which will be held in the USA and West Indies next month, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bangladesh Squad for Final Zimbabwe T20Is: Najmul Hossain Shanto (Captain), Litton Das, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Shakib Al Hasan, Tawhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah Riyad, Jaker Ali, Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Sakib, Soumya Sarkar, Tanvir Islam, Mohammad Saifuddin.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Sports Desk', '[\"20\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 08:40:33', '2024-05-08 08:40:33'),
(12273, 12273, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Alia Bhatt is attending her second Met Gala - in a row - but this is her first time wearing a sari on the carpet.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Bollywood superstar wore Prabal Gurung last year, but donned a Sabyasachi design this year. She told the Vogue hosts the on-theme garment took 1,905 man hours and 163 workers to craft. - AP</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Entertainment', '[\"13\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 09:03:01', '2024-05-08 09:03:01'),
(12274, 12274, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>As summer temperatures soar, the heat can make indoor living conditions uncomfortable, particularly for those living on upper floors. The roof, directly exposed to the sun, plays a significant role in how heat affects the home. However, there are multiple strategies homeowners can implement to keep their roofs and homes cooler during intense heat waves.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tips to Keep Your Roof Cool During the Scorching Heat of Summer</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Selecting Appropriate Roofing Materials</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Choosing the right roofing materials is crucial in climates that experience intense summer heat, like Bangladesh. Materials that reflect solar energy rather than absorb it, such as metal, tiles, or specially designed reflective shingles, can significantly reduce heat absorption. These materials help maintain lower roof temperatures, which translates into cooler indoor environments.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Utilizing Cool Roof Coatings</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Cool roof coatings are designed to reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat than standard roof surfaces. Applying these coatings can lower roof surface temperature dramatically, reducing heat transferred into the home and prolonging the lifespan of the roofing materials. These reflective coatings are an effective solution for homeowners looking to retrofit existing roofs without complete replacement.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Enhancing Insulation</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Insulation plays a critical role in minimizing heat transfer from the roof to the home\'s interior. Effective attic or roof space insulation, using materials such as fiberglass, foam board, or cellulose, acts as a thermal barrier. This barrier helps stabilize indoor temperatures, making homes more comfortable during both day and night.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Improving Roof and Attic Ventilation</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Good ventilation helps prevent heat build-up in the attic, which can significantly lower overall home temperatures. Installing adequate vents and fans ensures continuous airflow, allowing hot air to escape and cooler air to circulate. This process is essential to maintain a comfortable indoor climate during peak summer months.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Incorporating Greenery and Shade</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Strategically planting trees around your home can shield your roof from direct sunlight, providing natural cooling through shade. Additionally, installing green roofs or rooftop gardens adds a layer of insulation and vegetation, which helps absorb heat and improve overall air quality.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Installing Solar Panels</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Solar panels not only generate renewable energy but also provide shade to the roof, further reducing heat absorption. This shading effect helps keep the roof and subsequently the indoor environment cooler, reducing the reliance on air conditioning and lowering energy costs.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Implementing Shade Structures</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Adding shade structures such as pergolas, awnings, or shade sails over exposed roof areas can significantly reduce the amount of sunlight hitting the roof, thus decreasing heat absorption. It is beneficial to use light-colored materials for these structures to enhance their heat-reflective capabilities.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Roof Watering Techniques</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On extremely hot days, lightly spraying your roof with water can cool it down temporarily. Water\'s high heat capacity allows it to absorb a significant amount of heat without a rapid increase in temperature, providing a cooling effect.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Conclusion</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Adopting a combination of these strategies can significantly mitigate the effects of summer heat on your house roof, enhancing indoor comfort and promoting energy efficiency. By integrating passive cooling techniques with active systems, homeowners can effectively manage indoor temperatures, contributing to sustainable living and reduced energy consumption. These measures collectively help create a more comfortable and environmentally friendly home environment. Source: UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', '<p><b><font color=\"#3984c6\"> Summer Heat</font></b><br></p>', 'News Desk', '[\"24\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 09:27:50', '2024-05-08 09:29:01'),
(12275, 12275, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat on Tuesday said BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) has been requested to close all unregistered online portals.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said this in Parliament while replying to the supplementary question of Feroz Ahmed Swapan, MP elected from Satkhira-1.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Swapan said in his supplementary question that Bangladesh journalism.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We don\'t know the rules of our online portals. We are disturbed by unregistered online newspapers. Does it have any control measures?”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In response,&nbsp; Md Ali Arafat,&nbsp; a founder of Awami League-affiliated think tank in his previous life before entering politics.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said that his ministry is working very closely on these issues.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“He (Feroz Ahmed Swapan) rightly said that several online portals have sprung up like a frog umbrella. They practice yellow journalism, not journalism,” he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The State Minister said that misinformation creates various problems in the society.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Interestingly, those who do journalism with professionalism have demanded the closure of such portals and online magazines,” he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Arafat mentioned that journalists are saying that those who practice this type of yellow journalism have actually become a cause of loss for professional in the field, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“This demand is not only from members of Parliament or politicians or people from other levels of society, but from the journalist community itself.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said journalists claim that there are many unregistered online portals that are spreading misinformation.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">“To stop them, I gave an instruction a few days ago. I will send to BTRC the full list of well-established media, electronic media, print media, their registered portals and also all the portals that have applied.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The State Minister mentioned that outside , there are many online portals they did Not even send an application.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We will request them (BTRC) to close them all,” he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 10:08:39', '2024-05-08 10:08:39'),
(12276, 12276, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud has said that border killing is very unfortunate and they are in regular consultations with India to ensure that border forces don’t apply any force that might cause fatalities.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We are against border killings. We – the two countries - are working so that it does not happen. We are working in that direction. We are in regular consultations,” he told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The foreign minister said this while talking to journalist&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style=\"font-size: 1rem; font-weight: bolder;\">on Wednesday</span><b style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">.</b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Two young men from Bangladesh were reportedly shot and killed by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) on Wednesday, as they allegedly tried to cross into India near Tetulia upazila in Panchagarh.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Minister Hasan said the issue of killings along the border will be discussed when Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra comes to Bangladesh.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said India is Bangladesh’s immediate neighbour and they have many issues with India. “Naturally, different issues will be discussed.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Kwarta is likely to be in Dhaka tonight (Wednesday) as part of \"high-level exchanges\" between the two countries.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud on Thursday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen will host a lunch in honour of his Indian counterpart during his brief visit.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speculations are rife regarding the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India within the next couple of months.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The preparatory issues may also come up for discussion during Indian FS\'s engagements in Dhaka, said a diplomatic source.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Though there was no official announcement from Dhaka and New Delhi regarding the visit, the Indian FS was scheduled to be in Dhaka on a brief visit on April 20 but it was postponed.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Look, elections are underway there (in India). It (visit) was postponed because of various internal (India\'s) reasons,” Foreign Minister Hasan told reporters when asked about the reasons behind the postponement of the visit at that time.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Diplomatic sources indicate that PM Hasina\'s visit to India is planned for early July, after the conclusion of the neighbouring country’s election.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Pre-election surveys suggest a strong showing for the coalition led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is widely anticipated to secure re-election, reprots UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"Prime Minister\'s (Sheikh Hasina) India visit will definitely take place. However, it will take place after the election in India,\" FM Hasan said recently.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also said it is not yet discussed at the official level when the visit will exactly take place.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Staff Correspondent', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 10:30:05', '2024-05-08 10:30:05'),
(12277, 12277, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>British drugmaker AstraZeneca said Wednesday that it has withdrawn its Covid vaccine Vaxzevria, one of the first produced in the pandemic, citing “commercial reasons” and a surplus of updated jabs, reports AFP.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“As multiple, variant Covid-19 vaccines have since been developed there is a surplus of available updated vaccines. This has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied,” an AstraZeneca spokeperson said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Health Desk', '[\"6\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 10:39:18', '2024-05-08 10:39:18'),
(12278, 12278, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) predicts rain of thundershower in eight divisions including Dhaka, starting from 9 am today.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind are likely to occur at many places over Rangpur, Rajshahi, Dhaka, Khulna, Barishal and Chattogram divisions and at a few places over Mymensingh and Sylhet divisions with hailing at isolated places,” according to Met office bulletin.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Day temperature may fall slightly and night temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas&nbsp;</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"39\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 11:03:19', '2024-05-08 11:03:19'),
(12279, 12279, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Donald Trump will make history as the first former president to stand trial on criminal charges when his hush money case opens Monday with jury selection.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The case will force the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to juggle campaigning with sitting in a Manhattan courtroom for weeks to defend himself against charges involving a scheme to bury allegations of marital infidelity that arose during his first White House campaign in 2016.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It carries enormous political ramifications as potentially the only one of four criminal cases against Trump that could reach a verdict before voters decide in November whether to send him back to the White House, reports AP</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 11:17:38', '2024-05-08 11:17:38'),
(12280, 12280, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Bangladesh Bank has introduced Crawling Peg Exchange Rate System to make the exchange rate more flexible.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Foreign Exchange Policy Department (FEPD) of the central bank issued a circular in this regard signed by its director Md Sarwar Hossain on Wednesday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the circular, it has been decided to introduce a Crawling Peg Exchange Rate System for spot purchases and sale of US dollar.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Under this system, a Crawling Peg Mid Rate (CPMR), has been set at Tk 117.00 per dollar with immediate effect.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Scheduled banks may purchase and sell US dollars freely around the CPMR with the customers and in interbank deals.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Earlier, on Sunday (May 5), Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder said within a very short time the central bank will go for a market-based interest rate and apply a crawling peg system to fix the foreign exchange rate, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said the BB is working with prominent economists and bankers to prepare a contractionary monetary policy measure for curbing inflation and restoring macroeconomic stability.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The crawling peg is a system of exchange rate adjustments in which a currency with a fixed exchange rate is allowed to fluctuate within a band of rates. The method fully uses the key attributes of the fixed exchange regime, as well as the flexibility of the floating exchange rate regime.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Currently, the central bank is selling dollars to commercial banks at Tk111 per dollar.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"33\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 11:53:16', '2024-05-08 11:53:16'),
(12281, 12281, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Chief of the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Mohammad Harun-Or-Rashid requested journalists to cooperate with them by providing information regarding manufacturers of adulterated food.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He made the request&nbsp; while talking to journalists at his office at the DB office on Dhaka’s Mintoo road on Wednesday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Producing and selling adulterated products is a crime and the concerned organisations (consumer rights protection directorate, BSTI) will do their work while DB will do its work, he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A citizen has the right to know whether those who manufacture baby food, saline have license or approval, the DB chief said, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“It will also be helpful for us if residents&nbsp; of those areas (where such products are produced) give us information. Then we can arrest them. That\'s why I would like to request all to prove information about those who are making fake drinks, juices and mixing salt and sugar to make fake saline, we will definitely take legal action against them,” he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the other hand, the DB arrested several gangs involved with manufacturing fake saline after conducting drives in parts of Dhaka.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"42\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 11:59:49', '2024-05-08 11:59:49'),
(12282, 12282, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Chinese President Xi Jinping met Wednesday with the Serbian president, with both sides expressing optimism that the visit will further boost the “ironclad” friendly relations between China and the Balkan country.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Xi arrived in Serbia to a warm welcome on Tuesday evening from France, where he had a high-stakes state visit dominated by trade disputes and Russia’s war in Ukraine.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Thousands of people chanting “China-Serbia” and waving flags were bused in from across Serbia to attend a welcoming ceremony for Xi on Wednesday in front of the Serbia Palace, in the new part of Belgrade where the talks are being held.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Serbia\'s populist President Aleksandar Vucic addressed the crowd from a balcony, calling Xi an “ironclad” friend. He said hs visit to Serbia is “historic” because it opens the path for even closer ties.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We are writing history today although it doesn’t seem so to many (people,)” Vucic said. “We thank President Xi. He hasn’t come to Europe in five years and he has again chosen our little Serbia.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the start of the official meeting on Wednesday, Xi said “we are first-hand witnesses that the Serbian people view Chinese people as ironclad best friends.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“This is truly two-sided and truthful friendship ... I truly hail this and it really made an extremely deep impression on me,” Xi said, according to the state RTS television.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Xi will proceed to Hungary later on Wednesday. Like Serbia, Hungary is seen as one of China\'s more friendly partners in Europe.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Signs of pro-China sentiments were clearly visible throughout the Serbian capital. A huge Chinese flag was placed on a skyscraper along a roadway leading into the city from the airport. Smaller Chinese and Serbian flags could be seen downtown and along a highway.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">China has poured billions of dollars into Serbia in investment and loans, particularly in mining and infrastructure. The two countries signed an agreement on a strategic partnership in 2016 and a free trade agreement last year.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Serbia, a landlocked nation in the heart of the Balkans, has been a key country in China\'s Belt and Road initiative designed to increase Beijing\'s influence in Europe through economic investment. Critics say it could serve as a Chinese Trojan horse and gateway to Europe.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Xi also arrived in Serbia on a symbolic date — the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade by U.S. jets during NATO’s air war over Kosovo, when three Chinese citizens were killed.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The incident has helped forge close political ties between China and Serbia.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Chinese companies run Serbia’s biggest copper mine and a steel mill, and are also building scores of roads and highways across the country, along with a railway toward northern neighbor Hungary.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Our bilateral relationship has stood the test of changing international environment and become a fine example of state-to-state relations,” Xi said in a statement published by China\'s Foreign Ministry.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Standing at a new historical starting point, China will work with Serbia to jointly stay committed to the original aspiration and forge ahead together to open up a new vista in China-Serbia cooperation,\" added</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Xi. “I am confident that this visit will be a fruitful one and will open up a new chapter in China-Serbia relations.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2014, Hungary and Serbia concluded an agreement with Beijing to modernize the railway between their capitals of Budapest and Belgrade, part of a Belt and Road plan to link up with the Chinese-controlled port of Piraeus in Greece to the south, an entry point for Chinese goods to Central and Eastern Europe.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The more than $2 billion project is expected to be completed in 2026, after numerous delays.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Serbia took semi-secret delivery of a sophisticated Chinese anti-aircraft system flown in on Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport planes.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The arms delivery over the territory of at least two NATO member states, Turkey and Bulgaria, was seen by experts as a demonstration of China’s growing global reach. - AP&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 12:38:51', '2024-05-08 12:38:51');
INSERT INTO `news_details` (`id`, `news_id`, `details`, `ticker`, `representative`, `keyword`, `video_link`, `google_drive_link`, `audio_link`, `shoulder`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES
(12283, 12283, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said Bangladesh holds a zero-tolerance policy against illegal migration.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We don’t want anyone to migrate illegally as well. We show zero tolerance on this matter,” she said when visiting UK Minister of State ((Indo-pacific) in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Anne-Marie Trevelyan paid a courtesy call on her at PM’s official residence Ganabhaban.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Briefing the media after the meeting PM’s speechwriter Md Nazrul Islam said Anne-Marie raised the issue of illegal migration saying that the UK welcomes legal migration.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Noting that illegal migration is a problem for the United Kingdom, she said the Bangladeshi nationals who are in irregular situations in the UK should return home.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The UK minister of state welcomes the move to sign a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) between Bangladesh and the UK soon for the identification and return of persons without any authorisation to stay.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister sought the UK\'s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Bangladesh and offered it lands in special economic zones here.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said Bangladesh will purchase 10 aircraft in phases from the European manufacturer Airbus.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Anne-Marie raised the issues of housing, education and healthcare facilities and training on employment for Rohingyas now sheltered in Bangladesh.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In this context, the premier said there is no scope to ensure the facilities in overcrowded Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. That’s why her government built houses in Bhashanchar for them, ensuring all sorts of facilities like education, health and self-employment.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She sought the good offices of the UK for quick repatriation of the Rohingyas as they are increasing in number day by day.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bangladesh is now hosting over one million Rohingyas who fled their homes in Myanmar to flee killings, rape and atrocities.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Besides, the socioeconomic development of Bangladesh and climate change issues came up for discussion in the meeting, said Nazrul.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Regarding the climate change, Hasina said only Britain contributes to the loss and damage fund under the Paris Agreement but there is no notable response from other countries.&nbsp; Bangladesh and the UK have already signed a climate accord, she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Talking about the socioeconomic uplift of Bangladesh, the prime minister said her government opened all sectors, including media to the private sector during her first term from 1996 to 2001 and now the people are enjoying the benefits.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said coming to power in 2009, her government took and implemented the Vision 2021, transformed the country into a Digital Bangladesh and elevated it to a middle-income country, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The PM said the government is now working to implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, make Bangladesh an upper middle income country by 2031, and transform it into a developed, prosperous and smart Bangladesh by 2041.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The UK minister of state wished her success in running the government. PMO Secretary Mohammad Salahuddin was present.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 13:25:54', '2024-05-08 13:25:54'),
(12284, 12284, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti 2024 Date and History: Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti, also known as Rabindra Jayanti or Poncheeshe Boishakh in Kolkata, is a significant cultural observance commemorating the birth anniversary of the eminent Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, who has been revered with titles such as ‘Gurudev’, ‘Kabiguru’, and ‘Biswakabi’.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Revered across the world for his remarkable contributions to literature, music, and art, the legendary Bengali poet, writer, painter, social reformer, and philosopher from West Bengal, Tagore has significantly influenced the cultural and political history of India.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">As we commemorate Rabindranath Tagore’s 163rd Jayanti, here’s all you need to know about Rabindranath Tagore and the significance behind the day.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti 2024: Date</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the Gregorian calendar, Rabindranath Tagore was born in Kolkata on May 7, 1861, to parents Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Deviwas. He was a distinct personality from Bengal who had a significant impact on Bengali literature, music, and Indian art via modernism.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In West Bengal, Rabindra Jayanti is usually celebrated on the 25th day of the Bengali month of Boishakh, following the traditional Bengali calendar. In 2024, we will commemorate the 163rd birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore on Wednesday, May 8th.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti 2024: Life Story and Significance</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rabindranath Tagore, a prominent figure in the Bengali Renaissance, was also a visionary educator who revolutionised traditional classroom teaching and founded Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">His literary works, spanning poetry, novels, short stories, and essays, inspire writers and artists globally. ‘Gitanjali’, Tagore’s renowned collection of poems, was recognised with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. Notably, as per historical records, he holds the unique distinction of having penned the national anthems of two nations: Jana Gana Mana for India and Amar Sonar Bangla for Bangladesh.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rabindra Jayanti festivities honour Tagore, the man who transformed India’s art and culture, by performing Rabindra Sangeet, a collection of over 2,230 songs created by him, as well as dances, acting, writing, poetry recitation, and other activities.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tagore passed away on August 7, 1941, and his legacy is commemorated in the national anthem of India and Shantiniketan (West Bengal). Decades after his death, his work continues to inspire new artists throughout the world. - The Indian Express</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 14:07:37', '2024-05-08 14:07:37'),
(12285, 12285, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Amy Pope has said that making the Rohingyas more self-reliant with a much more comprehensive approach does not mean that they will stay in Bangladesh forever.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“I don\'t think this means that people will stay forever because what we have heard, especially from the Rohingya people, that they would love to go home. What we hear from the Rohingya is that if they could go home, they will go home. They are not looking to stay forever here in Bangladesh,” she told reporters at a press conference, noting that the needs in the camps are overwhelming.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Pope, who became Director General of the IOM on 1 October 2023, described the complex situation and said at this moment going home means risking their (Rohingyas) lives.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said their goal has to be to come up with a much more comprehensive approach including investment and solutions for people within the camp with increased donor support so that they have more dignity and more self-reliance instead of their reliance on humanitarian aid only.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Right now the communities are wholly reliant on humanitarian support. So our goal is to bring awareness to the situation to drive engagement with a wide range of donors not relying on the same ones, and to encourage them,” Pope, the first woman to hold the post in IOM’s 73-year history, said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said they call upon all of the states who are involved in the peace negotiation process to continue to push for peace.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The IOM DG observed that humanitarian support is being stretched across multiple complex and multiple protracted conflicts and one of the best solutions is to increase their self-reliance.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“So our goal is to work with the host community to work with the host government to build self-reliance, particularly when we\'re in a state of a protracted conflict,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Responding to a question, Pope said it was very clear to her sitting down and listening to the refugees directly about what they had experienced that one of the most significant and growing issues is the security in the camps.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said they heard from women and girls who are fearful at night that they might be sexually assaulted. “We\'ve heard of families who are concerned about the safety of their children, whether they will be recruited by armed gangs or by other criminal actors. We heard from people who were concerned about abductions and very little resources in order to protect them. So this is a very fundamental fear.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Pope said they know from their work around the world that having a safe and secure shelter is absolutely fundamental to enabling people to have more resilience in the face of enormous stress and enormous pressure.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“So between the security and the protection concerns, particularly for children, women and girls, that was overwhelmingly one of the most significant challenges that I took away after my visit,” she mentioned.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Pope said she did have a chance to meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and to speak directly to her about the situation.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“And what I found to be so interesting is that she has lived a story that is not so dissimilar from the refugees that we spoke to. She spoke to me about her own personal experience, where her own family members had been killed and her unique understanding of the challenges and the importance of providing hospitality to the rainbow people,” the DG said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She also said their job with their other partners within the UN community with an international community is to make sure the world stays focused on the issue and recognizes its regional importance.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 14:26:29', '2024-05-08 14:26:29'),
(12286, 12286, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid today said seven reputed international oil companies purchased bid documents to participate in the bidding round for offshore hydrocarbon exploration in Bangladesh.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said this while talking to reporters on the sidelines of the promotional seminar, \"Bangladesh Offshore Bidding Round 2024\", at a city hotel.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The state minister said that the impressive presence of international oil companies at the event proves that they have full confidence in the Bangladesh government.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fifteen other international companies are participating in the seminar with keen interest to invest in the offshore areas, said Nasrul.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nasrul Hamid said that&nbsp; Bangladesh is confident about the success of the offshore bidding round as global oil majors are participating in it.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said that Bangladesh’s energy market is big and it\'s growing fast. That’s why the biggest companies are encouraged to participate in the bidding round, he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said the PSC has been updated in a modern way, protecting both the interests of the country and the investors.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nasrul noted that the bidding round will be concluded by September and the government has a target to award contracts shortly so that the investors can start their work by next year.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also said as per the plan, from exploration to production, the whole process will take 7-8 years in the offshore areas.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nasrul Hamid said the government has been updating the Model PSC for onshore areas as well.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Prime Minister’s Energy Advisor Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury urged&nbsp; international oil companies (IOCs) to invest in the country’s offshore areas for hydrocarbon exploration, terming the Bay of Bengal as “the most peaceful area in the region.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Though there is instability prevailing at different places across the globe, South Asia, particularly the Bay of Bengal remains the most peaceful area. There is no flash-point in this area. If investors think of a long term investment, it will be less risky for them,” he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">As there is a big market here, the investors will have no risk in their business, he told reporters.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also turned down any possible impact of the Myanmar situation in this case regarding their investment.&nbsp; &nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Petrobangla’s general manager (exploration) Farhana Shaon made a presentation on the “Bangladesh Offshore Bidding Round 2024”.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury said the model production sharing contract (PSC) was updated and redesigned with new features that will give more benefit and profit to the IOCs such as R-factor through which both the government and the IOCs will be sharing the profits in a rational manner, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He noted that a multi-client survey was conducted in the offshore areas which will provide data to the investors about prospects and potentials of the gas blocks.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“This basin is much richer compared to others in the world. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s leadership has created a confidence, for which we’re hopeful that this bidding round will be successful, So far we received a huge response,” he said.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We’ve been pursuing a middle way in attracting the investment so that both the investors and the owners can have a win-win situation,” he added.&nbsp; &nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 14:52:40', '2024-05-08 14:52:40'),
(12287, 12287, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Russia warned France on Wednesday that if President Emmanuel Macron sent troops to Ukraine then they would be seen as legitimate targets by the Russian military.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Macron caused controversy in February by saying he could not rule out the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine in the future. The French leader warned that if Russia wins in Ukraine then Europe’s credibility will be reduced to zero.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“It is characteristic that Macron himself explains this rhetoric with the desire to create some kind of ‘strategic uncertainty’ for Russia,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We have to disappoint him — for us the situation looks more than certain,” Zakharova said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“If the French appear in the conflict zone, they will inevitably become targets for the Russian armed forces. It seems to me that Paris already has proof of this.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Zakharova said Russia was already seeing growing numbers of French nationals among those killed in Ukraine.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Russia said on Monday it would practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what the Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States. - Reuters&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 14:56:31', '2024-05-08 14:56:31'),
(12288, 12288, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that prices of essentials have increased, but rural people who produce their own foods are not facing much hardship.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Yes, prices have increased and this affects. Especially those with limited income are suffering. However, there is not much hardship for those in the village who can produce for themselves. There is no outcry from them. Still, our best efforts are on to keep commodity prices under control,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister said this during her question answer hour in Parliament&nbsp; while responding to a question from Dr Samil Uddin Ahmed Shimul elected from Chapainawabganj-1 on Wednesday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said the state-run TCB is providing services to the people with their existing manpower.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“And we are taking measures keeping in mind that common people do not suffer,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She mentioned that the government has taken appropriate steps to produce the required products in the country.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We are also importing. No matter how much money it needs, we are spending and is also putting pressure on our reserves,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sheikh Hasina also said that people\'s welfare is the most important thing for her government.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Staff Correspondent', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 15:23:17', '2024-05-08 15:23:17'),
(12289, 12289, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b>Accountability and transparency are vital for democracy. It necessitates public access to information. However, media laws in Bangladesh have faced criticism for limiting media freedom and intimidating journalists. Outdated colonial-era laws like the Special Powers Act and provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure still influence media operations. There are also provisions that allow direct arrest of journalists despite calls for repeal.</b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act of 2006 allowed journalists to be sued for defamation and hurting religious sentiment, with up to 10 years in prison. Amendments in 2013 increased the maximum term to 14 years and removed the provision for bail. In 2017, around two dozen journalists were sued under Section 57. It doubled the number of cases from the previous year.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2018, the government announced plans to repeal the ICT Act and replace it with the Digital Security Act (DSA) in response to calls for reform. However, the draft law included provisions similar to Section 57. It raised concerns about further restrictions on media freedom and investigative reporting. Since the DSA\'s implementation, at least 50 lawsuits have been filed against media professionals, resulting in the arrest of 37 journalists.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The National Broadcast Policy of 2014 received widespread criticism for its potential misuse and undermining constitutional rights to free media, access to information, and freedom of expression. While promoting accountability, the policy allows for subjective interpretations, potentially hindering public discourse. It restricts broadcasting views deemed harmful to political sentiments, bans reporting on acts of sedition and \"destructive events,\" and limits critical content related to armed forces and law enforcement agencies.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Broadcast Act of 2016 drew criticism for its negative impact on press freedom, including provisions for jail terms and fines for rule violations. International organizations like Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House raised concerns about the act\'s promotion of censorship and self-censorship, limiting freedom of expression and reporting on sensitive issues.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2017, a draft of the National Online Mass Media Policy containing provisions similar to the proposed Broadcast Act was approved. It prompted Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) to express concerns about its potential threat to press freedom. The policy required separate registration of online versions of newspapers and TV channels, which TIB argued was a blueprint for government control over the media.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Printing Press and Publication Act of 1973 granted district magistrates the power to authorize newspaper publication and outlined various responsibilities for newspapers. However, the act has been criticized for its licensing system that restricts the publication of newspapers based on political considerations, limiting press freedom.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The development of media law in this region has been influenced by the growth of newspapers and the need for accountability and regulation during British colonial rule. Laws enacted over time have imposed registration obligations and granted the government authority to regulate seditious writings and classified information disclosure.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The foundation of media freedom in Bangladesh is derived from Article 39 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of thought, conscience, speech, and the press, subject to reasonable restrictions. The Right to Information Act of 2009 recognizes the public\'s right to access government information, promoting transparency and accountability.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Despite these legal provisions, journalists in Bangladesh face significant challenges due to laws used to suppress their voices. The Digital Security Act, in particular, has created a climate of fear among journalists. There is a lack of specific legislation aimed at protecting journalists, and many media outlets lack organizational policies and mechanisms to understand readers\' preferences. Journalists also face challenges such as inadequate training, poor working conditions, and the absence of appointment letters and low salaries.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the Human Rights Support Society (HRSS) report for January-December 2023, journalists in Bangladesh faced suppression and were victims of torture. The report documented 194 incidents, including assaults on 86 journalists, two deaths, and 26 threats. Moreover, 11 journalists were arrested, and 26 cases were filed against 55 journalists. The Cyber Security Act-2023 and the Digital Security Act-2018 significantly impacted freedom of expression, with 58 cases filed and 60 individuals arrested.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">These figures highlight the urgent need for comprehensive reforms to protect journalists\' rights and address human rights issues in Bangladesh. Ensuring journalists\' freedom to work without hindrance and avoiding self-censorship are vital for sustaining the future of journalism and upholding democratic principles in the country.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd24/kh</div>', NULL, 'Niemur Rahman Emon', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-08 18:32:45', '2024-05-08 18:32:45'),
(12290, 12290, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>A training fighter jet of Bangladesh Air Force crashed into the Karnaphuli river in  Chattogram on Thursday (May 09, 2024) morning.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>“A YAK 130 training fighter of the Bangladesh Air Force crashed at Patenga in Chattogram due to mechanical failure. Two pilots of the plane were rescued,” reads a statement released by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).</div><div><br></div><div>The aircraft crashed into Karnaphuli river due to mechanical failure while landing near Boat Club in Patenga, said Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) Port Zone Deputy Commissioner Shakila Sultana, reports UNB</div><div><br></div><div>The injured pilots were taken to the Combined Military Hospital, she said. </div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 07:38:32', '2024-05-09 08:59:31'),
(12291, 12291, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally opened a former Byzantine church in Istanbul as a mosque, four years after his government had designated it a Muslim house of prayer, despite criticism from neighboring Greece.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Turkey formally converted The Church of St. Saviour in Chora, known as Kariye in Turkish, into a mosque in 2020, soon after it similarly turned Istanbul’s landmark Haghia Sophia into a Muslim house of prayer.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Both conversions drew praise from Muslim faithful but criticism from Greece and other countries who had urged Turkey to protect the important Byzantine-era monuments. Both are listed as U.N. World Heritage Sites.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Like Haghia Sophia, which was a church for centuries and then a mosque for centuries more, the Chora had operated as a museum for decades before it was ordered turned into a mosque. The Chora’s formal launch as a mosque, however, was delayed as the structure then underwent restoration.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Erdogan on Monday remotely presided over a ceremony marking the opening of the Chora - as well as other recently-restored structures - from a conference hall at his palace complex in Ankara.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“May it bring good fortune,” Erdogan said during the televised event.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Musa Tombul was among the first worshippers to pray inside.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“I have been waiting for its opening for four years,” he told the state-run Anadolu Agency. “I was honored to pray in such a place.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We thank God for showing us these days,” Anadolu quoted another worshiper, Haydar Senbahar, as saying. “Hopefully, we will come here from time to time and perform our prayers.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The church, situated near Istanbul’s ancient city walls, is famed for its elaborate mosaics and frescoes. It dates to the fourth century, although the edifice took on its current form in the 11th-12th centuries.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The structure served as a mosque during Ottoman rule before being transformed into a museum in 1945.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Greece had criticized the Turkish government’s decision to turn it back into a mosque, accusing Ankara of “insulting the character” of another World Heritage Site.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The decisions to transform Haghia Sophia and the Chora back into mosques were seen as moves geared to consolidate the conservative and religious support base of Erdogan’s ruling party amid an economic downturn.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2020, Erdogan joined hundreds of worshipers for the first Muslim prayers in Hagia Sophia in 86 years, brushing aside international criticism and calls for the monument to be kept as a museum. As many as 350,000 took part in the prayers outside the structure. - AP</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 08:00:10', '2024-05-09 08:00:10'),
(12292, 12292, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>India has expressed interest to finance Bangladesh\'s Teesta project, Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud said today.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"You know we have taken a big project on Teesta. India wants to finance this project. It will have to be implemented in line with our needs. We want to see our needs fulfilled,\" Hasan told reporters after his meeting with Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra on Thursday. </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He made the remarks when asked whether they discussed the Teesta issue. \"We have discussed the Teesta issue,\" the Foreign Minister said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Regarding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina\'s visit to New Delhi, Hasan said the PM will definitely visit India. </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">\"Elections are underway in India. New government will be formed and then the date will be finalised for the visit,\" he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Asked whether the PM will go to India or China first, the Foreign Minister smiled and said Delhi is close to Bangladesh in terms of geographical distance. </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Diplomatic sources indicate that PM Hasina\'s visit to India is planned for early July if not possible at the end of June, after the conclusion of the neighbouring country’s election.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Pre-election surveys suggest a strong showing for the coalition led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is widely anticipated to secure re-election.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In January, Modi extended warm congratulations to PM Hasina on her electoral victory, expressing hopes for the continued strengthening of the historically close ties between India and Bangladesh.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The last bilateral engagement between the two prime ministers occurred during the G-20 Leaders Summit in September 2023, where Bangladesh was a guest country.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Modi is expected to extend invitations to South Asian and BIMSTEC country leaders for his swearing-in ceremony, fostering regional cooperation.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Regarding border killings, the Foreign Minister said there is no lack of willingness at the government and political levels to end border killings. </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"We have discussed the issue in detail. We have laid emphasis on the use of non-lethal weapons,\" Hasan said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said border forces have been instructed and they are using non-lethal weapons following the instructions. </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, the Foreign Minister said that non-lethal weapons work like lethal weapons when used in close proximity. \"They have no lack of sincerity,\" he said. </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hasan said they also discussed people to people connectivity, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said they have discussed cooperation from India to import hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan through India. </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">They also discussed ways to further easing the visa process so that people can move freely, strengthening people to people relations. </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 08:13:02', '2024-05-09 14:13:54'),
(12293, 12293, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">A Dhaka tribunal on Thursday sentenced thee people to life imprisonment in a case filed over killing famous Bangladeshi film actor of the ‘90s Sohel Chowhdhury.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The convicts are, businessman Aziz Mohammad Bhai , Afakul Islam alias Bunty Islam, owner of Trumps Club and Adnana Siddique.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Judge of Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-2 Arunav Chakroborty handed down the judgment. All the convicts are on the run.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The court also acquitted six others as allegations brought against them could not be proved.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On December 19, 1998, actor Sohel was shot dead by some terrorists in front of Trumps Club in Abedin Tower at city’s Banani Road-17.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A murder case was filed in this regard at Gulshan police station by Sohels’ brother Towhidul Islam Chowdhury.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On July 30,1999, Abul Kashem Bepari, Additional police Commissioner of Detective Police, submitted a charge sheet&nbsp; against nine people in this case.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On October 30, 2001, Dhaka’s third additional metropolitan session judge court framed charges against the nine accused.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">After two years of framing charges the case was transferred to Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-2, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The trial in the case remained suspended for 20 years as the High Court stayed the trial proceeding following a petition filed by one of the accused in 2003.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"42\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 08:29:41', '2024-05-09 08:29:41'),
(12294, 12294, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>At least 74 people including 35 farmers were killed by lightning strikes over the last 38 days across the country, said the voluntary organisation Save the Society and Thunderstorm Awareness Forum (SSTF).</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to an SSTF report, 31 people were killed by lightning strikes in the month of April. Of them, 20 were male and 11 female. This month, 43 people were killed by lightning till May 8. Of them, 34 were male and nine were female.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the current month, 11 people died and nine people were injured by lightning strikes in one day alone, said the report of SSTF research cell published on Thursday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Besides, the members of the organisation also highlighted how farmers can keep themselves safe in case of lightning.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Members of the organisation recently visited Manikganj’s Singair, Munshiganj’s Sirajdikhan, Dhaka’s Nawabganj and Keraniganj upazila and conducted lightning awareness activities among farmers working in the field after making groups of 500 farmers each.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rashim Molla, general secretary of SSTF, requested the government to build shelters in the fields to save farmers from lightning strikes.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It also urged the government to conduct a lightning awareness programme for four months from March to June.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The organisation also provided some advice to the farmers. These are:</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">• To take shelter in a safe place as soon as possible after seeing dark clouds in the sky while working.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">• To refrain from taking shelter under trees during rain.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">• To wear shoes while working under the open sky.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">• Lie down while working in the field during lightning strikes</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dr Kabirul Bashar, president of the forum, said they have identified two reasons behind the increase in lightning strikes: increasing impact of global warming and cutting down trees in rural areas of Bangladesh, especially tall trees in the fields.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Without trees, lightning strikes people in the field or in open spaces. Most people believe that it is better to take shelter under trees during storms, but it is wrong, he said, adding, people have to take shelter in houses or establishments, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">The government can take initiatives to set up lightning arresters in the haor region and open areas, he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><i>bnbd/fas</i></b></div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 08:54:52', '2024-05-09 08:54:52'),
(12295, 12295, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>A pilot died and another was injured after a training fighter jet of Bangladesh Air Force crashed into the Karnaphuli river in&nbsp; Chattogram on Thursday.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The pilot, Asim Jawad, passed away around 12:30 pm while undergoing treatment at BNS Issa Khan Hospital in Patenga, said Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) Port Zone Deputy Commissioner Shakila Sultana.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The injured pilot is Wing Commander Sohan.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The two pilots managed to eject from the aircraft&nbsp; through parachutes. They were rescued and taken to hospital.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The BAF aircraft of Zahurul Haq Base crashed near the Boat Club, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“A YAK 130 training fighter of the Bangladesh Air Force crashed at Patenga in Chattogram due to mechanical failure. Two pilots of the plane were rescued,” reads a statement released by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Divers and fire fighters are working to retrieve the aircraft.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Staff Correspondent', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 08:58:31', '2024-05-09 08:58:31'),
(12296, 12296, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Biman Bangladesh Airlines commenced its dedicated Hajj flights this morning, marking the beginning of its annual service to transport pilgrims to and from Saudi Arabia for the holy Hajj.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The inaugural flight, BG3301, departed from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 7 am, carrying 415 pilgrims directly to Jeddah. The event began with a ceremony at 5:30 am, attended by key figures including Md Faridul Haque Khan, Minister of Religious Affairs; Sajjadul Hassan, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Civil Aviation and Tourism; Air Vice Marshal Md Mafidur Rahman, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB); Shafiul Azim, Managing Director and CEO of Biman Bangladesh Airlines; and Md Shahadat Hossain Taslim, President of the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB).</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This year, a record number of 85,257 Bangladeshi pilgrims will journey to Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj, with Biman Bangladesh Airlines handling approximately 50% of these travelers, totaling 42,629 pilgrims. To accommodate this massive undertaking, Biman has scheduled 116 pre-Hajj flights and 125 post-Hajj flights. Furthermore, the airline has expanded its service to include flights from Sylhet and Chattogram, enhancing access and convenience for pilgrims across Bangladesh.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Biman Bangladesh Airlines continues to operate these flights exclusively with its own fleet, underscoring its capability and readiness to manage the logistical demands of Hajj travel. Source: UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 09:36:27', '2024-05-09 09:36:27');
INSERT INTO `news_details` (`id`, `news_id`, `details`, `ticker`, `representative`, `keyword`, `video_link`, `google_drive_link`, `audio_link`, `shoulder`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES
(12297, 12297, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>The Natore district administration on Thursday set May 25 to begin mango harvesting and marketing with the Gopalbhog variety this year.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The harvesting Gopalbhog mango will begin&nbsp; May 25, said deputy commissioner Abu Naser Bhuiya.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The decision for harvesting mango and litchi was taken at a meeting at the DC office.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The harvesting of Ranipasand&nbsp; mango will begin&nbsp; from May 30, Khirsapati from June 5,&nbsp; Laxmanbhog or Lakhna from June 12,Lengra from June 20; Mohonbhog from June 25, Amrapali and Haribhanga from June 25 till August 20, said the DC.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Besides, the date for starting harvesting of Mozaffar variety litchi has been fixed on May 20 while Bombay litchi or China-3 on May 27.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This year, a total of 4,500 hectares of land have been brought under mango while 1,000 hectares under litchi cultivation in Natore. According to UNB reports&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 09:49:32', '2024-05-09 09:49:32'),
(12298, 12298, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">The death toll from tremendous flooding in southern Brazil has reached 100, the local civil defence agency said, as emergency crews continued to search for dozens of missing people.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nearly 400 municipalities have been affected after days of heavy rains swamped the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">The floodwaters injured hundreds of people and forced 160,000 others from their homes as of Wednesday, while the state civil defence authority said 128 people were still missing.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">Brazil’s national centre for natural disasters said the southern part of the state was under “high risk” of more floods throughout the day.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It said rainfall was expected to restart, and although it was not expected to be significant in volume terms, water levels are already high in many places and the soil is saturated.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Many residents have no access to drinking water or electricity – or even the means to call for help with telephone and internet services down in many places.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">State Governor Eduardo Leite warned earlier this week that the human toll was likely to rise as “the emergency is continuing to develop” in the state capital of Porto Alegre and other areas.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Only two of the six water treatment plants in Porto Alegre – home to about 1.4 million people – were functioning, the mayor’s office said on Tuesday, and hospitals and shelters were being supplied by tankers, reports Al Jazeera&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has promised that there would be “no lack of resources” to meet the needs of residents.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We understand the difficult financial situation faced by Rio Grande do Sul,” he said at an event in Brasilia, adding he wanted to make sure the state would get “everything it is entitled to”.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We still don’t know the exact dimension of the floods, that will only be clear to us when the water levels return to normal,” Lula said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 10:26:29', '2024-05-09 10:26:29'),
(12299, 12299, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>The Emperor Qinshihuang\'s Mausoleum Site Museum in northwestern China announced on Wednesday that it will collaborate with its French counterpart on the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and the protection of the Terracotta Warriors.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The collaborative research conducted with France\'s Fondation des Sciences du Patrimoine primarily focuses on the protection of wooden remains and earthen archaeological sites, according to the museum located in northwest China\'s Shaanxi Province.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Specifically, the research on protecting wooden remains will involve joint efforts to preserve and restore the fire-damaged wood from Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Mausoleum of Emperor Qinshihuang. Moreover, joint efforts will be made to conduct studies on their historical significance.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The research will also include wood species identification, preservation status assessment, degradation mechanisms and protection techniques and methods.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the future, the two parties will explore the material properties and historical value of wooden remains and archaeological earth sites of the two UNESCO World Heritage sites together.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Meanwhile, this Sino-French cooperation also touches on developing practical conservation technologies and method systems for cultural relics and jointly cultivating young talents in the field of cultural heritage protection. Source: Xinhua</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 10:45:00', '2024-05-09 10:45:00'),
(12300, 12300, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Talented film producer Masudul Mahmud Ruhan, known for his collaborations with popular director Vicky Zahed, was found hanging in his East Rayerbazar house in the capital. He was 27.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">His hanging body was recovered from a mess house in East Rayerbazar of the capital on Wednesday (May 8).</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The media was informed by a sub-inspector of Hazaribagh police station and the body was recovered from the mess.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ruhan, who was separated from his spouse recently, started living in that East Rayerbazar mess house as he frequently used to travel due to his profession.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">When his roommate came back to the mess around 11 pm Wednesday he found Ruhan’s body hanging from the ceiling fan and informed police.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">For the popular OTT platform Chorki, Ruhan produced the critically acclaimed film “Redram,” directed by Vicky Zahed. Their successful collaboration brought a number of well-received web series, including \"Ararat,\" \"Champa House,\" \"Shuklapakkha,\" \"The Silence,\" and “Punorjonmo,” the duo’s most popular fiction work.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Artistes and colleagues of Ruhan are expressing their heartfelt grief through social media over the death of this young and talented producer, reports UNB&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas&nbsp;</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"13\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 11:11:36', '2024-05-09 11:11:36'),
(12301, 12301, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed attacks on two ships in the Gulf of Aden and one in the Indian Ocean.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The MSC Diego and the MSC Gina were attacked with ballistic missiles and drones in the Gulf of Aden, the Iran-aligned group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Thursday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The attacks on the ships in the Gulf of Aden - identified by the Houthis as the “Israeli” MSC Diego and the MSC Gina - were “accurate”, Saree said, without providing details.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, the United States-led Joint Maritime Information Center said two missile attacks took place on Tuesday, adding that no ship was hit and the crews were safe.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The centre, a coalition of countries responding to Houthi attacks on shipping in the Middle East, said the vessels were “likely targeted due to perceived Israeli affiliation”.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The two vessels were “Panama-flagged container ships” operating for a Geneva-based company, The Associated Press news agency reported.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Houthis claimed to hit a third container ship, the MSC Vittoria, in the Indian Ocean.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Saree warned earlier this month that the group would target ships heading to Israeli ports in “any area we are able to reach” and announced the decision would be implemented “immediately”.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The group has launched repeated drone and missile attacks on vessels in the crucial shipping channels of the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden since November in what it says is a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians and against Israel’s war on Gaza.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This has forced shipping firms to reroute vessels to longer and more expensive journeys around Southern Africa. - Al Jazeera&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 11:59:29', '2024-05-09 11:59:29'),
(12302, 12302, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">At least four people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in the town of Bafliyeh in southern Lebanon earlier today, the Civil Defence authorities have revealed. No details were provided about the nationality of the victims.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A medical source told Anadolu initially that two people had been killed in the attack. There was no Israeli comment on the report.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tension has escalated along Lebanon’s border with Israel amid cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli forces as Tel Aviv presses ahead with its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli offensive has killed more than 34,900 Palestinians since last October, mainly children and women. According to media reports </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 12:03:42', '2024-05-09 12:03:59'),
(12303, 12303, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>At what point, exactly, does the relentlessly unpredictable start to become oddly routine? As ever, this was an absolute nut‑show of a football match inside Real Madrid’s steamy Centre Court‑style megadrome.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Every ex-Stoke, Newcastle and Eintracht Frankfurt journeyman has his day. And this was the day of Joselu, Madrid’s 34‑year‑old own-brand Benzema, who scored with two of his first three touches in the final moments of a Champions League semi-final to turn 1-0 down into 2-1 up and another final for these irresistible power-meringues.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">That will be the tableau, the montage edit, the five‑thousand‑word deep-dive backstory on the Joselu I knew, Deep Joselu from Stuttgart to Madrid to the Potteries and now to London. There will of course be much talk of magic and witchcraft and theatre, the continuing inexplicable voodoo success of the world’s wealthiest football club, who somehow just keep on doing it against the head.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">But for all the eerie background music, the most important part of this game was the cold hard and entirely logical brilliance of Vinícius Júnior, who was the best player on the pitch, and who for 20 minutes at the start of the second half took Joshua Kimmich into the deepest and darkest of places.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">These Champions League semi-finals have offered up a flip chart of coming stars and next-in-lines, the Ballon d’Or curious. Through Bellingham-Kane-Mbappé only Vinícius has produced the best of himself, playing at the Bernabéu not just with focus and energy, but with a startling sense of freedom, even at this level is still able to play in the true sense of the word, to be inventive and spontaneous, to enjoy himself.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Vinícius may end up winning the Ballon d’Or from here, on the back of nights like these. Certainly, it is hard to think of a more incisive and illuminating attacking player this season. By the end here he had five shots, seven dribbles, six crosses, and the scalp of Bayern Munich’s entire right side flapping from his belt.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also produced that sustained spell both of individual brilliance between the 46th and 68th minutes, during which Vinícius basically tortured Kimmich, forcing him at one point to basically fall over and grab the ball, looking for a way to just make it stop. - The Guardian</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Sports Desk', '[\"20\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 12:14:06', '2024-05-09 12:14:06'),
(12304, 12304, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday that his country is focusing on enrolling 26 million out-of-school children to enhance literacy and empower future generations.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"Education emergency has been declared across the country to handle the challenge of 26 million out-of-school children. We will make the country regain its lost space and develop it as one of the most educated societies in the world,\" the prime minister said while addressing a conference on education here.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Highlighting the need for a vision to march in unison to promote education, Sharif said that all the stakeholders including provincial governments, international partners and civil society must work hand in hand and cooperate in this regard.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said that the enrollment of 26 million out-of-school children is one of the major challenges facing Pakistan, which requires special initiatives and huge financial resources, adding that the country has been taking measures to address the issue.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">To provide free high-quality education and boarding for underprivileged children, the premier said a number of government schools have been established across Pakistan.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Besides that, scholarships were offered to hundreds of thousands of deserving students based on merit, he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sharif said that the incumbent government will leave no stone unturned to achieve the goal of highly educated Pakistan. - Xinhua</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 12:29:13', '2024-05-09 12:29:13'),
(12305, 12305, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud has said that the voters did not pay heed to BNP’s call for boycotting the first phase of the upazila parishad polls and the elections were held peacefully with a satisfactory level of voters’ turnout.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“I would say voters’ turnout was very satisfactory,” he told reporters while responding to a question at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Awami League joint general secretary said local government elections are also held in the region including in India, Nepal and Pakistan.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said compared to other elections and compared to the elections in the region, the level of violence was very low in Bangladesh. “Elections were held peacefully.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hasan said on Thursday that BNP boycotted the polls and urged the voters to refrain from voting but the voters did not pay heed to that call.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Even their candidates did not listen and they took part in elections. So, the election was very satisfactory,” he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Staff Correspondent', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 12:37:17', '2024-05-09 12:37:17'),
(12306, 12306, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Petrobangla (Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation) initiated an international tender in March for offshore oil and gas exploration, following the approval of the revamped model production sharing contract (PSC). </b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This marks a resumption of exploration tenders after a prolonged hiatus, with the bidding round set to conclude by September.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A promotional seminar was organized on May 8 at a Dhaka hotel to spotlight this offshore bidding initiative. At the event, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Nasrul Hamid, highlighted the participation of seven renowned international oil companies (IOCs), which have already purchased bid documents. Bangladesh is confident about the success of this offshore bidding round, as it includes participation from global oil majors, Hamid expressed.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Further enhancing prospects, TGS – a leading provider of energy data and intelligence – in partnership with SLB and Petrobangla, has successfully completed a comprehensive 2D multi-client seismic data survey covering over 75,000 square kilometers across all 24 blocks involved in the bid round. This extensive survey, encompassing 12,636-line kilometers, was concluded in April 2023.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">During the seminar, TGS presented findings underscoring that the Bay of Bengal is home to the world’s largest deep marine fan – the Bengal Fan – and remains largely untapped for petroleum exploration. This revelation underscores the vast potential awaiting exploration, as Bangladesh seeks to strengthen its energy security and expand its resource base.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">During an exclusive interview, Paul Young, Senior Business Development Adviser at TGS, told UNB: “TGS is the world’s largest provider of subsurface data that is used to help explore for oil and gas and also used for finding carbon capture areas, etc. It’s a global company listed on the Norwegian stock exchange, with an operational headquarters in Houston, Texas (USA), and offices around the globe.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“A lot of the work that TGS does is working with countries to promote foreign investment in exploration. We basically act as a partner to the government where we will proceed to acquire and record the subsurface data. And then we use that data to market the prospectivity of the offshore area to international oil companies. So international oil companies can license our data to use and to assess areas before deciding whether to invest or not in exploring further.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Paul Young went on to explain: “We’re (TGS) able to provide data to companies, firstly to assess the area so they can do a good bid. Secondly, they can use that data to help fulfill their work program that they promised to the government if they’re awarded a block. It fast-tracks the exploration process,” reports UNB.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“This is very important for the country, because it may save at least two years before they actually start drilling for oil and gas. We have a commercial model to license the data to companies and get a return on the investment that we’ve made for the governments. We use our international marketing and our host-client relationships globally to promote the country,” he elaborated.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking on the significance of TGS’s work, he said, “Not only did we make the decision to invest in seismic here, but we also helped the government get to this point by providing feedback from the international oil companies on the changes that needed to be made to the fiscal terms and conditions. The previous contract was not favorable enough and not competitive enough for international oil and gas companies to come here and invest. We provided feedback to Petrobangla, and they had a proper review done of the terms, using experts in that field, and then released a new contract, which is very attractive and competitive relative to other countries. That was a very important moment to get the oil and gas companies interested to explore here. And we had the data ready as well. So, these two things together have now provided the ingredients for the oil and gas companies.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Reflecting on the response from the IOCs, Paul Young said, “We’ve been working outside of Bangladesh, attracting interest in the US, Europe, and Asia. We’ve already had quite a lot of interaction with the oil and gas companies. Today (May 8) we saw multiple companies from the US, China, Japan, parts of Europe, Malaysia showing their interest by being here and being part of the promotional seminar, and now participating in interaction with the government to be ready to bid on blocks. I think, for the international oil companies that attended (the seminar), they could see that Bangladesh is serious about business.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 13:50:11', '2024-05-09 13:50:29'),
(12307, 12307, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>TikTok will begin labeling content created using artificial intelligence when it\'s uploaded from certain platforms.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">TikTok says its efforts are an attempt to combat misinformation from being spread on its social media platform.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The announcement came on ABC\'s “Good Morning America” on Thursday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Our users and our creators are so excited about AI and what it can do for their creativity and their ability to connect with audiences.” Adam Presser, TikTok’s Head of Operations & Trust and Safety told ABC News. “And at the same time, we want to make sure that people have that ability to understand what fact is and what is fiction.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">TikTok\'s policy in the past has been to encourage users to label content that has been generated or significantly edited by AI. It also requires users to label all AI-generated content where it contains realistic images, audio, and video. - AP</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"18\",\"24\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 14:03:56', '2024-05-09 14:06:44'),
(12308, 12308, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Three people died and 50 others were injured in a clash between two groups of villagers over a trifling matter at Agua village in Baniachong upazila of Habiganj district on Thursday.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The deceased were identified as Zilu Mia, 50, Kader Mia, 32 and Siraj Mia, 25.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Delwar Hossain, officer-in-charge of Baniachong Police Station, said an altercation ensued between Kadir Mia, a CNG autorickshaw driver and Badrul Mia, an employee of an autorickshaw stand, over taking passengers at the autorickshaw stand around 11 am, leading to an altercation.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Later around 2 pm, the supporters of both groups, equipped with lethal weapons attacked each other, leaving two people dead on the spot and 51 others injured, reports unb</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The injured were taken to a local hospital where Zilu Mia succumbed to his injuries. Four of the injured were taken to Sylhet for better treatment.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A number of houses were also vandalised during the melee.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On information, police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 14:11:25', '2024-05-09 14:11:25'),
(12309, 12309, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Smoke rose from strikes on Gaza’s crowded southern city of Rafah today after US president Joe Biden vowed to cut off artillery shells and other weapons supplied to Israel if a full-scale offensive into the city goes ahead.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was the starkest warning yet from Israel’s main military provider over the civilian impact of its war against Hamas Palestinian fighters.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">An AFP correspondent and witnesses today reported strikes on several parts of Rafah, where the United Nations said 1.4 million people were sheltering.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“The tanks and jets are striking,” Tarek Bahlul said earlier on a deserted Rafah street.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Every minute you hear a rocket and you don’t know where it will land.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Israel has already defied international objections by sending in tanks and conducting what it called “targeted raids” in the eastern area of Rafah, the city it says is home to Hamas’s last remaining battalions.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In an interview with CNN yesterday, Biden warned he would stop some US weapons supplies to Israel if it pushed ahead with its long-threatened major Rafah ground offensive.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Israel today called Biden’s comments “very disappointing”.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Biden told CNN that, “If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used, to deal with the cities,” reports AFP&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He added, “We’re not gonna supply the weapons and the artillery shells that have been used.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">When asked about Israel’s action already in Rafah, Biden said “they haven’t gone in the population centres”.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 14:32:32', '2024-05-09 14:32:32'),
(12310, 12310, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed the Finance Division to take an effective step for enlisting the state-owned companies in the country’s share market.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said this while chairing a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) at the NEC conference room in the city’s Sher-e Bangla Nagar area.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Planning Division Senior Secretary Satyajit Karmaker mentioned  the premier’s directives at a press briefing after the meeting on Thursday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Replying to a question, Satyajit said the prime minister did not specify the names of the companies, but asked the Finance Division and the Finance Secretary to select the companies after proper scrutiny before enlisting those in the capital market.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Planning Minister Abdus Salam and State Minister for Planning Shahiduzzaman Sarker also spoke at the briefing.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Abdus Salam described the PM\'s  directive as an important decision saying that this would enhance the competitiveness of those government enterprises as they would be eventually able to minimise their expenditures.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"This will also create an attitude of competition, the government companies could be enlisted in the capital market and thus compete with the private companies,” he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Referring to other directives from the prime minister, Satyajit said the PM asked the authorities concerned to maintain proper height of bridges over the rivers and canals so that the structures won’t hamper the water flow and let water vessels ply smoothly.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">She also expressed surprise over the inclusion of her name in ‘Land acquisition and development and construction of basic infrastructures for establishment of Sheikh Hasina Medical University, Khulna’ project.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister also asked for dropping her name from the scheme, said the planning secretary.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Then participant ministers and secretaries told her that dropping the name will invite new complexity and delay in the project implementation as a law related to the project was already passed in Parliament.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In response, the premier cautioned that she won’t give approval to any proposal in future if her name is attached to any project, reports UNB.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Ecnec approved ten development projects, including Tk 1,875-crore one to establish a medical university in Khulna by December 2026.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The total estimated cost of the ten projects is Tk 5,563.68 crore. Of the amount, the government will finance Tk 5,203.21 crore and the rest Tk 360.47 crore will come from the foreign sources.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The ten projects include eight new schemes and two revised projects.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 14:50:41', '2024-05-09 14:52:51'),
(12311, 12311, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">The US dollar almost disappeared in the unofficial kerb market amid a sharp rise in its price on Thursday, a day after Bangladesh Bank raised the exchange rate by Tk 7 in a single step.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">The central bank introduced a crawling peg system on Wednesday to determine the exchange rate of the US dollar with the taka. By applying the system the regulator&nbsp; increased the exchange rate of a dollar by Tk7 in a single day.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">As a result, the greenback was hard to be found in the kerb market amid reports of hoarding of the currency by traders for profits in the future. Desperate buyers reportedly even paid up to Tk125 for one dollar in the kerb market to meet their travel and treatment expenses abroad.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On Thursday, Munira Ahsan, a private job holder told UNB she tried to buy $5000 from kerb market to meet her father\'s treatment in Thailand. But she found the currency was available only at Tk125 per dollar in the kerb market.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She earlier sought to buy dollars from banks. The banks, she said, asked for multiple documents and had too many questions to sell 5000 dollars. A bank agreed to supply only 500 dollars, after taking 5 types of documents, said Munira.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She then went to the kerb market as she had get the money for her father\'s surgery at a hospital in Thailand.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The rate of the US dollar was around Tk117 in the informal market until May 8, but it shot up suddenly after the announcement of an exchange rate hike from the central bank, said a money changer in Paltan seeking to remain unnamed. According to UNB reports&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"33\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-09 14:59:38', '2024-05-09 14:59:38'),
(12313, 12313, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday hailed the engineers as the driving force for transforming the country into a smart Bangladesh.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“For building smart Bangladesh the main driving force is the engineers of the country,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister was speaking at the 61st convention of Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) at its premises in the city.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She referred to her government\'s goal of building a smart Bangladesh by 2041. This will mean having smart population, smart government, smart economy and smart society.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We will build Bangladesh this way. And for that I will ask the engineers to make plans using their merit and creativity,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She requested the engineers to find ways on how the country would be advanced and which sectors would be given priority for that purpose.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“I want your advice which will be beneficial for us. And I hope that you will give that,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hasina also urged the engineers to discuss strategies by which the country would be developed quickly.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She put emphasis on the engineering sector in their universities and staff colleges.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She mentioned that the government is mechanising the agricultural sector to enhance production.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“If we want to increase our agricultural production three to four folds then we have to mechanise this sector,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said that due to the industrialisation and increase of per capita income sometimes it becomes difficult to find agricultural workers.The cost of production has also increased.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“For that we are introducing mechanisation in the agricultural sector, and as a result the production has been increased,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister requested the engineers to get involved more in research works to utilise their talents for the purpose.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“I want that you would give special attention to this purpose,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Prime Minister also handed over awards including gold medals and certificates to different levels of engineers, centre, sub-centre, engineering division and graduates of AMIE examination.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">An audio-visual presentation on the contribution of the engineers to country\'s development as well protecting its environment alongside the theme song marking the IEB\'s 61st was played at the function.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) chairman of Dhaka Centre Engineer Mohammad Hossain delivered the welcome address.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">IEB President Engineer Md Abdus Sabur and IEB General Secretary SM Monjurul Haque Monju also spoke.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">IEB Dhaka Center General Secretary Engineer Nazrul Islam gave vote of thanks. According to UNB reports </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 08:30:27', '2024-05-11 15:52:34'),
(12314, 12314, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Flash floods from seasonal rains in Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan killed at least 50 people on Friday, a Taliban official said.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The floods also caused losses to homes and property in several districts, according to Edayatullah Hamdard, the provincial director of Natural Disaster Management in Baghlan. He said that the death toll was preliminary and that it \"might rise as many people are missing.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The flash floods also hit the capital, Kabul, said Abdullah Janan Saiq, the Taliban\'s spokesman for the State Ministry for Natural Disaster Management. He said that rescue teams bringing food and other aid have been dispatched to the affected areas.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Saiq said that the rescue operation is the main focus of authorities at the moment, and that he later might be able to provide more precise figures on casualties and damage.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In April, at least 70 people died from heavy rains and flash flooding in the country. About 2,000 homes, three mosques, and four schools were damaged last month. Thousands of people require humanitarian assistance. The flooding also damaged agriculture land and 2,500 animals died in the deluges, according to Saiq. - AP&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas&nbsp;</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 08:34:00', '2024-05-11 08:34:00'),
(12315, 12315, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">The U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin on Friday to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and called on the Security Council to reconsider Palestine\'s request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The world body approved the Arab and Palestinian-sponsored resolution by a vote of 143-9 with 25 abstentions. The United States voted against it, along with Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The vote reflected the wide global support for full membership of Palestine in the United Nations, with many countries expressing outrage at the escalating death toll in Gaza and fears of a major Israeli offensive in Rafah, a southern city where about 1.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It also demonstrated growing support for the Palestinians. A General Assembly resolution on Oct. 27 calling for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza was approved 120-14 with 45 abstentions. That was just weeks after Israel launched its military offensive in response to Hamas\' Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">While Friday’s resolution gives Palestine some new rights and privileges, it reaffirms that it remains a non-member observer state without full U.N. membership and the right to vote in the General Assembly or at any of its conferences. And the United States has made clear that it will block Palestinian membership and statehood until direct negotiations with Israel resolve key issues, including security, boundaries and the future of Jerusalem, and lead to a two-state solution.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood said Friday that for the U.S. to support Palestinian statehood, direct negotiations must guarantee Israel’s security and future as a democratic Jewish state and that Palestinians can live in peace in a state of their own.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The U.S. also vetoed a widely backed council resolution on April 18 that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Under the U.N. Charter, prospective members of the United Nations must be “peace-loving” and the Security Council must recommend their admission to the General Assembly for final approval. Palestine became a U.N. non-member observer state in 2012.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The United States considers Friday’s resolution an attempt to get around the Charter’s provisions, Wood reiterated Thursday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Unlike resolutions in the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the 193-member General Assembly. Friday’s resolution required a two-thirds majority of members voting and got significantly more than the 118 vote minimum.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">U.S. allies supported the resolution, including France, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Australia, Estonia and Norway. But European countries were very divided.&nbsp;<span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">. - AP&nbsp;</span></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 09:04:48', '2024-05-11 09:04:48');
INSERT INTO `news_details` (`id`, `news_id`, `details`, `ticker`, `representative`, `keyword`, `video_link`, `google_drive_link`, `audio_link`, `shoulder`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES
(12316, 12316, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">At least eight people were killed and four others injured in road accidents in Gazipur, Dinajpur, Narsingdi, Chattogram and Sylhet districts on Friday night and Saturday morning.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Among the deceased, two each died in Gazipur, Narshingdi and Dinajpur districtd while one each in Chattogram and Sylhet districts.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In Dinajpur, A tank lorry ploughed into a roadside shop at Kauga intersection in Sadar upazila of Dinajpur district early Saturday, leaving two people dead.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The deceased were identified as Azhar Ali, 60, a security guard of Biswanathpur village and Rana, 25, of Kauga village in the upazila, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Farid Hossain, in-charge of Kotwali Police Station said that the accident occurred around 5:15 am when the tank lorry ploughed into a tea shop, leaving one dead on the spot and another injured.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">bnbd/fas</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 09:21:14', '2024-05-11 09:21:14'),
(12317, 12317, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Flash floods that have ripped through northern Afghanistan left more than 200 people dead in a single province, the United Nations said.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">More than 200 people were killed and thousands of houses were destroyed or damaged in Baghlan province when heavy rains yesterday sparked massive flooding, the UN’s International Organization for Migration told AFP.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In Baghlani Jadid district alone, up to 1,500 homes were damaged or destroyed and “more than 100 people died”, an IOM emergency response lead said, citing figures from the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Taliban government officials said 62 people had died as of last night.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said “hundreds of our fellow citizens have succumbed to these calamitous floods” in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, without differentiating the numbers of dead and injured, though he told AFP dozens had been killed.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Multiple provinces across Afghanistan saw flash flooding, with officials in northern Takhar province reporting 20 dead today, reports AFP&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rains yesterday also caused heavy damage in northeastern Badakhshan province, central Ghor province and western Herat, officials said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 09:51:59', '2024-05-11 09:51:59'),
(12318, 12318, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her desire for inclusive housing development in Bangladesh, emphasizing that not only the wealthy should live in flats but also rickshaw pullers, daily labourers, and ordinary working people.&nbsp;</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She shared these views today while speaking at the 61st convention of the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) held at its premises in Dhaka.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Prime Minister highlighted ongoing government initiatives aimed at providing flats for slum dwellers and low-income groups, including those traditionally marginalized such as sweepers, Harijans, and Dalits.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She mentioned that construction projects had already commenced to enable these communities to live healthy, dignified lives affordably.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Highlighting construction of houses for the landless and homeless under the Ashrayan project, the Prime Minister said that 334 upazilas of 21 districts have been declared free of landless and homeless families.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Not even a single family in Bangladesh will be landless or homeless, that is our goal,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Prime Minister also spoke about leveraging the intellectual power of the people to build the nation and underscored the importance of embracing modern technologies, such as satellites and nuclear power, to avoid being left behind, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“It doesn\'t matter what this or that group says. My concern is whether people of my country are doing well, whether they are improving, whether their fate is changing,” the PM said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 10:13:04', '2024-05-11 10:13:04'),
(12319, 12319, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>The Oscar-winning crew that created the almost $6 billion blockbusters \"Lord of the Rings\" and \"The Hobbit\" trilogies is regrouping to make two new features.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The first new project from Sir Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens is provisionally named \"Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,\" Warner Bros. Discovery revealed on Thursday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Walsh and Boyens have been chosen to write the script, together with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, reports CNN.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Yesssss, Precious,” Serkis, who voices the \"LOTR\" character Gollum, said in a statement. “The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle Earth Peter, Fran and Philippa.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“It is an honour and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that Stinker - Gollum!” Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens issued a joint statement. “As life long fans of Professor Tolkien’s vast mythology, we are proud to be working with Mike De Luca, Pam Abdy and the entire team at Warner Bros. on another epic adventure!”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The movies will be released by Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema, ‍according to UNB reports&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"13\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 10:37:16', '2024-05-11 10:37:16'),
(12320, 12320, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Israeli strikes hit Gaza today after renewed US criticism over its conduct of the war and a UN warning of “epic” disaster if an outright invasion of crowded Rafah city occurs.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>AFP journalists reported the strikes in various sectors of the coastal territory, where the UN says aid is blocked after Israeli troops defied international opposition and entered eastern Rafah this week, effectively shutting two crossings.</div><div><br></div><div>A long-awaited US state department report yesterday said Israel likely violated norms on international law in its use of weapons from the US – its main military supplier – but it did not find enough evidence to block shipments.</div><div><br></div><div>The state department submitted its report two days after President Joe Biden publicly threatened to withhold certain bombs and artillery shells if Israel goes ahead with an all-out assault on Rafah, where the United Nations said 1.4 million had been sheltering.</div><div><br></div><div>After rising criticism from Washington over the civilian impact of Israel’s war against Hamas, the threat was the first time Biden raised the ultimate US leverage over Israel – its military aid which totals US$3 billion annually.</div><div><br></div><div>UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said yesterday that Gaza risked an “epic humanitarian disaster” if Israel launched a full-scale ground operation in Rafah.</div><div><br></div><div>Israeli troops on Tuesday seized and closed the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza – through which all fuel passes into the territory – after ordering residents of eastern Rafah to evacuate. - AFP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 11:27:43', '2024-05-11 11:27:43'),
(12321, 12321, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has inaugurated a weeklong “Waste Exhibition” at its Nagar Bhaban in Gulshan-2. The event, which started today, aims to educate residents about the importance of proper waste disposal and its impact on the city\'s drainage system.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>DNCC Mayor Md Atiqul Islam opened the exhibition, emphasizing the critical nature of disposing of waste responsibly to prevent blockages in the city\'s drainage channels, which can cause severe waterlogging following rain.</div><div><br></div><div>The exhibition is part of a broader initiative to illustrate the types of waste that contribute to environmental pollution when dumped in drains and canals.</div><div><br></div><div>The DNCC mayor highlighted the unfavourable comparisons between Dhaka and cities in developed countries, where such practices are less common. He noted that improper waste disposal not only leads to pollution and waterlogging but also contributes to the breeding of Aedes mosquitoes, increasing the risk of dengue fever outbreaks.</div><div><br></div><div>\"It is our moral responsibility to protect our canals and reservoirs,\" Mayor Atiqul stated, describing the act of polluting the environment through improper waste disposal as a “crime”.</div><div><br></div><div>In response to questions about the city\'s readiness for the monsoon season, Mayor Atiqul revealed that DNCC has formed ten quick-response teams across different areas to address waterlogging issues promptly. He encouraged residents to report any instances of water accumulation by calling the dedicated helpline at 1606, assuring that the teams would respond swiftly to complaints, reports UNB</div><div><br></div><div>The exhibition opening was attended by DNCC Chief Executive Officer Mir Khairul Alam, Secretary Mohammed Masud Alam Siddique, Chief Engineer Brig Gen Md Moin Uddin, Chief Health Officer Brig Gen Imrul Quais, Chief Waste Management Officer Captain Mohammad Fida Hasan, various ward councillors, and other city corporation officials and employees.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"39\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 11:31:31', '2024-05-11 11:31:31'),
(12322, 12322, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Russia on Saturday said it had captured six villages in Ukraine’s east after launching a surprise ground offensive that prompted mass evacuations.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The defense ministry said its troops had “liberated” five villages in the Kharkiv region near the border with Russia Borisivka, Ogirtseve, Pletenivka, Pylna and Strilecha&nbsp; “as a result of offensive actions.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The village of Keramik in the Donetsk region was also now under Russian control, it said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ukrainian officials said Russian forces made small advances in the area it was pushed back from nearly two years ago, the latest in a series of gains as Ukrainian forces find themselves outgunned and outmanned.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“A total of 1,775 people have been evacuated,” Kharkiv governor Oleg Synegubov wrote on social media.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He reported Russian artillery and mortar attacks on 30 settlements over the past 24 hours.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Groups of people could be seen coming in vans and cars with as many bags as they could carry at an evacuation arrival point outside the city of Kharkiv.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Evacuees&nbsp; many of them elderly&nbsp; registered and received food and medical assistance in makeshift tents.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We must disrupt Russian offensive operations and return the initiative to Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ukrainska Pravda quoted military sources saying the Russian assault had resumed on Saturday near the village of Glyboke in Kharkiv, reports AFP&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 12:00:02', '2024-05-11 12:00:02'),
(12323, 12323, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Ireland’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, claims to have cried&nbsp; after Israel qualified for the final to be held on Saturday.&nbsp;</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“It is a complete overshadow of everything, goes against everything that Eurovision is meant to be,” Bambie Thug told journalists ahead of the event at Malmo Arena in Sweden. “I cried with my team.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The 31-year-old singer and songwriter wore a keffiyeh and carried Irish flags while urging the European Broadcasting Union to show “conscience” and “humanity.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The artist will perform “Doomsday Blue” in the final.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Israel’s performer, Eden Golan, will present her song “Hurricane” at the competition. The track underwent revisions after the initial version, “October Rain,” was deemed too political by the EBU.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Although the contest’s motto is “united by music,” this year’s event has attracted protests from Palestinians and their supporters, who say Israel should be excluded because of its conduct of the war in Gaza.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Thousands of people are expected to march for a second time this week through Sweden’s third-largest city, which has a large Muslim population, to demand a boycott of Israel and a ceasefire in the seven-month conflict.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In Finland, a group of about 40 protesters stormed the headquarters of public broadcaster YLE on Saturday, demanding it withdraw from the song contest because of Israel’s participation.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Venues across England are canceling their gigs after Palestine protest groups instructed their followers to pressure pubs showing the contest - leading some venues to close due to staff safety concerns.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Duke of York cinema in Brighton called off its Eurovision event this week, telling ticket holders it was doing so “due to safety concerns for our staff and customers,” the Guardian reported. The Brighton Palestinian Solidarity Campaign called the decision a “massive win.” - Arab News&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 12:20:58', '2024-05-11 12:20:58'),
(12324, 12324, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>A rare and powerful geomagnetic storm hitting Earth this weekend could spark power outages across the world, according to scientists.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) upgraded its original G4 geomagnetic storm watch to a G5 -- the most powerful storm of its kind on a scale from G1 to G5. The unusual atmospheric event began late Friday and is expected to last throughout the weekend.</div><div><br></div><div>NOAA officials said the agency has not issued an alert of this magnitude in more than two decades, with the last G5 storm hitting Earth in October 2003.</div><div><br></div><div>Scientists said the powerful geomagnetic storm could knock out power and electronics across the globe. They noted that the storm that hit Earth in 2003 caused power outages in Sweden and damaged transformers in South Africa.</div><div><br></div><div>\"Geomagnetic storms can impact infrastructure in near-Earth orbit and on Earth\'s surface, potentially disrupting communications, the electric power grid, navigation, radio and satellite operations,\" NOAA said in a statement.</div><div><br></div><div>The anomalous event could, however, give residents living in the US the rare opportunity to see the aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights.</div><div><br></div><div>Those as far south as Alabama and Northern California might get a chance to see the spectacular light show.</div><div><br></div><div>Scientists explained that the northern lights are caused by disturbances in the magnetosphere that shoot solar flares and clouds of magnetic particles generated by the sun into space. The massive and powerful electromagnetic storms light up the sky with a magnificent burst of color.</div><div><br></div><div>In preparation for the G5 electromagnetic storm, NOAA has alerted power plant operators and spacecraft agencies around the world to take precautions.</div><div><br></div><div>They said the event could cause widespread voltage control problems, disrupt spacecraft operations and degrade satellite and radio navigation to systems worldwide. - Anadolu Agency&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 12:35:32', '2024-05-11 12:35:32'),
(12325, 12325, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Students from the University of Oxford continued an encampment Friday for a fifth day in solidarity with the Gaza Strip to demand full divestment from Israel and a boycott of Israel-linked companies.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Students have attended the encampment with dozens of tents outside the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford where people from different backgrounds are welcomed.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">They continued protesting in an atmosphere of solidarity at the area where congressional Friday prayers were performed with the attendance of many.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Along with a prayer room, the encampment also includes a medical tent, snack area and meeting points, with many Palestinian flags and signs. One read: “Generation after generation, until total liberation.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">There is also a media room named after female Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli attacks and a memorial library, named after Refaat Alareer, a prominent Palestinian professor, poet and writer, who was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in December.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s recent statement that urged university administrators to protect Jewish students from “harassment” and “anti-semitic abuse” at campuses, Jewish students are among attendees at the Oxford protest. According to media reports</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 13:19:36', '2024-05-11 13:19:36'),
(12326, 12326, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>India’s opposition said the nation’s election commission was allowing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to continue “unchecked and brazen” violations by not taking action on opposition complaints of religious hate speech and misrepresentation.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">More than halfway through India’s six-week national elections, the world’s biggest, the Congress party-led opposition complained in a letter to the Election Commission of India on Friday that “no meaningful action has been taken to penalize those who are guilty in the ruling regime”.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This was a “complete abdication” of the commission’s duty, it said. “As a result there has been an unchecked and brazen continuation of these violations, which are now committed with impunity and utter disregard.” The watchdog is responsible for ensuring political parties do not violate election rules against promoting division along religious, caste or linguistic lines in the multiethnic South Asian nation. Source: Reuters</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 13:30:35', '2024-05-11 13:30:35'),
(12327, 12327, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>The results of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations-2024 will be published across the country tomorrow.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The statistics of the results will be handed over to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Ganabhaban around 10am.</div><div><br></div><div>The results will be published at the respective educational institutions and online simultaneously around 11am.</div><div><br></div><div>Students can avail their results through SMS after the official announcement.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>They can also get their results by visiting the website www.educationboardresults.gov.bd.</div><div><br></div><div>Around 20, 24,192 students of 29,735 educational institutions appeared at the SSC and equivalent examinations at 3,700 centers.</div><div><br></div><div>Starting on February 15 last, the exams concluded on March 12.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"34\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 14:07:04', '2024-05-11 14:07:04'),
(12328, 12328, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>No fresh death due to dengue was reported in Bangladesh in the past 24 hours till Saturday morning, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>However, 17 patients were hospitalised with viral fever during this period, according to the DGHS.</div><div><br></div><div>Of them, nine were admitted at the hospitals in Dhaka city, while the rest were outside the capital.</div><div><br></div><div>Currently, a total of 127 patients are receiving treatment at hospitals across the country.</div><div><br></div><div>So far, 2,414 dengue cases have been reported since January 1, 2024, said DGHS.</div><div><br></div><div>Last year, a total of 1,705 people lost their lives due to dengue, making it the deadliest year on record.</div><div><br></div><div>The DGHS recorded 321,179 dengue cases and 3, 18,749 recoveries last year.</div><div><br></div><div>Last year’s September was the deadliest month for the dengue outbreak, with 396 fatalities and 79,598 cases, according to DGHS data.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Health Desk', '[\"6\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 14:09:42', '2024-05-11 14:09:42'),
(12329, 12329, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>A visiting Iranian scholar has highly appreciated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s bold position against the genocide in Gaza and for standing beside the people of Palestine, noting that Muslim countries should have a united voice against Israeli atrocities.&nbsp;</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“She (PM Hasina) condemned Israel for the genocide… Alhamdulillah, we also see in Bangladesh many universities and many scholars participate in the protests. So, it shows a very bright future for us,” Iranian scholar Prof Dr Sayed Mahdi Mousavi told UNB before a discussion in a city hotel on Saturday evening.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Prof Mousavi, Chairman of the University of Religions and Denominations of Iran, said he believes that all Muslims and all the nations will be united against the genocide and crimes committed by Israel.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Highlighting the importance of the Muslim Ummah, he said it is very strange that some Muslim countries are not doing anything against this genocide in Palestine.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The UN General Assembly voted by a wide margin on Friday to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and called on the Security Council to reconsider Palestine’s request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The world body approved the Arab and Palestine-sponsored resolution by a vote of 143-9 with 25 abstentions. The United States voted against it, along with Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The vote reflected the wide global support for full membership of Palestine in the United Nations, with many countries expressing outrage at the escalating death toll in Gaza and fears of a major Israeli offensive in Rafah, a southern city where about 1.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge. It also demonstrated growing support for the Palestinians, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the other hand, Talking about Bangladesh economy, the Iranian scholar said they saw a rapid development in the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 15:16:48', '2024-05-11 15:16:48'),
(12330, 12330, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Rescuers and onlookers cheered and applauded today as a survivor was rescued after 116 hours from underneath the rubble of a collapsed building in South Africa, with the tragedy having killed at least 13.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“It is a miracle that we have all been hoping for”, provincial premier Alan Winde said on X.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">An apartment block under construction in the southern city of George crumbled Monday afternoon while a crew of 81 were on site.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“When we went down to the side of the slab we had uncovered, we heard somebody inside and we stopped all the heavy operations,” Colin Deiner, head of rescue operations, told reporters.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rescuers then called out to the survivor and he spoke back, Deiner said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“He indicated to us that he’s got weight on his legs, and we’re very concerned about that after such a long period of time.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">After several hours, the survivor was extricated and rushed to a hospital.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rescue teams have been working against time ever since the structure came crashing down.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Twenty-nine people have been rescued alive while thirty-nine remained unaccounted for.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Winde said a “difficult” identification process was underway and that police were using fingerprints, DNA testing and photographs.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Construction plans for a 42-unit apartment block had been approved by the city in July. The reasons for the collapse are still unknown. - AFP&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 15:20:56', '2024-05-11 15:20:56'),
(12331, 12331, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that the country is being governed by an invisible force instead of the Awami League.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fakhrul said this while speaking a rally held in front of the party’s Nayapaltan central office in Dhaka on Saturday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">He said, “It seems that it is not Awami League but an invisible evil force is governing the country.”&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal, the youth front of BNP, organised the rally pressing home their demand for an unconditional release of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and her advanced treatment abroad.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the other hand, Fakhrul said the government is pushing Khaleda Zia to the verge of death depriving her of advanced treatment.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Staff Correspondent', '[\"1\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 15:39:11', '2024-05-11 15:39:11'),
(12332, 12332, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Mothers are often described as the pillars of our families, providing unwavering love and support throughout our lives. As Mother\'s Day 2024 approaches on May 12, it presents a wonderful opportunity to show our appreciation for their dedication and sacrifice. </b></span></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><br></span></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">While traditional gifts like flowers and chocolates are always welcome, why not make this year\'s celebration extraordinary with thoughtful gestures and creative experiences? Here are some innovative ideas to make Mother’s Day truly memorable.</span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Embrace the Power of Personalization</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The true essence of a meaningful gift lies in its personal touch. Whether it’s a custom-made piece of jewelry, a service that eases her daily routine, or spending quality time together, these gifts are profoundly impactful. They serve as reminders of appreciation, showing that the best presents are those that cannot be valued in simple monetary terms.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ways to Surprise Your Mother on This Mother’s Day</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">Breakfast in Bed</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">You can show your love this Mother\'s Day by preparing her favourite paratha, beef, or vegetables, and serving it to her in bed. You can pair it with a cup of her preferred drinks, along with a fresh flower, for a simple yet heartfelt gesture that she will truly appreciate.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Spa Day at Home</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Try to pamper your mother with a relaxing spa day at home. You can also create a relaxing atmosphere by lighting scented candles and playing calming music.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Cook Her Favourite Meal</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It would be sweet to treat your mother to a delightful home-cooked meal this Mother\'s Day. Prepare her favourite dish or explore a new recipe together for a fun culinary adventure. You can elevate the experience by setting the table with beautiful flowers and candles, adding a special touch to the occasion that she will cherish.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Take Her Out for Dinner</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Celebrate Mother\'s Day with a memorable dinner at her favourite restaurant. You should indulge in delectable cuisine while relishing quality time together, and creating cherished memories. Let her savour the flavours she loves in a charming ambience, making this dining experience a delightful expression of appreciation for all she does.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Give Her a Chore Free Day</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This Mother\'s Day, it would be nice to gift your mother a chore-free day, allowing her to unwind and relax without the burden of household tasks. Let her enjoy a well-deserved break, pampering her with love and attention. It is a simple yet meaningful way to show appreciation for all the love she gives us every day.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Give Your Mother Fresh Flowers</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you are pondering what to get your mother this Mother\'s Day, surprising her with her beloved blooms can be a perfect beginning. Consider her favourite flowers and colours for a personalised touch. You may also opt for classic choices like roses, sunflowers, or tuberoses if unsure. It is a thoughtful gesture she will adore.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Make Her a Photo Album</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">One can create a timeless treasure by crafting a custom photo album brimming with captured moments that hold special significance. Enhance it with handwritten notes, captions, and keepsakes for an added personal touch she will cherish eternally. You can also utilise user-friendly platforms such as Canva to design exquisite albums tailored to her liking.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Write Her a Letter</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It would be thoughtful to devote a moment to write your mother a heartfelt letter, expressing profound love and gratitude. Pour your heart out, detailing all the reasons she has cherished and the depth of her significance in your life. Share cherished memories and affirmations. It is a gesture she will treasure, reaffirming your bond most touchingly.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Go Exploring</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It would be great to surprise your mother with a day exploring a locale she has longed to visit. Treat her to a day out at the nearby museum, park, or historic sites she has been eyeing. It is the perfect opportunity to create cherished memories while fulfilling her wanderlust dreams. Embrace the joy of discovery together on this special occasion.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Outdoor Adventure Day</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Embark on an outdoor adventure this Mother\'s Day, venturing to Cox\'s Bazar, Bandarban, or Sylhet for a rejuvenating escape in nature\'s embrace. Plan a family-friendly tour to infuse excitement and camaraderie into the journey. Explore the beauty of Bangladesh together and create cherished memories along the way.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Plant a Tree Together</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bonding with your mother by planting a tree would be wonderful. It will foster exercise, outdoor enjoyment, and beauty. Whether flowers, vegetables, or herbs, it is a fulfilling endeavour that cultivates both nature and your relationship. Embrace the therapeutic joy of nurturing life together, creating a vibrant oasis of colour and flavour to cherish.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Give Her the Gift of Time</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The most precious gift for mother is your undivided attention. Devote the day to her desires, whether it is a stroll or a cosy chat over coffee. It is these moments of shared joy and connection that truly make Mother\'s Day memorable and meaningful.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tell Her You are Thankful</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">We hardly express gratitude to mothers. Expressing your heartfelt sentiments ahead of Mother’s Day can be as impactful as any gift or gesture. While actions speak volumes, verbalising what she means to you brings profound joy. Take a moment to share your appreciation—it is a simple yet powerful way to make her feel cherished and loved.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Closing Lines</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This Mother\'s Day, go beyond the ordinary and surprise her with gifts that reflect her unique personality and passions and speak to her heart. From personalised photo books to heartfelt letters, these ideas are sure to make her feel loved and cherished on her special day. It is necessary to remember that it is the thought and effort behind the gift that truly matters, so put your heart into creating a memorable experience that celebrates the extraordinary woman she is. Source: UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', '<p><b><font color=\"#3984c6\">Mother\'s Day </font></b><br></p>', 'Staff Correspondent', '[\"24\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-11 15:49:15', '2024-05-11 16:04:43'),
(12333, 12333, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday asked the authorities concerned to find out the reasons as to why boys are declining in number and lagging behind girls in their academic results.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">“We’ve to find out the reasons as to why the boys are fewer in numbers,” she said while publishing the results of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations- 2024 on Sunday morning.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The premier unveiled the results online through pressing a button at a ceremony at her official residence Ganabhaban. Earlier, Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury handed over the results summary and statistics to the premier.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">She said the total number of candidates is 20,38,150 under 11 education boards this year. Among them, the number of boys is 9,99,364, while that of girls is 10,38,786.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The PM said it needs to take initiative now for unearthing the causes that boys are declining in number.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“In case of the pass percentage, the girls are ahead of boys. It is fine. Even then I would like to say that we’ve to pay attention to it,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hasina said her government distributes free textbooks in time, provides stipends and scholarships till the higher education and transformed the country into Digital Bangladesh, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister also asked Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and education boards to look into the matter and find the reason as to why the number of students is reducing. “The number of boys is not supposed to go down. It should be equal (to that of girls),” she added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">PM Hasina asked all to find the reasons why children are getting engaged in teenage gang and bring them back to a healthy environment.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“In the recent times, we hear about teen gangs. It\'s not acceptable. Why boys and girls would go this way?,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The children in their teens should pursue study and join other positive activities, said the prime minister.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“But we’ve to find out why they go this way. We’ll have to prevent them from it and bring them back to a healthy atmosphere,” she added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">bnbd/fas</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 07:31:04', '2024-05-12 07:31:04'),
(12334, 12334, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>As the deadline to apply for Hajj visas concluded last night, uncertainty looms for over 11,000 pilgrims from Bangladesh who have yet to secure their visas. This situation makes their participation uncertain in this year’s Hajj, scheduled for June 16, contingent on moon sighting.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">As of today, the latest figures revealed that 72,138 individuals had successfully obtained their Saudi visas, with an additional 259 currently in the visa printing process. However, this leaves precisely 11,167 applicants in limbo, with their chances of attending the Hajj in jeopardy unless the Saudi government grants another extension.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In response to the crisis, Faridul Haq Khan, Minister of Religious Affairs, has formally requested a third extension from the Saudi authorities to accommodate the backlog. Echoing this sentiment, Md A Hamid Zamadder, Secretary to the ministry, expressed optimism last night, telling UNB, “We remain in constant communication with our counterparts in the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah. We are hopeful for an extension in the visa application period.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Zamadder also noted that other countries, including India and Indonesia, are facing similar issues, which might influence Saudi Arabia to extend the visa deadline.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Despite the government’s efforts, issues with local Hajj agencies have compounded the problem. These agencies have reportedly failed to secure accommodations in Saudi Arabia, a prerequisite for visa approval, leading to last-minute scrambles and heightened uncertainty. The agencies are now racing against time, trying to secure housing at lower rates, which has delayed visa processing.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">As of now, 11,017 Bangladeshi pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia, with a total of 85,257 expected to perform Hajj under both government and private management.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The first batch of pilgrims departed on May 9, with flights scheduled to continue until June 10. Upon completion of Hajj, return flights are slated from June 20 through July 22.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 07:46:30', '2024-05-12 07:46:30'),
(12335, 12335, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">The results of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations-2024 under 11 education boards were published today with 83.04 percent pass rate, a 2.65 percent rise than the last year.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"A total of 20, 13,597 examinees appeared in the SSC and equivalent examinations this year. Of them, 16, 72,153 students passed the examinations,\" Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury announced the results at a press briefing at the secretariat here.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A total of 1,82,129 students got the highest Grade Point Average (GPA-5) in the examinations, he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"34\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 07:48:57', '2024-05-12 07:48:57');
INSERT INTO `news_details` (`id`, `news_id`, `details`, `ticker`, `representative`, `keyword`, `video_link`, `google_drive_link`, `audio_link`, `shoulder`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES
(12336, 12336, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely to occur at many places over seven divisions and at a few places over Chattogram division.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"Rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely to occur at many places over Rangpur, Rajshahi, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Khulna, Barishal and Sylhet divisions and at a few places over Chattogram division with hails at isolated places\", according to a met office forecast for the next 24 hours begins from 9am today.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Trough of westerly low lies over West Bengal to North-West Bay.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Country\'s maximum temperature was recorded 34.7 degree Celsius at Rajshahi and minimum temperature today was recorded 21.2 degree Celsius at Srimangal.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Maximum rainfall for the last twenty-four hours till 6am today was recorded</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">87 millimeters(mm) at Dhaka.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Day and night temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The sun sets today at 06:33 pm and rises tomorrow at 05:17 am in the capital.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"4\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 08:08:23', '2024-05-12 08:08:23'),
(12337, 12337, '<div><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">A bus slammed into cars and motorbikes after its brakes apparently malfunctioned in Indonesia’s West Java province, killing at least 11 people, mostly students, and injuring dozens of others, officials said Sunday.</span><br></b></div><div><br></div><div>The bus carrying 61 students and teachers was returning to a high school in Depok outside Jakarta, the capital, late Saturday from the hilly resort area of Bandung after a graduation celebration, said West Java police spokesperson Jules Abraham Abast.</div><div><br></div><div>It sped out of control on a downhill road and crossed lanes, hitting several cars and motorbikes before it crashed into an electricity pole, he said.</div><div><br></div><div>Nine people died at the scene and two others died later in the hospital, including a teacher and a local motorist, Abast said. Fifty-three other people were hospitalized with injuries, including some in critical condition, he said.</div><div><br></div><div>“We are still investigating the cause of the accident, but a preliminary investigation showed the bus\'s brakes malfunctioned,” Abast said.</div><div><br></div><div>Local television footage showed the mangled bus in the darkness on its side, surrounded by rescuers, police and passersby as ambulances evacuated the injured.</div><div><br></div><div>Road accidents are common in Indonesia due to poor safety standards and infrastructure.</div><div><br></div><div>Last year, a tourist bus with an apparently drowsy driver slammed into a billboard on a highway in East Java, killing at least 14 people and injuring 19 others. In 2021, a tourist bus plunged into a ravine in the West Java hilly resort of Puncak after its brakes apparently malfunctioned, killing at least 27 people and injuring 39 others. - AP</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div><div><br></div><div>&nbsp;</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 08:12:28', '2024-05-12 08:12:28'),
(12338, 12338, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said her government is bringing changes to the curriculum and the method of education mainly to cut dependency on learning through memorisation to flourish talents and creativity of the students.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"We want our children not only to learn by heart rather they get scope to flourish talents and creativity as they can move ahead with their merits. So, changes are being made in the curriculum and education method,\" she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The premier made the remarks while unveiling the results of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations-2024, digitally by clicking a button at her official Ganabhaban residence here.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said her government has introduced pre-primary education to teach the children through play.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"There is a way to educate the children through toys and we are creating that scope,\" she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">One child can easily learn the name of seven continents through jumping one to another continent on a world map, she opined.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"We have to do such many things as the children can learn through playing. If we do so, they don\'t have need book-learning,\" she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In doing so, the premier said her government is giving necessary training to the teachers and increasing their salaries and other benefits.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said her government has attached topmost priority on education as they can know that no nation can develop without education.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"Our target is to eradicate poverty. Poverty alleviation is not possible without an educated nation. So, we consider expenses in education as investment,\" she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister said her government wants to prepare an appropriate education system to cope with the competitive world.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She said her government is prioritising science, technology, information and vocational education alongside the regular education.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"Our children will not only do BA and MA, but also will be educated in science, technology, information technology and vocational literacy to make them prepared completely,\" she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sheikh Hasina released the results after receiving the combined result statistics of the SSC and equivalent examinations from Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The chairmen of 10 education boards - nine general, one madrasa-- and director general of technical education board also handed over the result statistics of their respective boards to the premier.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The results were published at the respective educational institutions and online simultaneously around 11am.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Students can avail their results through SMS after the official announcement.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">They can also get their results by visiting the website www.educationboardresults.gov.bd.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Around 20, 24,192 students of 29,735 educational institutions appeared in the SSC and equivalent examinations at 3,700 centres.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Starting on February 15 last, the exams concluded on March 12.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Referring to increased number of female students both in pass and participation rate in the SSC exams, Sheikh Hasina asked all concerned to find out the reason that why the number of male students decreases.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"We have to explore the reason that why male students are less and why the number of students is decreasing,\" she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Even in the passing rate, the female students outnumbered the male which appears to be good, she added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"We have to look into the matter,\" she said, asking the boards\' chairmen to look for the cause after returning to their respective work places.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sheikh Hasina said they have taken several measures including setting up 12 science and technology universities to increase the rate of technical education.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">As a result, the technical education rate has risen to 22 percent which was only 7 percent in 1996 when the Awami League government assumed power for the first time, she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"We have a target to increase technical education rate to 30 percent by 2030 and 41 percent by 2041,\" she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She continued that her government is establishing a technical training school in every upazila to spread the technical education.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister expressed her hope that the children will work for the welfare of the country and its people and will be smart citizens of Bangladesh after being educated.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She congratulated the students who passed the SSC and equivalent exams and asked those who could not pass this time to read attentively to become succeeded next time, reports BSS</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"Don\'t be disheartened. Take preparation properly for the next time,\" she added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The premier also asked the guardians not to rebuke them (who didn\'t pass the examination) as they can take any step after being frustrated.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rather, encourage them to pay more attention to education for the next exams, she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury, PM\'s Education Adviser Dr. Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury and State Minister for Education Begum Shamsun Naher spoke on the occasion.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 09:00:27', '2024-05-12 09:00:27'),
(12339, 12339, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>After two narrow victories, Bangladesh faltered in the final match of the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe, suffering an eight-wicket defeat in Mirpur today.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hosts’ narrow wins in the previous two matches of the series hinted at underlying vulnerabilities in their performance. An inevitable defeat finally materialised in the final match, which was also their last home game before the upcoming ICC Men\'s T20 World Cup.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Instead of boosting the confidence of Bangladesh, this big win by 4-1 left many things to ponder for Bangladesh.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Batting first after losing the toss, Bangladesh struggled to establish a solid foundation in this first-ever morning T20I match on home soil. The decision to play in the morning was inspired by the upcoming World Cup, where Bangladesh will have to play several day matches.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Losing three wickets for just 15 runs, Bangladesh was on the brink of collapse.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mahmudullah Riyad then paired up for a crucial 69-run partnership, rescuing the innings and guiding the total to a respectable 157.&nbsp; Mahmudullah top-scored with a 44-ball 54, while Shanto contributed 36 runs off 28 balls. Shakib Al Hasan and Jaker Ali added useful contributions of 21 and 24 runs respectively.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Blessing Muzarabani and Brian Bennett were the pick of the Zimbabwean bowlers, each claiming two wickets.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Sports Desk', '[\"20\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 09:14:13', '2024-05-12 09:14:13'),
(12340, 12340, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Greece\'s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be received Monday in Ankara by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the latest sign of warming relations between the NATO neighbours.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">After decades of tensions, occasionally broken by brief periods of reconciliation, the day-long visit follows a trip by Erdogan to Greece in December and marks a new phase in their relations, diplomats said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In December, the regional rivals -- who are divided over the island of Cyprus and issue of migration through their respective waters -- signed a declaration calling for \"friendly and good neighbourly relations, recognising the importance of a mutual respect and peaceful coexistence\".</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">But this appeasement, helped also by solidarity after an earthquake killed more than 50,000 in southeastern Turkey in February 2023, has been undermined by Turkey converting another former Byzantine church into a mosque.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">After four years of restoration, the former Kariye Orthodox church in Istanbul re-opened as a mosque on May 6.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The 2020 decision to convert the church came after Muslim services resumed at the 6th century former Byzantine cathedral of Hagia Sophia. The landmark building had been a museum since 1935.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The changes were seen as part of Erdogan\'s efforts to galvanise his more conservative and nationalist supporters.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"There\'s no shortage of mosques in the city. That is no way to treat cultural patrimony,\" Mitsotakis said a week ago, although he has also said that \"channels of conversation must remain open.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mitsotakis told Greek television station Alpha TV on Saturday that he will use Monday\'s talks to push Erdogan to \"reverse\" Kariye\'s conversion. Source: AFP</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 09:47:17', '2024-05-12 09:47:17'),
(12341, 12341, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday urged Italian businesses to make investment in Bangladesh\'s special economic zones for the mutual benefits of the two countries.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Businesses and investors can invest in Bangladesh in the special economic zones,” she said while Italian Ambassador Antonio Alessandro called on her at her official residence Ganabhaban.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">PM’s speech writer M Nazrul Islam briefed the reporters after the call on.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He quoted the PM as saying&nbsp; that Bangladesh has a huge domestic market apart from South Asian and South East Asian markets.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Bangladesh can be the big central market encircling South Asian and South East Asian markets,” she said.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister said that after 2026 Bangladesh will graduate to a developing country.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In this connection, she urged Italy to help in continuing the GSP plus facilities to&nbsp; Bangladeshi exports in the European countries.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She also emphasised on increasing trade between the two countries.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“There is ample scopes to increase trade and commerce between the two countries,” she said.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She requested to explore and utilise those opportunities.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Regarding the illegal migrants in the European countries including Italy, the prime minister said that the government is taking all out initiatives so that no one illegally enters to any country abroad.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“It is very much regretful that many people including Bangladeshis died in the Mediterranean sea while trying to go to the European countries,” she observed.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“For that we are taking legal steps as well as creating awareness among the people,” she said briefly elaborating various measurers of the government.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She requested Italy to take more Bangladeshi manpower through legal process.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The PM extended an invitation to Italian prime minister to visit Bangladesh at his convenience .</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Italian ambassador said that his country wants to assist Bangladesh in technology transfer and defence purchase, and modernisation in various sectors.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also expressed his country’s keen interest to provide the second satellite to Bangladesh.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He put emphasis on trade diversification to tape the trade and commerce opportunities between the two countries.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Talking about the Rohingya issue both agreed on the dignified repatriation of the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals to their homeland.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Currently, more than one million Myanmar nationals, Rohingyas, are taking shelter in Bangladesh after being driven out by the Myanmar military junta. According to UNB reports&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"34\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 11:17:36', '2024-05-12 11:17:36'),
(12342, 12342, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Sunday said the future of the current Awami League government appears dim as the country\'s crisis has deepened further after the 12th parliamentary election.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking at a press conference, he also accused the government of using the judiciary as a tool to implement its depoliticization agenda by arbitrarily convicting and imprisoning opposition leaders and activists in a bid to consolidate power.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“I would like to say that they (govt) have a false belief that it has overcome the crisis. But I say the crisis has only deepened further in the aftermath of the last (national) election. If you still don’t realise this reality and make efforts to address the crisis, then your future is rather bleak.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The press conference was held at the BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office to inform journalists about the decisions made during a virtual meeting of the party\'s Standing Committee on May 8.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">Fakhrul said their standing committee meeting strongly denounced the process of unilaterally trying and sentencing leaders and activists of the party and its associate bodies.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He claimed that over 2,000 opposition leaders and activists have been jailed in completely false, fabricated, and fictitious cases as part of the government’s efforts to eliminate the opposition political parties and send the country\'s politics into exile, reports UNB.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“The court is the last resort of people, but they are not finding remedies there.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The BNP leader alleged that a vested group has been empowered in the country by the government, providing them with opportunities to amass wealth through various forms of corruption and irregularities. “They have orchestrated a scheme of plunder to keep this regime in power using it.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also said the looters belonging to the ruling party are siphoning off huge money abroad, destroying the economy of Bangladesh.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"1\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 12:07:44', '2024-05-12 12:07:44'),
(12343, 12343, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>The Saudi Ministry of Interior is implementing the Makkah Route Initiative as part of the “Pilgrim Experience Programme,” one of the programmes of the Saudi Vision 2030, for the sixth year.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This initiative involves dedicated lounges at 11 airports in seven countries – Bangladesh, Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkiye, and Côte d\'Ivoire.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Makkah Route Initiative aims to provide high-quality transportation services for pilgrims from beneficiary countries to the Kingdom, said the Saudi press agency.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The first group of Bangladeshi pilgrims benefiting from the Makkah Route Initiative arrived at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah on May 9.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bangladesh Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Dr Mohammad Javed Patwary and several other officials welcomed the pilgrims to the Kingdom.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Makkah Route Initiative, launched by the Ministry of Interior, is part of the wider Pilgrim Experience Program within Saudi Vision 2030 aimed at enhancing the Hajj journey for pilgrims.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The initiative streamlines the Hajj process for participants by allowing them to complete key procedures from their home country.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This includes electronic visa issuance, biometric data collection, and airport departure checks after verifying health requirements.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Luggage is coded and sorted based on pre-arranged transportation and accommodation in Saudi Arabia.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Upon arrival, pilgrims are whisked away on dedicated buses to their residences in Makkah and Madinah, with their luggage delivered by service agencies. According to UNB reports&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 12:18:12', '2024-05-12 12:18:12'),
(12344, 12344, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto led the Tigers to a 4-1 series win against Zimbabwe, but amidst the celebrations, he couldn\'t ignore the looming concerns ahead of his first World Cup as a full-time captain.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Shanto admitted that Bangladesh\'s biggest worry is the fragility of their top-order batting. In today\'s final match in Mirpur, three of Bangladesh\'s top four batters scored a combined total of just 10 runs, with only one managing to reach double figures.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“If we can do better at the top of the order, it would be great for the team,” Shanto acknowledged during the post-series media interaction when asked about Bangladesh\'s primary concerns heading into the World Cup.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Momentum will be important for us. Rather than dwelling on the results of this series, we need to focus on moving forward,” he stressed the importance of a solid start. “If we can ensure a good start at the top, we will be one step ahead as a team.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Bangladesh World Cup squad is expected to be announced on Monday, and the likely inclusion of Litton Das, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, and Soumya Sarkar places significant pressure on them to deliver consistent performances.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Any two of them are likely to open the innings, with either Shanto or Towhid Hridoy at number three. Source: UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Sports Desk', '[\"20\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 12:26:05', '2024-05-12 12:26:05'),
(12345, 12345, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Survivors of the deadly flash floods that ripped through northern Afghanistan were still struggling without basic aid on Sunday, as the official death toll rose to over 300.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Heavy rains on Friday triggered flash floods across at least seven provinces, including Baghlan, Ghor, Badakhshan and Takhar, injuring more than 1,600 people and destroyed about 2,600 houses, according to the latest data from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Refugees.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Many people remain missing and livestock were wiped out as survivors picked through muddy, debris-littered streets and damaged buildings over the weekend, while authorities and humanitarian agencies deployed aid and rescue workers.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“All available resources are being mobilized, and relevant ministries and agencies are actively engaged in delivering urgent aid,” Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund, Afghanistan’s deputy minister for economic affairs, told survivors in Baghlan province on Sunday, as he reassured “unwavering support” from the Taliban-led government “until their lives are restored to normalcy.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">But some people in the province, which bore the brunt of the deluges, said that aid has yet to reach them.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We haven’t received any support from the government or aid organizations yet. Everyone comes and asks us questions, then they go back,” Ghulam Nabi, who is from the province’s Burka district, told Arab News in a phone interview.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We lost our houses and our lives. Everything we had is under mud now. The agriculture land and livestock, our only source of livelihood, are also completely destroyed. We don’t have the basic means to cook food for ourselves.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Since mid-April, flash flooding and other floods had left scores of people dead and destroyed farmlands across Afghanistan, a country where 80 percent of its more than 41 million people depend on agriculture to survive.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The South Asian nation is prone to natural disasters and is considered by the UN to be one of countries most vulnerable to climate change.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Aid group Save the Children said about 600,000 people, half of them children, live in the five districts in Baghlan that have been severely impacted by the recent floods.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Lives and livelihoods have been washed away. The flash floods tore through villages, sweeping away homes and killing livestock. Children have lost everything,” Arshad Malik, the group’s country director in Afghanistan, said in a statement.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Most of the affected areas are still cut off on Sunday, inaccessible by trucks as roads and bridges were damaged by the floods, which also impacted other public infrastructure.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">People were struggling to access essential health services, the World Health Organization said in a statement, as “several health facilities remain non-operational.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Abdul Fatah Jawad, director of Ehsas Welfare and Social Services Organization, said that many of the flood survivors were still in shock, reports Arab News</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“People are so scared and traumatized. Most houses that survived the flooding are emptied as people fear more floods. Families took refuge in school yards and deserted areas far from residential houses,” Jawad told Arab News.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said families are in urgent need of basic goods, such as food, drinking water, medicine, tents, blankets and shelter. Since Saturday, his organization has managed to deliver cooked food for hundreds of families.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“People, particularly children, need to eat something … They also need cash to rebuild their houses and their businesses,” he said. “Some families lost everything — house, land, livestock, business. They are completely helpless.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas&nbsp;</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 13:16:59', '2024-05-12 13:16:59'),
(12346, 12346, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>A Cumilla court on Sunday sentenced nine people to death and nine others to life imprisonment for killing former president of Alkora union unit Jubo League Jamal Uddin in 2016.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Cumilla Additional District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Jahangir Hossain handed down the punishment.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The court also acquitted five others as allegations brought against them could not be proved.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the prosecution, former chairman of Alkora union parishad Ismail Hossain Bacchu and Jubo League leader Jamal had been at loggerheads.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On January 8, 2016, Jamal was abducted by the convicts following rivalry with the chairman.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Later, they took him to an under-construction building where they killed the Jubo League leader.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Zohra Begum, elder sister of Jamal, filed a case against 21 identified and some unidentified people. Police submitted a chargesheet against 23 people. Source: UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"42\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 13:53:59', '2024-05-12 13:53:59'),
(12347, 12347, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Thousands more civilians have fled Russia\'s renewed ground offensive in Ukraine\'s northeast that has targeted towns and villages with a barrage of artillery and mortar fire, officials said Sunday.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The intense battles have forced at least one Ukrainian unit to withdraw in the Kharkiv region, capitulating more land to Russian forces across less defended settlements in the so-called contested \"gray zone\" along the Russian border.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Meanwhile, a 10-story apartment block collapsed in the Russian city of Belgorod, near the border, with several deaths and injuries reported. Russian authorities said the building collapsed following Ukrainian shelling. Ukraine has not commented on the incident.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">At least 4,000 civilians have fled the Kharkiv region since Friday, when Moscow\'s forces launched the operation, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said in a social media statement. Heavy fighting raged Sunday along the northeast front line, where Russian forces attacked 27 settlements in the past 24 hours, he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Analysts say the Russian push is designed to exploit ammunition shortages before promised Western supplies can reach the front line. Ukrainian soldiers said the Kremlin is using the usual Russian tactic by launching a disproportionate amount of fire and infantry assaults to exhaust their troops and firepower.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It comes after Russia stepped up attacks in March targeting energy infrastructure and settlements, which analysts predicted were a concerted effort by Moscow to shape conditions for an offensive.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that disrupting Russia\'s offensive in the area was a priority, and that Kyiv\'s troops were continuing counteroffensive operations in seven villages around the Kharkiv region. According to AP reports&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 14:00:13', '2024-05-12 14:00:13'),
(12348, 12348, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Stopping British arms sales to Israel if it launches a ground assault on Rafah in the Gaza Strip would strengthen Hamas, Britain’s foreign secretary David Cameron said today.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Israel ordered Palestinians to evacuate more of the southern city yesterday in an indication it was pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack, despite US president Joe Biden’s threat to withhold the supply of some weapons if it did so.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Cameron said he did not support an operation in Rafah in the absence of a plan to protect hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering in the southern border city.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, Britain was in a “completely different position” to the US in terms of providing arms to Israel, he said, noting that the less than 1% of Israel’s weapons that came from Britain were already controlled by a strict licensing system.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We could, if we chose to, make a sort of political message and say we are going to take that political step,” he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“The last time I was urged to do that (…), just a few days later there was a brutal attack by Iran on Israel, including 140 cruise missiles,” he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Cameron said the “better answer” would be for Hamas, which controls Gaza, to accept a hostage deal.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Just to simply announce today we’re going to change our whole approach to arms exports rather than go through our careful process, it would strengthen Hamas, it would make a hostage deal less likely, I don’t think it would be the right approach,” he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed close to 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Source: Reuters </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 14:03:48', '2024-05-12 14:04:02'),
(12349, 12349, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said Bangladesh welcomes Artificial Intelligence, but it has to take some protective measurers.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">“We welcome Artificial Intelligence, but we have to take some protection measurers through enacting laws preventing its misuses,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The prime minister said this while Archbishop Kevin S. Randall, Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See to Bangladesh called on her at her official residence Ganabhaban.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">PM’s speech writer M Nazrul Islam briefed reporters after the call on, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said that the prime minister mentioned that Bangladesh is a country of religious harmony where Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists are living peacefully.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We celebrate our festivals all together,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The archbishop appreciated Bangladesh’s stance and steps taken on climate change and Rohingya issues.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-12 14:10:24', '2024-05-12 14:10:24'),
(12350, 12350, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Despite launching several new development projects aimed at enhancing its services, Bangladesh Railway continues to struggle with the maintenance of old rail lines and bridges, leading to an increase in accidents, including derailments.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sources from Bangladesh Railway report that approximately 63% of rail accidents are due to deteriorating lines and weak bridges.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Out of the country\'s 3,400 kilometers of railway lines, only key sections such as the Dhaka-Chattogram, Dhaka-Joydebpur, and Jashore-Abdullahpur lines are double-tracked, while the majority remain single-tracked and in poor condition.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Transport experts have identified numerous systemic issues including frequent station closures, aging rolling stock, deteriorating infrastructure, overcrowding, delays, ticketing problems, and general mismanagementâ€”all contributing to the railway\'s challenges.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rail accidents are increasing due to signaling errors, expired coach connections, insufficient supervision of rail lines, risky rail crossings, and lack of passenger facilities.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to unofficial information, there are more than 3,400 kilometers of railway lines across the country, of which only 1,000 kilometers are in good condition.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Dr. Hadiuzzaman, a transportation analyst and professor at BUET, criticized the ongoing neglect of essential maintenance in favor of expanding the railway\'s assets. \"There\'s a tendency to focus on acquiring new locomotives and coaches because it initially costs less than maintaining infrastructure. However, this neglects the crucial upkeep needed for existing rail lines and bridges,\" he explained.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The neglect is evident in the fact that nearly 2,500 kilometers of rail tracks are considered risky, yet trains continue to operate on them, leading to reduced speeds and efficiency. This was highlighted by recent incidents, including a head-on collision between two trains in Gazipur’s Joydebpur due to signaling errors and multiple signaling mistakes on the Dohazari-Cox\'s Bazar line in Chattogram.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The traditional signaling method, reliant on manual point adjustments by pointsmen, has been identified as a key risk factor. Station masters\' errors in signal provision can lead trains onto the same track, risking collisions. The manual system also increases the likelihood of derailments due to improper point configurations.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Progress on modernizing the signaling system has been hampered by financial constraints and delays in payments to contractors, particularly in major projects like the construction of additional lines from Dhaka to Tongi.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sardar Shahadat Ali, Director General of Bangladesh Railway, acknowledged the challenges posed by the ongoing projects and the transition to a computer-based interlocking system. He cited staffing shortages and a lack of skilled workers as exacerbating risks but mentioned ongoing efforts to recruit skilled signal staff and strengthen monitoring systems to enhance safety.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Despite these efforts, the newly recruited personnel are still not proficient in the old manual signaling methods, and outsourced pointsmen lack specialized railway training. Regular personnel turnover further complicates the training and adaptation process.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the 2022-23 annual report of the Ministry of Railways, 315 passenger trains operate across the country. Among them, 143 trains started their journey in the past 15 years. During this time, 843 kilometers of new railway tracks have been constructed, and 1,391 kilometers of railway lines have been repaired.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Furthermore, buildings have been constructed for 146 new railway stations. Reconstruction of 273 station buildings, construction of 1,037 new bridges, reconstruction of 794 railway bridges, acquisition of 109 locomotives, collection of 658 passenger carriages, relocation of 530 passenger carriages, collection of 516 freight wagons, relocation of 277 freight wagons, and so on, have been done.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Currently, there are 1,788 coaches, 47% of which have gone beyond their service life. The number of operational engines is only 295.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Against a required workforce of 47,600 in the railway, only 24,000 are currently employed.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the past five years, more than 2,000 accidents have occurred, leaving more than 150 passengers dead, and around 500 injured. In the last four months alone, there have been 160 railway accidents and incidents of sabotage across the country. In these incidents, 18 passengers have died, and 200 have been injured. Source: UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 13:34:28', '2024-05-13 13:34:28');
INSERT INTO `news_details` (`id`, `news_id`, `details`, `ticker`, `representative`, `keyword`, `video_link`, `google_drive_link`, `audio_link`, `shoulder`, `created_at`, `updated_at`) VALUES
(12351, 12351, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>France will provide assistance in setting up lightning protection devices, constructing infrastructure and providing training in addition to exchanging technical knowledge on it in Bangladesh.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief&nbsp; Md Mohibbur Rahman said this while talking to reporters on Monday after a meeting with France Ambassador to Bangladesh Marie Masdupuy&nbsp; at the secretariat.</div><div><br></div><div>Voicing concern over the rising fatalities from lightning strikes recently, the state minister said the government is working to reduce the number of fatalities and losses caused by lightning strikes.</div><div><br></div><div>Apart from raising awareness among people over lightning, effective measures will be taken to install lightning prevention devices, he added.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 13:44:12', '2024-05-13 13:44:12'),
(12352, 12352, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Bangladeshi vessel MV Abdullah which was released on April 14 with all 23 crew members after 31 days of captivity by Somali pirates, anchored at Kutubdia point in the Bay of Bengal in Cox’s Bazar district on Monday evening, ending long wait of families.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mizanul Islam, media adviser of the vessel owner KSRM Group , said the vessel reached the Kutubdia coast around 6:30 pm.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The family members and relatives of the crew members will receive them at Chattogram’s Sadarghat jetty on Tuesday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The 23 crew members&nbsp; will reunite with their families 64 days after being taken hostage by pirates.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A festive mood has been prevailing among the family members of the crew members for their safe return.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The vessel will leave for Chattogram port after unloading goods at Kutubdia, said Mizanul.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“All the crew members are safe and sound as far as I know and the further development will be known later,” he said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The vessel, which was hijacked for 33 days, departed Al-Hamriya Port in the United Arab Emirates for Bangladesh on April 28 after unloading 55,000 metric tonnes of coal.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">MV Abdullah initially anchored at the UAE port on the evening of April 22, following its release from pirates’ captivity.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The ship first arrived at the outer anchorage of the port on April 21, following its ordeal which began on March 12 when it was seized by Somali pirates about 600 nautical miles off the Somali coast en route from Mozambique to Dubai.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The pirates took control of the vessel and its crew, holding them until a ransom of Tk 55 crore facilitated their release on the night of April 13. Source: UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'National', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 13:55:34', '2024-05-13 13:55:34'),
(12353, 12353, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Saudi Ambassador Essa Yousef Essa Alduhailan has said that he is taking initiative to provide visas for the hajj pilgrims who are yet to get their visas. The assurance came today during a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence, Ganabhaban.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The visa initiative was a response to Prime Minister Hasina’s request to extend the visa approval timeframe, enabling the pilgrims to participate in the upcoming Hajj. More than 10,000 hajj pilgrims are yet to get visa from Saudi Arabia due to various complexities.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">PM’s speechwriter M Nazrul Islam briefed reporters after the meeting.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">During the discussion, the ambassador presented a list of projects Saudi investors aim to implement in Bangladesh. The PM said that Bangladesh will review these proposals carefully, emphasizing the need for thorough evaluation before moving forward. She assured that the concerned ministries and divisions will look into the matter.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The talks also touched on broader geopolitical issues, including support for Palestine. Prime Minister Hasina reiterated Bangladesh’s commitment to aiding the Palestinian people, mentioning recent consignments of assistance.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“The whole world is with Palestine except the US and few of its allies,” she said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Furthermore, with nearly 32 lakh Bangladeshis residing in Saudi Arabia, contributing significantly to both nations’ economies, Hasina urged the Saudi government to encourage the use of legal channels for remittances. This effort aims to secure economic benefits for Bangladesh while maintaining strong bilateral ties.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The meeting was attended by several high-ranking officials, including PM’s Private Industry and Investment Adviser Salman Fazlur Rahman, Ambassador-at-large Mohammad Ziauddin, and PMO Secretary Mohammad Salauddin, according to UNB reports </div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 14:13:20', '2024-05-13 14:13:39'),
(12354, 12354, '<div><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Thousands of Filipino pilgrims are set to travel to Makkah for the upcoming Hajj pilgrimage, the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos said on Monday, with the first batch set to leave for Saudi Arabia next week.</span><br></b></div><div><br></div><div>In the predominantly Catholic Philippines, Muslims constitute about 10 percent of the nearly 120 million population. Most live on the island of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago in the country’s south, as well as in the central-western province of Palawan, reports Arab News.</div><div><br></div><div>The commission said that nearly 5,000 Muslims had confirmed they would travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj pilgrimage this year.</div><div><br></div><div>“We have already processed 96 percent of the pilgrims,” Zainoden Usudan, chief of Hajj operations at the NCMF’s Bureau of Pilgrimage and Endowment, said.</div><div><br></div><div>“They can expect VIP-like treatment, allowing them to fully concentrate on their pilgrimage.”</div><div><br></div><div>Officials from the commission have been working hard to ensure that the difficulties faced by pilgrims last year will not be a problem this time around.</div><div><br></div><div>“This time, we are making sure that food will not be a problem,” Usudan said, referring to problems with delayed meal deliveries in 2023.</div><div><br></div><div>He said the commission was working with a service provider in the Kingdom that had contingency plans for all aspects of the trip, including transportation.</div><div><br></div><div>The first Hajj flight from the Philippines is set to take off from Manila International Airport on May 23.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 14:26:22', '2024-05-13 14:26:22'),
(12355, 12355, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Australian researchers have made a breakthrough in engineering crops that are capable of more efficiently sucking carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a new study, a team from the Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Newcastle discovered how an enzyme called carboxysomal carbonic anhydrase (CsoSCA) maximizes the ability of cyanobacteria to extract CO2 from the atmosphere.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Also known as blue-green algae, cyanobacteria are a group of microorganisms commonly known for causing toxic blooms in lakes and rivers and also responsible for capturing approximately 12 percent of the Earth\'s atmospheric CO2 every year through the photosynthesis process.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"Unlike plants, cyanobacteria have a system called a carbon dioxide concentrating mechanism (CCM), which allows them to fix carbon from the atmosphere and turn it into sugars at a significantly faster rate than standard plants and crop species,\" Sacha Pulsford, first author of the study from ANU, said in a media release on Saturday.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"Understanding how the CCM works not only enriches our knowledge of natural processes fundamental to Earth\'s biogeochemistry but may also guide us in creating sustainable solutions to some of the biggest environmental challenges the world is facing.\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The team found that another molecule called RuBP activates and deactivates CsoSCA like a switch. When a cell runs out of RuBP, the CsoSCA enzyme is switched off, making cyanobacteria highly efficient at turning carbon dioxide into sugar.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Researchers believe that the discovery of how CsoSCA is controlled could help engineer climate-resilient crops that are more efficient at capturing and utilizing CO2, helping improve crop yield while reducing demand for nitrogen fertilizer and irrigation systems. - XINHUA</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"18\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 14:32:23', '2024-05-13 14:32:23'),
(12356, 12356, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Three men have been charged with allegedly assisting Hong Kong intelligence services and with foreign interference, London’s Metropolitan Police said Monday.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The men will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged under the National Security Act.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Chi Leung (Peter) Wai, 38, Matthew Trickett, 37, and Chung Biu Yuen, 63, have each been charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“While these offenses are concerning, I want to reassure the public that we do not believe there to be any wider threat to them,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“This investigation remains ongoing, but now that charges have been brought, I urge people not to speculate or comment further in relation to this case.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hong Kong’s security bureau, Hong Kong police and the office of China’s foreign ministry in Hong Kong did immediately respond to requests for comment. - AP&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 14:43:26', '2024-05-13 14:43:26'),
(12357, 12357, '<div><br></div><div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Let us take leave...</span></div><div>To roam freely on the dew-kissed green grass,</div><div>To breathe the air of the night-blooming jasmine flowers,</div><div>And to imagine their beauty in the eternal hours.</div><div><br></div><div>Let us take leave…</div><div>To spread warmth,</div><div>As a fire pit does during the winter, </div><div>And to find a new rhythm in the fairy star,</div><div><br></div><div>Let us take leave...</div><div>To get carried away with the stream of a river,<span style=\"white-space:pre\">	</span></div><div>And to live happily in a mud house</div><div>With the sweetness of our true hearts forever,</div><div>And forever and forever.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Protiva Rani Karmaker', '[\"35\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 14:46:57', '2024-05-13 14:55:45'),
(12358, 12358, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud has said that issues related to visa policy and Dhaka’s call for withdrawal of sanctions may come up for discussion during Donald Lu’s visit.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“These issues may naturally come up,” he said when a reporter wanted to know whether Bangladesh will raise these issues as US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu is coming to Dhaka on May 14.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Lu will be here as part of his tri-nation tour of the region (May 10-15). He visited India and is now visiting Sri Lanka.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Assistant Secretary Lu will conclude his trip in Dhaka, where he will meet with government officials, civil society leaders, and other Bangladeshis to discuss Bangladesh-US cooperation, including addressing the climate crisis and deepening economic ties, according to the US Department of State, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The foreign minister said Bangladesh maintains excellent relations with the United States and they will work together to take the relations further.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Whoever visits Bangladesh from the US administration, we will work together to advance our relationship. There are economic relations and we have cooperation in various fields,” he told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', '<p><b>Donald Lu’s visit:&nbsp;</b><br></p>', 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 14:55:10', '2024-05-13 14:55:10'),
(12359, 12359, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Monday’s polling in the fourth round of multi-phase national elections across nine states and one union territory will be pivotal for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, as it includes some of its strongholds in states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Millions of Indians across 96 constituencies began casting their ballots on Monday as the country\'s gigantic, six-week-long election edges past its halfway mark. Prime Minister Narendra&nbsp; Modi is seeking a third straight term with an eye on winning a supermajority in Parliament.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Crucial seats in Maharashtra and Bihar states, where the BJP governs in alliances with regional parties, are also up for grabs in this phase.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In Bihar’s Samastipur city, hundreds of voters lined up at a polling station that opened at 7 a.m. amid tight security arrangements. Voters said they were concerned about rising food prices, lack of employment and economic development in the state.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Most polls predict a win for Modi and his BJP, which is up against a broad opposition alliance led by the Indian National Congress and powerful regional parties.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The staggered election will run until June 1 and nearly 970 million voters, more than 10% of the world’s population, will elect 543 members to the lower house of Parliament for five years. The votes are scheduled to be counted on June 4.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Monday will also see the end of polling in the country’s five southern states, a region that has mostly rejected Modi’s BJP since it first came to power in 2014 but where winning more seats is crucial for the party\'s campaign goal of securing a two-thirds majority in Parliament.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Kashmir’s largest city, Srinagar, will also vote Monday in the first polls since Modi’s government stripped the disputed region of its semi-autonomy and took direct control of it in 2019. Despite hailing the move as a success that would bring economic development to the region, the BJP is not contesting in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, where anti-India sentiment runs deep. According to AP reports&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 14:59:00', '2024-05-13 14:59:00'),
(12360, 12360, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said that Bangladesh is ruled by a government elected by the people, dismissing opposition claims of unseen forces at play.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>\"Bangladesh is governed by a government that the people have elected,\" Quader stated. \"It is characteristic of BNP to attribute governance to invisible forces, with Hawa Bhaban previously serving as their alternative power center. Their current predicaments and mental strain are direct consequences of their past actions,\" he elaborated.</div><div><br></div><div>Quader also criticized the opposition’s recent statements. \"BNP\'s press conferences are exercises in turning falsehoods into perceived truths. Mirza Fakhrul and other BNP leaders engage in deceptive and propagandistic tactics.\"</div><div><br></div><div>Regarding international relations, Quader discussed the upcoming visit of US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Donald Lu, noting that the visit aims to enhance the bilateral relationship between Bangladesh and the United States.</div><div><br></div><div>Quader praised the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, highlighting significant socioeconomic and infrastructural developments over the past 15 years. \"Under Sheikh Hasina\'s leadership, Bangladesh has transformed from a country grappling with a food crisis to one that is self-sufficient in food production. Additionally, her initiatives in healthcare, such as community clinics, have received global recognition,\" he added.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', '<p><b>Referring to Hawa Bhaban,</b><br></p>', 'Staff Correspondent', '[\"1\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 15:04:52', '2024-05-13 15:04:52'),
(12361, 12361, '<div><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Flash floods and mud slides in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province killed at least 43 people over the weekend while a search for 15 missing people continued, authorities said on Monday.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Torrential rain on Saturday evening triggered flash floods, landslides, and cold lava flow — a mud-like mixture of volcanic ash, rock debris and water — in three districts in West Sumatra province, Abdul Malik, chief of the provincial rescue team, said.</div><div><br></div><div>The cold lava flow, known in Indonesia as a lahar, came from Mount Marapi, one of Sumatra’s most active volcanoes.</div><div><br></div><div>In December, more than 20 people were killed after Marapi erupted. A series of eruptions has followed since.</div><div><br></div><div>“The heavy rain swept materials such as ash and large rocks from the Marapi volcano,” said Abdul Malik, who later added in a statement that 43 people had died and 15 remained missing.</div><div><br></div><div>“Cold lava flow and flash floods have always been threats to us recently. But the problem is, it always happens late at night until dawn,” he said.</div><div><br></div><div>Abdul said around 400 personnel, including rescuers, police, and military, were deployed to search for the missing people on Monday, helped by at least eight excavators and drones.</div><div><br></div><div>The national disaster and management agency BNPB said in a statement almost 200 houses were damaged and 72 hectares (178 acres) of lands, including rice fields, were affected. At least 159 people from Agam district were evacuated to nearby schools. - Reuters&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 15:07:33', '2024-05-13 15:07:33'),
(12362, 12362, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>India and Iran on Monday signed a 10-year contract to develop and equip the strategic Chabahar port in Iran as India seeks to grow trade in west and central Asia.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The agreement will give India 10-year access to use the port, located close to Iran’s southeastern border with Pakistan, according to Iran’s ministry of roads and urban development.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The contract will, in turn, see India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) invest US$370 million into “providing strategic equipment” and “developing the transport infrastructure of the port”.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Iran’s urban development minister Mehrdad Bazrpash and India’s ports and shipping minister Sarbananda Sonowal signed the contract in the town of Chabahar, in a ceremony broadcast live on state media.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">India in 2016 agreed to finance the development of the Iranian port as a trading hub for central Asia as Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to revive economic ties with Tehran after the lifting of sanctions.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Modi and former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani oversaw the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the provision of a line of credit from India’s EXIM Bank to develop the port.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The development of the port however stalled, despite waivers to sanctions that the US began reimposing in 2018 after withdrawing from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Chabahar…can act as a focal point in the transit developement of the region,” Bazrpash said at the signing ceremony.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“We are pleased with this agreement, and we have full trust in India,” he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“Iran and India are seeking to develop Chabahar port as much as possible, taking into account the interests of the two countries for joint access to regional markets,” the Indian minister said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This “long-term contract symbolises the enduring trust and effective partnership between India and Iran,” he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2019, before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, both countries agreed to speed up the project after a visit by India’s external affairs minster Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to Tehran.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Chabahar port is on the Indian Ocean about 100km west of the Pakistan border. Source: AFP&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-13 15:13:05', '2024-05-13 15:13:05'),
(12363, 12363, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu arrived here on Tuesday (May 14, 2024) to \"strengthen bilateral cooperation\" and to demonstrate US support for a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In Bangladesh, he will meet with government officials, civil society leaders, and other Bangladeshis to talk about deepening Bangladesh-US cooperation, including deepening the economic ties in ways that the two countries can collaborate further to address climate issues, said Principal Deputy Spokesperson at the US Department of State Vedant Patel.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Lu is here as part of his tri-nation tour of the region. He earlier visited India and Sri Lanka.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is also his first visit to Bangladesh after Awami League won the January 7 elections to form government for the third straight term.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"He is there to strengthen bilateral cooperation with each country and to demonstrate U.S. support for a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region,\" Patel said from Washington.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">PM\'s adviser Salman F Rahman will host a dinner in honour of Donald Lu and his delegation at his residence today,&nbsp; said a senior official.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Lu will have a bilateral meeting with Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and a courtesy meeting with Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud during his three-day stay.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On Wednesday, Lu will meet Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury at 12pm.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">His meeting with the Foreign Secretary will be held at 1pm.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The courtesy meeting with the Foreign Minister will be held at 3pm.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Early morning on Thursday, Lu will leave Dhaka for Washington.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He was received at Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport by Khandker Masudul Alam, director general (North America)&nbsp; at Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">US Ambassador in Dhaka Peter Haas was also present.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a regular briefing at the US Department of State, a journalist wanted to know whether there is any specific reason why, on this third visit to Bangladesh within 17 months, assistant secretary is not holding meeting with any political party leaders, unlike his previous two visits where he engaged with various political parties, including BNP.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The journalist asked, \"Has the United States shifted this position on internal political matter in Bangladesh?\"</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In reply, Patel said a lot of factors go into who their government officials meet with or not – the schedule, time of day, lots of other things, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\"Assistant Secretary Lu is on a swing through a number of South Asian countries – specifically India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh,\" he added.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On Monday, Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud said that issues related to visa policy and Dhaka’s call for withdrawal of sanctions may come up for discussion during Lu’s visit.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"19\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-14 07:26:24', '2024-05-14 07:26:24'),
(12364, 12364, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>According to a recent Finance Ministry document, the administration is also committed to continued issuance of Islamic securities Sukuks but has currently shelved plans for Eurobond issuances on the global market. In an effort to promote a robust domestic debt market, the Bangladesh government is strategizing to increase its share of marketable securities in the coming years.&nbsp;</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">As fiscal deficits loom, with projections showing a deficit of Tk 2792.3 billion for FY 2024-25 and Tk 3170.7 billion for FY 2025-26 - equating to 5% of GDP each year - the government underscores the need for strategic domestic borrowing.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The focus remains on minimizing borrowing costs through traditional external creditors, which are preferred, the document detailed.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The strategy for addressing deficits includes an ambitious target of collecting Tk 1200.3 billion from external sources in FY 2024-25 and Tk 1306.4 billion in FY 2025-26, each constituting 2.1% of GDP.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Domestic sourcing is expected to contribute significantly more, with plans to collect Tk 1677.7 billion and Tk 1864.4 billion over the same periods, representing 2.9% of GDP.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Significantly, the banking sector is anticipated to contribute Tk 1384.9 billion in FY 2024-25 and Tk 1547.3 billion in FY 2025-26. In comparison, non-banking sectors will contribute Tk 292.8 billion and Tk 317.1 billion respectively.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Savings certificates will add Tk 191.4 billion and Tk 190.3 billion, while other sources are projected to contribute over Tk 100 billion annually.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The government maintains a prudent deficit financing policy to stave off debt distress, keeping the deficit steady at around 5% of GDP and maintaining a stable debt level at around 33% of GDP in recent years, the finance ministry document explained. This balanced approach aims to mitigate the risks associated with deficit financing while prioritizing sustainable economic development.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In terms of the medium-term outlook, the government expects domestic borrowing to remain stable at 2.9% of GDP. However, the approach to marketable securities will see a significant nominal increase, with a planned reduction in the reliance on higher-cost National Savings Certificate instruments, which will see a gradual decrease in their contribution to the financing mix.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">External financing is also projected to increase nominally between FY 2023-24 and FY 2025-26, driven by greater disbursement for large projects and increased budget support, though dependent on the pace of project implementation, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bangladesh has received considerable budget support from external sources in recent years, a trend expected to continue in the medium term, the document stated, highlighting the ongoing commitment to leveraging both domestic and international financial strategies to meet fiscal challenges.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"33\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-14 07:41:47', '2024-05-14 07:41:47'),
(12365, 12365, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><b><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) today announced the squad for the upcoming ICC Men\'s T20 World Cup, taking place next month in the USA and West Indies.</span><br></b></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Taskin Ahmed was uncertain due to a muscle injury, but he was eventually added to the squad as the vice-captain.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mohammad Saifuddin, who played in the last home series against Zimbabwe, but he is overlooked for the World Cup. Instead of Saifuddin, Bangladesh selected Tanzim Hasan Sakib.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bangladesh\'s campaign begins on June 7, against Sri Lanka in Dallas, followed by a match against South Africa in New York on June 10. The team will then travel to the West Indies for their remaining two first-round matches.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Prior to the tournament, Bangladesh will play a practice-match against India in New York on June 1 and a three-match T20I-Series against the hosts, USA, in Houston. This series will also feature the World Cup Squad.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Gazi Ashraf Hossain, Abdur Razzak, and and Hannan Sarkar were present at the squad announcement. Gazi Ashraf, the chief selector, announced the squad.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bangladesh Squad for ICC Men\'s T20 World Cup 2024</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Najmul Hossain Shanto (captain), Taskin Ahmed (vice-captain), Litton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Shakib Al Hasan, Towhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah Riyad, Jaker Ali, Tanvir Islam, Sheikh Mahedi, Rishad Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, and Tanzim Hasan Sakib. Reserves: Hasan Mahmud and Afif Hossain. Source: UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Sports Desk', '[\"20\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-14 08:06:22', '2024-05-14 08:06:22'),
(12366, 12366, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>A large billboard collapsed onto people during heavy rain and thunderstorms in India\'s western city of Mumbai, killing at least 14 and injuring 74 others, reports said.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">A rescue operation was ongoing Tuesday morning, and it was unclear how many people may still be trapped.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The rains, accompanied by high winds, caused the 30-meters-tall (100-foot-tall) billboard to fall over a gas station in the suburb of Ghatkopar on Monday evening. At least 47 people were rescued late into the night.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Police are investigating the incident and say the billboard was illegally installed, officials told the Press Trust of India news agency.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The officials said 31 of the injured had been discharged from the hospital.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">India has heavy rain and severe floods during the monsoon season between June and September that brings most of its annual rainfall. The rain is crucial for agriculture but often causes extensive damage. - AP&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'International Desk', '[\"29\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-14 08:52:12', '2024-05-14 08:52:12'),
(12367, 12367, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>The government is indifferent to US sanctions and visa policies. His comments came during a discussion today with journalists at the Secretariat addressing contemporary issues, said Obaidul Quader, Road Transport and Bridges Minister and General Secretary of the Awami League.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">“I do not want to discuss this matter. They come and go as part of their routine,” Quader mentioned. US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu has come to Bangladesh with his own agenda, emphasizing that the government did not extend an invitation to him.&nbsp;</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the other hand, Quader commented, “He is not even a Foreign Minister! Why all this fuss about him! He has come here out of necessity, they have their agenda. When relationships exist, discussions on various issues related to those relationships will happen.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Quader also referenced previous discussions related to visa policies and sanctions before the elections, highlighting that the stance remains unchanged. “We do not care about any kind of sanctions or visa policies,” Quader declared when asked about the political implications of Lu’s visit.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Staff Correspondent', '[\"1\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-14 09:14:03', '2024-05-14 09:14:03'),
(12368, 12368, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>Acclaimed Bollywood actress Tabu has been cast in a significant recurring role in the upcoming Max prequel series “Dune: Prophecy,” Variety reports. Although the series is still pending a premiere date, anticipation builds as it delves into the origins of the “Dune” universe.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">Originally commissioned in 2019 as “Dune: The Sisterhood,” the series is inspired by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson’s novel “Sisterhood of Dune.” It unfolds 10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides and focuses on two Harkonnen sisters who navigate political upheavals to establish the Bene Gesserit, a key faction in the Dune saga.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tabu is set to portray Sister Francesca, a character described as “strong, intelligent, and alluring.” Sister Francesca’s intriguing backstory includes a former romantic entanglement with the Emperor, which, upon her return to the palace, disrupts the established power dynamics.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">One of India’s most respected actresses, Tabu has earned considerable acclaim for her versatile performances, winning the National Film Award for Best Actress twice and securing several Filmfare Awards. Her international projects include notable films like “Life of Pi,” “The Namesake,” and the BBC drama “A Suitable Boy.”</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The series boasts a diverse ensemble cast including Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Travis Fimmel, Johdi May, Mark Strong, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, and several others. Despite a series of creative shifts and showrunner changes that led to a reset in 2023, “Dune: Prophecy” is poised to add a rich prequel to the “Dune” franchise, reports UNB</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">With the recent success of two new “Dune” films, which collectively grossed over $1.1 billion, and a third installment in development, the “Dune” universe continues to expand its cinematic and television footprint, captivating audiences worldwide.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd/fas</div>', NULL, 'Entertainment', '[\"13\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-14 09:38:41', '2024-05-14 09:38:41'),
(12369, 12369, '<div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\"><b>It is faster than previous models and has been trained to respond to commands in a conversational, often alluring, tone.</b></span><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">OpenAI has introduced the newest version of the technology that powers its AI chatbot ChatGPT.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It\'s called GPT-4o, and it will be made available to all ChatGPT users, including non-subscribers, reports BBC.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The updated version can read and analyse photographs, translate languages, and detect emotions through visual expressions. There is also enhanced memory, which allows it to recall prior commands, it said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">GOT-4o may be interrupted and has a more natural conversational tempo; there is no gap between asking a question and receiving a response.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mira Murati, OpenAI\'s chief technical officer, characterised GPT-4o as \"magical\" but stated that the company will \"remove that mysticism\" with the product\'s release, said the report.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">While this technology is fast getting more sophisticated and believable as a companion, it is not sentient or magical; rather, it is clever programming and machine learning, it also said.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\">There have been rumours about a collaboration between OpenAI and Apple, and while this has not been verified, it was clear during the presentation that Apple devices were used throughout.</div><div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><br></div><div style=\"text-align: justify; \">bnbd24/fas</div>', NULL, 'News Desk', '[\"18\"]', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, '2024-05-14 09:43:48', '2024-05-14 09:43:48');
