INSI

DE Ancient Buddhist

monasteriesdiscovered in NaogaonA nearly 1,500 years old Buddhist site has been unearthed in Naogaon, home to a number of other historical sites. PAGE 32

TIB lauds revolutionary changes in RMG sectorTransparency International Bang-ladesh (TIB) has termed the safety improvements in the RMG sector in terms of � re, electrical and structural safety as “revolutionary”. PAGE 5

Uniform tax rate on tobacco products likelyThe government may introduce a uniform tax rate on tobacco products from the next FY making the current basis – the higher the price, the larger the amount of tax paid – obsolete. PAGE 15

SECOND EDITION

STATUS OF INITIATIVES TAKEN TO IMPROVE SAFETY STANDARDS AND WORKERS RIGHTS

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Completed Satisfactory Slow progress No progress

41%36%

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016 | Boishakh 9, 1423, Rajab 13, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 4, No 1 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages plus 24-page Weekend supplement | Price: Tk10

Philippines court starts process to return BB heist fund n Tribune Desk

Bangladesh Bank may have to wait longer before it gets the amount turned over by casino junket oper-ator Kim Wong to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) for safekeeping, although the court has already asked authorities to preserve the money, reports In-quirer.net.

It will take several more proce-dures before the money is turned over to Bangladeshi authorities, as executive Judge Reynaldo A. Al-

hambra of the Manila Regional Tri-al Court set on May 2 at 8:30am. a summary hearing on the asset pres-ervation.

Holding a hearing meant this is an important case, as it has diplo-matic repercussions.

The AMLC � led on April 18 a pe-tition for civil forfeiture (with an urgent prayer for the issuance of a provisional asset preservation or-der and/or asset preservation order through the O� ce of the Solicitor General) against Kam Sin Wong, East Hawaii Leisure Co., Centu-

rytext Trading, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and Philip-pine National Bank (PNB).

In an order issued also on April 18, Alhambra said the AMLC al-leged that the “subject money instruments and proceeds in the name of Kam Sin Wong or Kim Wong, Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. Ltd. and Centurytex Trading with the respondent banks are related to an unlawful activity of “hacking or cracking” under the E-Commerce Act, a predicate o� ence under

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

n Asif Shawkat Kollol

In an interim report, the probe body on the Bangladesh Bank re-serve heist has found gross negli-gence and lack of knowledge at the central bank that led to the theft of $101 million.

The committee has recommend-ed that the government undertake massive reform at the central bank, suggesting massive restructuring in terms of administrative, institu-tional, and technological upgrades.

Former Bangladesh Bank gover-nor Mohammed Farashuddin, who led the probe body, handed over the report to Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday evening. Both the minister and the commit-tee have refused to comment on the � ndings.

However, sources said the probe team held senior o� cials of the Fo-rex Reserve and Treasury Manage-ment Department to be responsible for gross negligence in their duties, leading to the heist.

It suggested action against the central bank o� cials as they did nothing when abnormalities emerged in parts of the bank’s net-work linked to the SWIFT system.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Govt to get lawyer to recover heist moneyn Asif Shawkat Kollol

The inter-departmental task force to recover Bangladesh Bank's $81 million stolen money has decided to appoint an international attorney to expedite the process of getting the funds back from the Philippines.

The decision to appoint an attor-ney was taken at the � rst meeting of the task force yesterday at the Finance Division auditorium, pre-sided over by Bank and Financial Institutions Division (BFID) Secre-tary Md Eunusur Rahman.

After the meeting the BFID sec-retary told reporters that the cen-tral bank and the attorney general's o� ce would give their views on the matter at the next meeting. He also said an attorney will be appointed according to the recommendations of the heist investigation commit-tee, which is led by former central bank governor Md Farashuddin.

Sources present at the meeting said three IT experts and profes-sors of BUET had been appointed to � nd the loopholes in Bangladesh

PAGE 2 COLUMN 5

BB o� cials guilty of gross negligenceProbe body suggests massive reform at Bangladesh Bank

RAJIB DHAR

News2DTFRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

BB o� cials guilty of gross negligenceThe report said the probe had found that the bank’s sta� were unaware for several months that the securi-ty software on the Real-Time Gross Settlement Systems (RTGS), which is linked with SWIFT system, had been missing. As a result, hackers in-jected their malware into the bank’s network and collected information from the RTGS without any barrier.

Before that, the security soft-ware had also failed three times this year but the issue was ignored, the report revealed.

Sources said the probe team had observed in the report that Bang-ladesh Bank’s Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Department o� cials did not realise the impli-cations of the anomalies that had

been noticed during the heist. As a result, hackers stole $101

million from the forex reserve with relative ease, the report said. It sug-gested keeping the central bank’s SWIFT safety system up-to-date.

As part of the probe body’s rec-ommendation three professors and network experts from Bangla-desh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) have already been appointed to � nd loopholes in Bangladesh Bank’s network.

Sources said the report had emphasised introduction of train-ing for the bank’s sta� on IT and money transfers. It suggested that local and foreign experts should be brought in to conduct the training.

O� cials of Finance Ministry’s

Bank and Financial Institutions Division said the probe committee chairman and members had warned the authorities concerned that the disclosure of names of the Bangla-desh Bank sta� who were under in-vestigation might damage the coun-try’s image and suggested that the investigation and disclosure to the media be kept low pro� le.

The probe team warned that Bangladesh may fall once again into the Financial Action Task Force’s blacklist because of the incident.

The FATF, the intergovernmen-tal body on money laundering and terrorist � nancing, put Bangladesh in the grey category in 2008 after it found major de� ciencies in the country’s anti-money laundering

and counter-� nancing of terror-ism (AML/CFT) e� orts. Bangladesh came out of the grey list in Febru-ary 2014.

Meanwhile, the head of the Fo-rensic Training Institute of Bangla-desh CID, Mohammad Shah Alam, told Reuters that Bangladesh’s cen-tral bank was vulnerable to hackers because it did not have a � rewall and used second-hand, $10 switches to network computers connected to the SWIFT global payment network.

The lack of sophisticated switch-es, which can cost several hundred dollars or more, also means it is dif-� cult for investigators to � gure out what the hackers did and where they might have been based, he added. l

Philippines court starts process to return BB heist fundthe Anti-Money Laundering Act.

Imminent certaintyAs there was “imminent certainty” that the money would be removed, transferred, concealed, disposed of and placed beyond the reach of the law, as well as in light of the earlier AMLC freeze order, the court said it warranted the issuance of a provi-sional asset preservation order.

The provisional order was hence issued, forbidding any transaction, withdrawal, transfer, removal, conversion, concealment or other disposition of the following mon-etary instruments and proceeds e� ective a 20-day period:

The frozen accounts worth P4,461,945.53 in PNB under Kim Wong’s account name.

P5,741,276.84 in PNB under the

account of Eastern Hawaii Leisure.P19,983.63 in RCBC under Cen-

turytex Trading.The order also covered the � rst

two tranches of money now in the custody of the AMLC. On March 31, Kim Wong’s lawyers returned an initial $4.63 million, and on April 4, P38.28 million.

On Monday, his company, East-ern Hawaii Leisure, turned over another P200 million to the AMLC. Wong is expected to turn over an-other P250 million.

He received a portion of the $81 million that entered the Philippines through RCBC and was transferred to the accounts of junket operators.

But he named two others—Gao Shuhua and Ding Zhize—as the ones who had knowledge of the en-try of $81 million into the country.

Solaire Resort and Casino Manila, which got part of the $81 million, also froze the account of the “Ding Group” worth P107 million, and con-� scated another P1.347 million from the rooms of the group’s players. Solaire is waiting for a court order to dispose of the money.

Recto’s wishSenate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto wished the Manila could return $81 million to Dhaka before a new administration takes over. President Aquino is stepping down on June 30.

“That should be our national deadline. Before President Aquino returns to private life, we must see to it that all the recoverable money from that heist has been returned to its rightful owner,” Recto said in

a statement.Before Manila could turn over

the recovered funds, the AMLC would have to � le a civil forfeiture case and secure a court order.

Dhaka will also have to formal-ly intervene in the case and claim ownership of the money so that the court could order the return of the funds. Otherwise, the funds would be declared property of Philippines.

Finance o� cials are not expect-ing a long-winded court case given that Wong voluntarily turned over the money and nobody is expected to object to its return to Bangladesh.

Recto said it would be okay if all of the recovered funds could not be returned to Bangladesh by June 30, so long as a substantial amount would have been given back to the South Asian country by then. l

Govt to getBank’s network and the SWIFT sys-tem. The IT experts will also look into where the stolen money had been transferred to.

The BFID formed an inter-de-partmental task force on April 14 to expedite the recovery of $81 mil-lion that was stolen from the cen-tral bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The key task of the committee is to communicate with the interna-tional agencies in this regard. It will also work on speeding up the recov-ery of the stolen funds as experts have cautioned that the entire pro-cess might take three to ten years.

BFID Secretary Md Eunusur Rahman is the convener of the committee and the general man-ager of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, a central bank division, is the member secretary.

Other six members come from the Prime Minister’s O� ce, the Attorney General’s O� ce, Foreign Ministry, Home Ministry, Bangladesh Bank and the director general of the FIU.

The task force is reviewing the laws of Bangladesh and other countries to explore the legal ave-nues to get the heist money back.

It will communicate with the authorities of countries where the money was laundered and try to formulate mutual legal agreements.

On February 5, hackers stole $101 million from Bangladesh Bank’s accounts in the Federal Re-serve Bank of New York and trans-ferred $81m to Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, from where the money was moved to local casinos. A further $20m was recovered from Sri Lanka. l

Regular bench to hear Khaleda’s plean Ashif Islam Shaon

A regular bench of the High Court will hear BNP Chairperson Khale-da Zia’s pleas challenging a lower court order that had rejected her two applications in Zia Charitable Trust graft case.

The High Court vacation bench of Justice Md Miftah Uddin Choud-hury and Justice Khizir Ahmed Choudhury took the decision yes-terday. The regular bench will sit on May 2 as the Supreme Court is now on vacation.

Khurshid Alam Khan, counsel for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), said that now the petitions would be sent to the department concerned to assign a regular bench.

Earlier, Dhaka’s Third Special Judge’s Court which is holding the trial of the case had set April 25 for next hearing in the case. The court ended deposition of prosecution witnesses on March 31.

On Sunday, Khaleda’s counsels submitted two applications before the trial court in her presence but those were rejected. Then they moved the High Court on Monday against the rejection order seeking a revision.

Of the two petitions, one was � led for re-cross examination of the investigation o� cer of the Zia Charitable Trust graft case and the other for scrutinising the case diary of the IO.

The BNP chief also prayed to stay the trial proceedings against her in the case.

Khaleda said that the statement of IO Harun-or-Rashid was unac-ceptable, since the ACC withdrew him for incompetence in 2005, and the High Court and the Supreme Court upheld the ACC decision.

On March 9, Khaleda challenged the legality of the appointment of the IO with the High Court but it was turned down by the court. l

176,000 unauthorised tablets seizedn Kamrul Hasan

A mobile court yesterday seized a large cache of unauthorised med-icine imported from abroad, after conducting a drive at a healthcare centre in Dhaka’s Hatirpool area.

RAB 2 Deputy Director Major Mohammad Ataur Rahman led the drive under Executive Magistrate Mohammad Helal Uddin.

The court also slapped a Tk10 lakh � ne to centre’s owner Sukumar Biswas and manager Shuli Biswas.

“The team seized 176,000 piec-es of unauthorised medicine worth Tk65 lakh from Jupiter Health Care,” Magistrate Helal said.

Sukumar confessed that his es-tablishment did not have a licence from health directorate and that he re-packed medicines after importing them with incorrect declarations. The mobile court found Jupiter was supplying di� erent medicines – without DGHS approval. l

Police to seek fresh remand for Sha� kn Arifur Rahman Rabbi

A fresh seven-day remand would be sought against Sha� k Rehman over his alleged involvement in a plot to abduct and kill Sajeeb Wa-zed Joy, said DMP Deputy Commis-sioner Mashrukur Rahman Khaled.

The veteran journalist was arrested and put on a � ve-day remand on April 16. As the remand period ex-pired yesterday, police will seek the fresh remand against Sha� k to get more information on the case.

The DMP o� cial also said e� orts were on to send the investigation o� cer to the US, where he would

be able to visit the place where the alleged plot had been formed.

If allowed, the investigating of-� cial would also try to interview JaSaS vice-president’s son Rizve Ahmed Caesar, who is now serving a jail sentence in the USA in a brib-ery case.

An o� cial close to the investi-gation told the Dhaka Tribune that the investigating o� cer might also interrogate prime minister’s son Joy if needed.

Other sources close to the on-going probe told the Dhaka Trib-une that Sha� k met with JaSaS Vice-President Mohammad Ullah Mamun at his own Dhaka house in 2012 to allegedly discuss how money could be transferred to an FBI agent for con� dential information on Joy.

Around the same time, Mamun also allegedly met with Daily Amar Desh Editor Mahmudur Rahman in Dhaka, the sources added. l

‘The investigating o� cer might also interrogate prime minister’s son Joyif needed’

News 3D

TFRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

From left, Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan receives a bouquet from an o� cial of Islami Bank Bangladesh yesterday on the occasion of the newspaper's third anniversary. Dhaka Tribune News Editor Harun ur Rashid also accepted bouquets from Samsung Bangladesh and Banglalink o� cials on Wednesday DHAKA TRIBUNE

UK on Bangladesh: Rights situation did not improve last yearn Tribune Desk

The United Kingdom has said that human rights situation in Bangla-desh did not improve last year and that the tension between the Awa-mi League and BNP still remains unresolved.

“There was no improvement in the overall human rights situation in Bangladesh in 2015. Tensions be-tween the two main political par-ties – the ruling Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) – remain unresolved,” the 2015 Foreign and Commonwealth O� ce Report on Human Rights and Democracy says about Bangladesh.

The report released yesterday says that the confrontational actions during the � rst quarter of last year, including the arrest of senior BNP leaders, an inde� nite BNP-led trans-port blockade, and repeated hartals or general strikes impacted on peo-ple’s security and livelihoods.

“The relatively peaceful and participatory Municipal Elections on December 30, held on par-ty lines for the � rst time, were a positive development,” the report

points out.A rise in the number of extrem-

ist attacks against secularist writers and religious minorities last year increased pressure on free speech, while the draft Foreign Donations Act risks becoming a missed oppor-tunity to improve the regulatory regime for NGOs.

Through its Human Rights and Democracy Programme, the UK provided safety training to blog-gers in Bangladesh, and supported a review of the Information and Communication Technology Act 2006 to bring it into line with inter-national standards.

An overloaded justice system and delays in processing through the courts contributed to a culture of violence where people take the law into their own hands, the re-port observes.

“NGOs reported that excessive use of force, extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances were conducted with impunity, while the death penalty remained a legal punishment for a wide range of of-fences,” the report mentions.

In 2015, at least � ve people were

executed, including three war criminals convicted by the Inter-national Crimes Tribunal. NGOs continued to express concern over the process and independence of the tribunal.

The Department for Internation-al Development (DFID) last year contributed £3.7 million towards justice sector reform and £1.2 mil-lion for a police reform programme in Bangladesh, the report says.

Praising women empowerment in Bangladesh, the report says that women make a considerable con-tribution to the Bangladesh econ-omy; many are employed in the public service and the ready-made garments sector.

“However, women still do not enjoy the same social status as men, and gender-based violence remains a substantial problem. Child marriage also remains a sig-ni� cant concern,” the report says.

It also lauded Bangladesh’s growing economy, saying that they encourage the Bangladesh authori-ties to ensure that this is matched by a positive human rights trajecto-ry this year and beyond. l

Munshiganj to see 635MW coal power plantn Aminur Rahman Rasel

A consortium of local industri-al giant the Orion Group and two foreign companies have signed a power purchase agreement with Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) to set up a 635MW coal-� red power plant in Gazaria, Munshiganj.

PDB Secretary M Zahirul Haque and Orion Group’s Managing Direc-tor Salman Obaidul Karim signed the contract on behalf of their re-spective sides at Bidyut Bhaban in Dhaka yesterday.

This project is a part of a plan to install two coal-� red power plants in Dhaka and Chittagong regions,

approved by the Cabinet Commit-tee on Government Purchase on September 29, 2013.

The two foreign companies are China-based Fujian Zhongde Ener-gy Co Ltd and UAE-based Firstgen Energy FZE, venturing with Orion Group’s member company Orion Power Meghnaghat Ltd, a pow-er generation company based in Sonargaon, Narayanganj.

According to the agreement, the state-owned PDB will purchase electricity from the plant for the next 25 years at a levellised tari� of Tk5.86 per unit – kilowatt per hour – once the plant goes into opera-tion, which is estimated to begin in 45 months.

The project has already made signi� cant progress, said Moham-mad Obaidul Karim, chairman of the Orion Group.

“We made a commitment to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to � nish the construction of the power plant within 45 months. The construction work will start in full swing now that the contract has been signed,” he said at the signing ceremony.

“We have signed a contract with the General Electric of the US to acquire the primary equipment for the project, including boiler, tur-bine and generator.”

Meanwhile, an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract has been signed

with China’s Guangdong Electric Power Design Institute, he added.

The project has also received the approval of the terms of refer-ence for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) from the Depart-ment of Environment.

“The notion that coal-based power plant harms the environ-ment is not right,” said Obaidul. “Around 50-70% electricity in var-ious developed countries are pro-duced using coal.”

PDB Chairman Shamsul Hasan Miah said this power plant would be built using ultra-supercritical technology, which is why carbon emission from this plant would be signi� cantly less than usual.

Monowar Islam, secretary at the Power Division, said around 45% electricity in the country is being produced by the private sector. “We are considering the private sector as the ‘engine of growth’,” he said.

However, power produced by private companies cannot be termed private, he said. “Entrepre-neurs from the private sector are working with the public sector as partners.”

Orion Group has another deal with the government to set up three other coal-based power plants to add 1,088MW electricity to the national grid, signed on June 27, 2012. Implementation of that deal is in progress. l

18 robbers arrested n Arifur Rahman Rabbi

Police arrested 18 suspected crim-inals while they were preparing to commit robbery in Golapbagh area of Jatrabari in Dhaka on Wednes-day night.

Most of the arrestees were in-volved in unlawful activities af-ter coming to Dhaka from various parts of the country, said DMP Deputy Commissioner (Wari zone) Syed Nurul Islam in a press brie� ng around 11:30am yesterday.

“Most of the arrested are teenag-ers from Chakariya in Cox’s Bazar. They rented two � ats in Golapbagh for scheming, after which they sold the stolen goods. Police recovered 40 mobile phones, six laptops, one tab and some local weapons from their possession,” said the DC.

A man named Harun is the al-leged leader of this gang and is now on the run. “We are trying to catch Harun to discover more about this case and the others involved,” add-ed the DC. l

The suspected robbers, who were arrested by police during a drive on Wednesday night in Jatrabari, Dhaka, arrive at the DMP Media Centre before a press brie� ng yesterday RAJIB DHAR

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016Advertisement4DT

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016News 5

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Cox’s Bazar 31 27Dhaka 37 28 Chittagong 33 28 Rajshahi 43 26 Rangpur 35 23 Khulna 42 28 Barisal 37 28 Sylhet 27 23T E M P E R AT U R E F O R E C A S T F O R TO DAY

Source: Accuweather/UNB

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YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW39.7ºC 21.7ºC

Ishwardi RangpurFRIDAY, APRIL 22Source: IslamicFinder.org

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TIB lauds revolutionary changes in RMG sectorn Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

Transparency International Bang-ladesh (TIB) has termed the safety improvements in the RMG sector in terms of � re, electrical and struc-tural safety as “revolutionary”.

“Revolutionary progress has been made in the safety systems in the country’s RMG industry. There has been remarkable improvement in the safety infrastructure. These progresses deserve praise from home and abroad,” TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman told reporters at a press conference yesterday.

TIB launched a report tilted “Good Governance in the Ready-made Garments Sector: Achievements, Challenges and Way forward” at its o� ce in Dhaka yesterday.

The study looked into the pro-gress made in the last year by gar-ment industry stakeholders and the government to ensure good governance in RMG Sector, in par-ticular the plans that were adopted since since the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013. It also identi� ed imple-mentation challenges and provid-ed several recommendations.

“The safety standards of the RMG sector has reached a level we can be proud of and it needs to be retained,” Iftekharuzzaman said.

To make it more e� ective, fac-tors like strong monitoring and accountable implementation were the key, the anti-graft watchdog’s chief said.

According to the study � ndings,

since the collapse of Rana Plaza, 41% initiatives taken to improve the safety standards in the RMG sector had been implemented ful-ly, 36% had made satisfactory pro-gress, 10% were in slow motion and 13% of the plans were stagnant.

The apparel industry had made signi� cant progress in workers’ rights in terms of trade union regis-tration, Iftekharuzzaman said.

“But changes in mindset will make a remarkable di� erence,” he said.

“Workers should have the right

to enjoy unionism in the factory without any in� uence or threat.”

The report said 125 trade unions were registered in 2015.

It observed that progress was signi� cant in factories that were BGMEA or BKMEA members. But about 700 factories that were not members of either of the trade bod-ies needed technical and � nancial support from the government to be able to meet compliance standards, it said.

Determining the amount of compensation was crucial but it

is still limited in committee, said Iftekharuzzaman urging to set the amount in line with the interna-tional standard.

The TIB report urged the gov-ernment to provide donor funded loans for remediation and reloca-tion at a lower interest rate. About 15% factories are housed in shared building, it said.

The report said buyers and brands had failed to keep their end of the deal to raise the prices of products, even though production costs had gone up due to electrical, � re and

structural safety improvements.According to the study, prices of

cotton trousers for men and boys exported to the US market had de-clined by 40.89% in the last 14 years.

Although there was visible and satisfactory progress in technical compliance and factory safety, the progress in social compliance, espe-cially with regard to job related ben-e� ts and rights of workers had not been satisfactory, the report said.

It also observed that the amend-ments made by the government to labour laws and rules would not be enough to give collective bar-gaining power to workers. Rather in some areas, legal processes had been made cumbersome, it said.

In its recommendations, TIB suggested a separate lead minis-try that will be a central authority strengthening oversight, bringing coordination and ensuring good governance in the RMG sector.

The report stressed on estab-lishment of the Labour Welfare Fund and its speedy implementa-tion, justice for the survivors of the Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashion tragedies through a speedy trial tribunal, immediate development of workers’ database, formulation of a policy for sub-contracting and capacity building at the labour de-partment, among other points.

“The Rana Plaza disaster showed us that people could die as a result of corruption. But after the incident the industry has made a great amount of progress in good governance and � ghting corrup-tion,” said Iftehkar. l

IPU president meets Romanian presidentn Tribune Desk

Inter Parliamentary Union Pres-ident Saber Hossain Chowdhury yesterday met with Romanian President Klaus Werner Iohannis at Cotroceni Palace, Bucharest.

In the meeting, the Romanian head of state and the IPU presi-

dent committed to deeper engage-ment and cooperation between the Parliament of Romania and Inter Parliamentary Union. They also underscored the increasing impor-tance of parliamentary diplomacy in responding to global challenges as well as the role of parliaments in implementing Agenda 2030. l

Brac Uni’s programme for teens endsn Tribune Desk

Brac University’s Institute of Edu-cational Development (BIED) has celebrated the completion of a four year programme on promoting sex-ual and reproductive health and rights and psychosocial wellbeing of adolescents.

The event was organised at the Spectra Convention Centre in Dha-ka yesterday morning.

The project, called Schooling, SRHR, Gender and Counselling of Adolescents in Post-Primary Edu-cation (SSCOPE), was implemented by the institute and funded by the Dutch embassy.

SSCOPE began in 2012 as a low-

cost secondary education school model. It operated in 33 schools in nine di� erent urban areas with sig-ni� cant success.

Later with funding from the Dutch embassy, it introduced programmes addressing sexual and reproductive health, rights and gender and psychosocial counselling.

Professor Emeritus Dr Manzo-or Ahmed from Brac University, a guest at the event, called the work pioneering and examplary for those who want to provide holistic well-being to young people.

At the event, project sta� , counsellors, students and parents shared their experiences. l

BEPRC launched at IUB n Tribune Desk

Bangladesh Energy and Power Research Council (BEPRC) was launched yesterday at a round ta-ble held at the Independent Uni-versity, Bangladesh (IUB) in Dha-ka’s Bashundhara residential area.

Dr Taw� q-e-Elahi Chowdhury, Bir Bikram, adviser to the prime minister for enegry, power and mineral resources, attended the event as chief guest while Dr Ah-mad Kaikaus, additional secretary at the Power Division and chair-man of the BEPRC, delivered the key-note speech.

Moderated by IUB Vice-Chan-cellor Prof M Omar Rahman, the event was attended by a good num-ber of academicians and experts in the power sector. l

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016News6DT

Charge framing against Destiny MD, 50 others May 11n Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court will decide on May 11 if charges will be framed against 51 Destiny Group senior o� cials, in-cluding managing director Ra� qul Amin, in two money laundering cas-es involving nearly Tk4,200 crore.

Dhaka Senior Special Judge Md Kamrul Hossain Molla � xed the date as the charge framing order in the cases was not prepared on the day.

Earlier on April 12, the court � xed yesterday to pass the order against the accused after holding a charge framing hearing in the cases.

Ra� qul Amin, director Moham-mad Hossain, o� cials Md Didarul Alam, Md Ziaul Haque Molla, and Saidul Islam Khan are now in jail, while only Destiny 2000 president Lt Gen (retd) Harun-or-Rashid is on bail. The other accused including Ra� qul’s wife Farah Diba are on the run.

On May 4, 2014, the ACC submit-ted two charge sheets against the 51 people in the cases. According to the charge sheets, the accused mis-appropriated about Tk4,200 crore through its tree plantation project and cooperative � rm and laun-dered this money abroad. l

Thousands stranded as vessel workers striken Shohel Mamun with Anisur

Rahman Swapan from Barisal and Md Ibrahim from Chandpur

Water transport workers around Bangladesh went on a strike yester-day to press for demands including revision of pay, leaving thousands of commuters stranded at river ports throughout the country.

Bangladesh Water Transport Workers’ Federation (BWTWF) called the strike demanding, among others, revision of allow-ances and bene� ts, compensations for deaths or injuries in accidents, eight-hour worker shifts and over-time pay, and curbing piracy.

BWTWF President Shah Alam said: “We are enforcing an in-de� nite strike to press home our 15-point charter of demands, in-cluding pay hike.”

Alam said they want the min-imum salary of vessel workers to be raised to Tk8,250 from Tk4,100. “We will continue our demonstra-tion until the government agrees to meet out demands.”

Shipments of cargoes were de-layed and people’s plans went hay-wire as no vessels left the ports. In Bangladesh, which is criss-crossed with rivers, the riverine is a popular and cheap mode of transportation.

No passenger vessels left Dha-ka’s Sadarghat terminal as hun-dreds of passengers were waiting for launches. The problem was se-vere where rivers are the main ac-cess route.

“I have a job interview in Dha-ka tomorrow. When I came here, there were no launches and I did not know that the water transport workers were on strike,” said Jahed Hasan in Chandpur.

Engine boats and trawlers fer-ried passengers across the rivers in various places but were charging unusually high. In the southern re-gion, speedboats and trawlers are grabbing the windfall.

Abdul Rob, a private service holder at Barisal river port, said he

needed to travel to Bhola urgent-ly. “Thanks to the strike, I have to spend a fortune and hire a speed boat,” he said.

Many, who failed to travel by river, opted for bus. “Most long distance buses are also crowded to-day,” said one Hosneara, stranded at Barisal port with her family.

Sikder Abul Hasem, Barisal unit president of Noujan Sramik Federa-tion, said no vessel left the port yes-terday and vowed to continue the strike until their demands are met.

Saidur Rahaman Rintu, vice president of Bangladesh Launch Owners Association, said the strike forced them to suspend operations.

The continuation of the strike will also likely a� ect prices of goods in the southern region where fuel and other necessities are shipped via river, said Rintu, also president of Barisal Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

Bangladesh Inland Water Trans-port Corporation (BIWTC) Assis-

tant General Manager Syed Abul Kalam Azad said BIWTC vessels were running on schedule amid heavy rush due to strike by workers of private vessels.

BWTWF President Alam said: “No one from the government has contacted us yet, which means they are not taking our demands seriously. So, we have decided to continue the strike.”

BIWTA’s Deputy Director Musta� zur Rahman said the strike was the result of a disagreement between workers and vessel own-ers over pay.

“Both sides are holding meet-ings to hammer out a solution. We hope the strike will be called o� soon,” he said.

Goods loading, unloading halted at Ctg jettiesThe loading and unloading of goods was halted yesterday at 16 jetties at Karnaphuli River outside the Chittagong Port, reports our Chittagong correspondent.

Sources in outer anchorage said the workers have refrained from their duties at the 16 jetties, includ-ing Sadarghat, Banglabazar, Anu Majhir Ghat and Majhir Ghat.

The Noujan Sramik leaders al-leged that due to the unplanned decision taken by the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Re-sources, the workers are agitated while the indiscriminate extortion, robbery and abduction by crimi-nals on the water route heat up the demonstration. l

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016News 7

DT

No vessel was anchored at Sadarghat jetty as vessel workers went on an inde� nite strike across the country yesterday to press home their 15-point charter of demands RAJIB DHAR

Four to die for killing schoolboyn Tribune Desk

A Gazipur court convicted four people, including two siblings, and condemned them to death for kill-ing a schoolboy at Pubail in the city on August 2004, reports UNB.

The condemned convicts are Iqbal Hossain Bhuiyan, 32, and his brother Md Shakil Bhuiyan, 30, sons of Abdul Hamid Bhuiyan; Zaman Sarker, 32,son of Afzal Hossain Sark-er, residents of Haribari Tech area of Pubail; and Abu Sayem, 34, son of Mujibur Rahman, haling from Lata-bor village of Kurigram. The court also � ned them TK 10,000 each.

According to the prosecution, convict Zaman had put forward a proposal to marry Rokhsana, daughter of Hasan Khandker, res-ident of the area. But, Rokhsana’s family turned down the proposal.

Outraged by the refusal, Zaman abducted Rokhsana’s brother Ma-mum, 15, a class eight student of local Bhadun High School, on Au-gust 10, 2004. l

Hefazat leader Mufti Harun put on 2-day remand n FM Mizanur Rahaman,

Chittagong

A Chittagong court yesterday put the radical Islamic group Hefaz-at-e-Islam’s central publicity secre-tary Mufti Harun Izhar on two-day remand.

Additional Deputy Commis-sioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police Kazi Muttaki Ibn Minan (prosecution) told the Dhaka Trib-une that the court of 5th Metropol-itan Magistrate Abdul Kader had granted two-day remand of Mufti Harun Izhar after police produced him before the court with 10-day remand prayer in a case � led over Explosive Act with Kotwali police station in 2012.

Mufti Harun Izhar, son of Hefaz-at-e-Islam’s Senior Nayeb-e-Ameer Mufti Izharul Islam, was rearrested from jail gate in Chittagong central jail on April 19 after he walked out on bail. l

ONE YEAR INTO ASHULIA ROBBERY

Victims, their families living hellish livesn Md Nadim Hossain, Savar

The memory of the robbery that occurred at a branch of Bang-ladesh Commerce Bank Ltd at Kathgora, Ashulia a year back still haunts the victims and their fami-lies as well.

On April 21 last year, at least eight people, including the bank manager and a robber, were killed and 23 others injured during a rob-bery attempt at the bank.

Rabiul Islam Sumon whose fa-ther was shot dead on the day told the Dhaka Tribune that after his death, the family had been living in hardship. Sumon’s father was a vegetable vendor at the kitchen market.

“The bank had then assured us they would provide us with a job in the bank but have yet to ful� ll their promise. I contacted them several times, but they never responded.”

Another victim, a vegetable vendor seeking anonymity, said: “I was shot when I went to the bank and resisted the robbers. I had to

remain under treatment, but now I cannot sit properly and run my business.

“I cannot forget that day. I still have nightmares of that day. Not only that, now when I see un-known people, I become nervous.”

Nur Mohammad, general secre-tary of Kathgora Bazar Samity, told the Dhaka Tribune that after the in-cident, security measures had been beefed up, but now it has been re-laxed which makes kitchen market traders anxious. He also demanded the bank set up a check post near the kitchen market.

O� cer-in-Charge of Ashulia po-lice station Mohsinul Kadir told the Dhaka Tribune that Kathgora area was still under their vigilance.

He said law enforcers were do-ing their job properly and people in the area should not be worried.

On January 6, a Dhaka court took cognisance of the charge sheet against 11 alleged mil-itants in a case � led over the killing of eight people during the bank robbery.

The judge of the district and session’s judge court ASM Kuddus Zaman accepted the charge sheet in the murder case in the presence of the 10 accused.

The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of the accused fugi-tive Palash alias Sohel Rana, and � xed January 18 for starting the charge-framing hearing.

Earlier, on December 6, 2015, o� cer-in-charge of Ashulia police station Dipak Kumar Saha, also investigation o� cer of the case, submitted two charge sheets, one for the killing and robbery, and the other for possession of explosives, against the 11 militants.

The charge-sheeted accused are Burhan Uddin, Al-Amin, Babul Sarder, Mintu Pradhan, Jasimud-din, Abdul Baten, Mozammel Haque, Ukil Hasan, Mahfujul Haque, Shahjahan Jamadar and Pa-lash alias Sohel Rana.

They are alleged members of banned Islamist out� ts Ansarullah Bangla Team and Jama’atul Muja-hideen Bangladesh. l

32 buildings vulnerable to earthquake in Sylhetn Mohammed Serajul Islam,

Sylhet

The authority of Sylhet City Cor-poration (SCC) started to demolish earthquake risky buildings in the city.

The SCC identi� ed a total of 31 buildings as highly risky in the city taking into consideration on the date of their establishment.

Earlier, notices were issued to the owners of 32 risky buildings in the city asking them to pull down the buildings within the stipulated time, which varies according to the size of the structures.

The authorities also have warned that the corporation will itself de-molish the structures if the owners do not comply with the order.

An expert team of Shahjalal Uni-versity of Science and Technology have conducted a survey recently and marking the 32 buildings as very vulnerable mentioning that there are more than 100 risky mul-ti-storey buildings in the city.

Sources said the authorities prepared the list of 32 buildings at the initial stage of its e� ort to tear down the vulnerable structures and issued notices to the owners concerned on Sunday.

The sources said that all the build-ings, which are vulnerable for their dilapidated state, faulty construc-tion or lack of smooth exit facility, would be marked gradually to en-sure the safety for the city residents.

The SCC chief executive o� cer, Enamul Habib, con� rmed the news of issuing notices to the risky build-ing owners.

Owner of a three-storey building

at Tantipara was asked to demolish it within Wednesday.

A drive was launched yesterday to tear down the building, as its

owner did not demolish it, Enamul Habib said.

He also informed that the trad-ers of the city corporation-owned

City Super Market at Bandar Bazar were asked to vacate the commercial structure within the next seven days.

The Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP), a � agship collaborative initiative of the Bangladesh Ministry of Disas-ter Management and Relief, iden-ti� ed that the Sylhet city and its adjacent areas as highly vulnerable to earthquakes.

CDMP also reported that, around 24 thousand buildings of the city and its adjacent areas may collapse due to an earthquake measuring 6 or more than 6 on the Richter Scale at any time, resulting in massive damages and deaths.

Sources concerned quoting the SCC authority said the city corpo-ration had earlier identi� ed more than 50 private and public instal-lations as highly risky in di� erent parts of the city during the ar-my-backed caretaker government in 2008. The then authority also had decided to demolish the build-ings, but in vain.

At least four public installations were identi� ed as highly risky and vulnerable. Those were Collec-torate Building-3, Women A� airs O� cer’s O� ce at Naya Sarak, Cus-toms and VAT O� ce and Land Sur-veyor’s O� ce of the city.

Zabed Hossen Mohammad Tarek, senior manager of Sylhet Fire Service Station, said their team was ready to take steps in emergency situation.

The sources said a strong earth-quake with a magnitude 6.9 shook Myanmar on Wednesday night. People in several parts of Bangla-desh including Sylhet felt tremors.

Former Chief of Civil and En-vironmental Engineering depart-ment of SUST Prof Dr Jahir Bin Alam said that a good number of buildings were constructed in the area without proper design work and permission from the authori-ties concerned.

“An earthquake, measuring big on the Richter Scale may hit the belt once in a century releasing the energy gained from the Dauki Fault, resulting in massive damages and casualty in the area”, he added.

He, however, suggested said that the most vulnerable buildings in the areas should be demolished immediately and retro� tting work might be applied if the buildings are not most vulnerable.

Prof Jamilur Reza Choudhury former Adviser to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh recent-ly said in a seminar Sylhet was in earthquake zone.

The city faced a mass destruc-tion in 1989 Myanmar earthquake, he said. He suggested to build up ‘Asam Bangla Type Home’ to save from earthquake devastation. l

News8DTFRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

DG – 416/16 (4.5 x 4)

A building located at Tantipara in Sylhet being demolished yesterday as the structure has been identi� ed as risky during a survey conducted by a team from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology recently DHAKA TRIBUNE

Man to die for killing friend in Chittagongn FM Mizanur Rahaman

A court in Chittagong yesterday sentenced a youth to death on charges of stabbing and killing his friend in the city’s Bakalia area. The convicted is Jahed Mahmud, 26, son of Selim Mahmud, a resident of Chit-tagong city’s Bagmaniram area.

The court of Metropolitan Session Judge Md Shahenur handed down the verdict around 12:15pm in presence of the accused, said Public Prose-cutor Md Fakruddin.

Fakruddin told the Dhaka Tribune: “He was found guilty by the court beyond doubt for killing his friend Ka� l Uddin, while the court also � ned him Tk10,000.

According to the prosecution, Ka� l Uddin, a second-year stu-dent of the Computer Science

Department at the International Islamic University of Chittagong, had been stabbed to death by Mahmud near a hill of Jamiatul Falah Mosque in the city on De-cember 18 in 2011. After the mur-der, the convicted had looted his friend’s laptops, mobile and valuables, and went into hiding.

DB police later arrested Mahmud, while the looted lap-tops and other valuables were also recovered from his posses-sion. The accused then made a confessional statement under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code in the murder case. DB police submitted the charge sheet to the court accus-ing Mahmud on May 3 in 2012.

Fakruddin said: “The court passed the order hearing the deposition of 11 witnesses, af-ter which the convicted was sent to jail.” l

nSabrina Fatma Ahmad

Who among us hasn’t at some point � irted with the idea of being a writer? A scribbled poem here, a “high thought” musing there and the delicious thrill of seeing your name in print while others read the words you’ve penned down. And with social media ensuring that no matter what you type out and post, you’re bound to get a few likes or reactions, it’s easy to get carried away with the fantasy of being the next JK Rowling or Dan Brown.

If you’re actually serious about making a career out of words, however, it takes a lot more elbow grease than that to make it work. No matter what kind of writing you’re into, there’s some homework you have to put in before getting down to it.

ObserveWhere do stories come from? Where do you turn when you have a giant essay to turn in and inspiration has run dry? The answer is to take a break, and look around you. Take a walk. Flip through a magazine. Talk to a stranger. Ask the questions “who”, “what”, “when”,

“where” and “why”. Particularly the “why”. You’ll � nd a story unfolding where you least expect it. Photographer GMB Akash has a whole Facebook page just swimming with amazing stories of this type. Jewish American literary theorist, novelist, � lm-maker, and feminist activist Susan Sontag famously advises, “Do stu� . Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”

ReadYes. Unfortunately, there’s no short-cut here. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing speeches or a novel. In order to be engaging, original and relevant, you have to read, extensively and voraciously. Even if you’re writing non-� ction, read � ction. Learn the techniques employed by � ction authors to create immersive worlds and employ the same narrative tools to open up the scope of your work. If you’re dabbling in � ction, read non-� ction. George RR Martin’s insanely popular A Song of Ice and Fire owes much of its success to

his obsessive reading of medieval history. Read things not related to the kind of genre you’re working with. It will only enrich your own work.

RecordJournalling is a great way to store inspiration for later. Something as simple as jotting down a list of things that happened during your

Writing 9D

T

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

The Golden Rules Essential homework for any writer

Many people vastly overestimate their experience and ability in these areas. Many people think they are skilled writers or editors, when in fact they are not

day not only helps your memory, but also helps you organise your thoughts. This is a particularly useful practice to adopt if you’re writing reports or critical and argumentative essays. These days, with options for blogging, vlogging, tweeting and what have you, the nature of journalling has changed and is much easier, but if you’re serious about your material (and health), the old-fashioned method of putting pen to paper has no substitute. University of Texas at Austin psychologist and researcher James Pennebaker contends that regular journalling strengthens immune cells, called T-lymphocytes. Other research indicates that journalling decreases the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Pennebaker believes that writing about stressful events helps you come to terms with them, thus reducing the impact of these stressors on your physical health.

FeedbackIf you’re writing to be read, getting feedback can help you hone your work until it’s ready for an audience. But the wrong kind of feedback can actually do more harm than good. Consider this, if you needed medical advice, would you rather go to a doctor, or a lawyer? Just so, if you’re just shopping your work around with just anybody, you’re not doing yourself a favour. There are really only two kinds of people who can give you constructive feedback on your work: experienced writers/editors, and someone from your target audience. And when we say “experienced” writers, we mean someone who’s had some work published or some kind of quali� cation in the � eld. Writer/publisher Tucker Max cautions: “Many people vastly overestimate their experience and ability in these areas. Many people think they are skilled writers or editors, when in fact they are not.”

Finding a sample from the target audience is tricky if you’re trying to write for a more general audience. You need to at least keep in mind the cultural context of the audience. Certain kinds of writing material may be just � ne for one kind of culture, o� ensive for another. Hence, testing it out on someone who hails from the same situation as the kind of people you’re trying to reach might be prudent. Again, tread carefully when taking feedback. In the wise words of uber-popular fantasy author Neil Gaiman: “When people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to � x it, they are almost always wrong.”

And now, once the homework is done, all that’s left to do is write. l

10DT

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016Feature

n Quazi Aquib Ahmed

Instagram is one of the most highly engaged applications with more than 400 million followers and is ever growing since then. Many people have found Instagram as an active marketing place for their business, while photographers found a great way to display their portfolios which are accessible from anywhere. Apart from all these

cool features of Instagram, what is most trending these days are the make-up tutorial videos, which are beyond anyone’s imagination. Here is a list of those crazy trends that sprout from Instagram.

Trends on Instagram

Plumping lips with shot glassThis one is pretty dangerous and it requires a lot of supervision. Another trend to plump your lips using a shot glass. This is a cost-free technique and can be done at home, but caution! This needs some steady hands. The technique is performed to have bee-stung lips. As it is not possible to have a bee physically sting your lips, a woman found out that a shot glass could be used instead. This process takes weeks to � nally show results. If you’re possessed into trying this trend, please read about it � rst. Believe it or not, it’s not as simple as you think it to be.

Glitter beard What now? You’ve read that correctly. We’re taking about putting glitter on beards. No, this is no fairy-tale; it is real. This trend was actually started by two Irish friends, who believed that people needed more colour in their lives. Couldn’t they just have gone for colourful clothing instead? Glitter on the beard could be a great way of living eventually, but it’s clear that the time is not quite right for people to roam around with beards covered in glitter. There was a time when people used to dye their beards, and even that didn’t last long. This is apparently one of the most trending pages and if you haven’t checked them out, go take a gander now.

Face-lifting with tape As painful as it sounds, it may not be as much. This is one of the most popular and trending tutorials on Instagram, and apparently, putting tape on your face is actually practised in face-lifting. Have you ever thought of using scotch tape for face-lifting purposes? Of course not! If you are getting any ideas and want to try the face-lifting now, don’t use scotch tape. It is believed they have a di� erent kind of tape specially made for such a purpose.

Leg and Chest ContouringYou probably have seen all kinds of make-up tutorials based on contouring your face. Now, leg and chest contouring is o� cially a thing. Well, the contouring on face is pretty general and it’s � ne to want to enhance your physical features, but chest and leg contouring is not what people had in mind. It was hilarious to look at � rst, thinking about the amount of work they have to go through to do all that hard work. However, this is like taking it to a whole new level. It is understandable when you try to do this with your face but legs and chest? Girls, seriously, what are you thinking?

INSIDE

Around 130 countries have agreed to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change before it is deposited today at the United Nations to mark Earth Day.

The agreement sets out an action plan to secure new funding to put the world on track to keep global warming below the agreed limit of 2 degrees Celsius.

It is a sign of support for climate vulnerable countries such as Bangladesh where even a one metre sea level rise could displace millions of people and inundate half of our rice farming land.

While globally and historically, greenhouse emissions from Bangladesh are negligible, and are not a barrier to e� orts to industrialise our economy, it is important we try to do so sustainably to prevent the negative consequences of climate change becoming even worse.

Investing in reducing negative impacts on the environment is also important to limit other ecological problems, such as air pollution, dirty rivers, and shrinking habitats for wildlife.

News that Norway’s $864 billion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, has excluded a further 52 coal-related companies from its portfolio which adds weight to the growing movement among large global investors to divest funds away from carbon assets that are likely to become unusable as climate change grows.

It provides even more reason for the government to future proof our own development by increasing e� orts to encourage renewable energy production. As successful initiatives by IDCOL have shown, such moves can deliver important social and economic dividends by creating jobs and improving living standards, in addition to reducing emissions.

As a nation on the frontline, Bangladesh should keep lobbying for more international backing to fund the global clean energy revolution the world needs to reduce per capita greenhouse emissions. If COP fails to make progress, every nation’s ability to adapt and improve resilience to climate change will be severely compromised.

Investing in reducing negative impacts on the environment is also important to limit other ecological problems, such as air pollution, dirty rivers, and shrinking habitats for wildlife

Does bad news really sell more?

Holocaust denial, Holocaust historyAs the Holocaust became not just an important historical event but a critical issue in the geo-politics of the later decades of 20th century, all kinds of experts engaged in large numbers to propagate their own versions of the event

PAGE 13

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The global � ght against climate changeBangladesh has risen to this challenge. From the establishment of the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan of 2009 and Climate Change Trust Fund to the continued dedication of over 6% of the annual budget to climate change adaptation

Once you get a leg up in muting negativity around you by carefully selecting who you choose to � lter into your lives, this reduces stress, cynicism, hopelessness, anxiety, and fear tremendously

No Planet B

11D

TEditorialFRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207

Send us your Op-Ed articles:opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com

www.dhakatribune.comJoin our Facebook community:

https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune.

The views expressed in Opinion articles are those of the authors

alone. They do not purport to be the o� cial view of Dhaka

Tribune or its publisher.

BIGSTOCK

n Matthew Islam

I have always found this rather a curious question in our modern discourse.

When you take a glance at your favourite positive news purveyors on social media that supply you with good news, you’d get the impression from the interactions on the posts, the virility of that content, that good, positive media does have a sizeable demand to it but that demand is grossly under-supplied.

So it always feels like positive media is being unfairly disadvantaged against the alternative by some inherent design of media corporations.

This, however, stands in direct contradiction with real data that suggests we as humans are apparently in the perpetual hunt for bad news and the huge demand for the negative ensures the supply that we have.

According to Psychology Today, in several media studies, it’s been noted that negative media coverage outweighs good ones by almost 17 to one. This also explains how we are fast to share bad news but won’t be as vociferous of glad tidings.

Adding to that, as sceptical as I am of surveys, let’s for the purposes of this proposition allow for one.

The Pew Research Centre in the US averaged surveys for over two decades to see viewing preferences of those watching news on TV, barring some downturn in our propensity to

tune into bad news of certain genres, it was discovered, overall, the preference towards seeking news on wars, con� ict, scandals, and negative news remained unchanged and at high levels.

Media corporations, essentially being businesses at their core, simply ensure for ratings and other such commercial considerations that there is a steady � ow of news about negative aspects related to our world and lives.

Why do we seek bad news then?Some have posited that this

demand for staying informed of the bad over good has a lot to do with how our brains are naturally wired.

The amygdala, the detector of danger in our brains, has evolved to sift out from all the sensory stimulations it receives the ones which are dangerous so as to guarantee a better rate of survival.

This a� ects our overall cognitive attitude and tips the

scale to a negative bias.Our system has evolved in a

way where it is easier for it to process the negative stimuli it gets than good ones, even though bizarrely, the good feelings have

a far greater bene� cial e� ect over our health than the natural state of things. So, to that extent, it is clear why bad news is a natural craving of ours.

What very few studies have attempted to explore is what happens if we actively work against the natural order of things.

Why should our evolutionary propensity handicap our overall potential to control and improve our happiness and health?

While the full e� ects of combating negativity, especially in connection with the news we read or are exposed to, are not fully known; we do know how bene� cial it is to attempt to reprogram our brain in supporting a positive attitude.

Having a positive outlook on life is good for health, and better yet, having one is said to be greatly infectious to other people in them altering their own behaviour patterns in a positive manner.

Having a happy outlook or working to create an environment that actively seeks to decrease negativity is di� cult when you are surrounded by bad news everywhere.

But it is achievable. It requires work. It requires that one take some time out and work on individually cutting out negative noise.

In practice, it could be something as small as what my wife likes to do, in that she doesn’t read newspapers regularly or watch the news often, or a bigger step such as sitting and unsubscribing to every page on Facebook that she feels is a downer to her going about her day.

She has insisted on me doing

the same in my life, and it’s made a remarkable di� erence.

Once you get a leg up in muting negativity around you by carefully selecting who you choose to � lter into your lives, this reduces stress, cynicism, hopelessness, anxiety, and fear tremendously. It also takes practice and time.

Be forceful about wanting to be happy and be aware about your life. Understand that it is impossible to shut everything bad out but when you actively seek to, then you can also numb the e� ect of the negative bits that do make it through despite your best e� orts.

Baby steps work great and are even recommended but going cold turkey isn’t a bad thing in this particular instance.

Remember, you are not alone in this battle.

There are an exponential number of resources dedicated to positive thinking or positive brain reprogramming that we all can access online or via books that we can bene� t from.

So, next time you � nd yourself asking why is it that all news in the world is bad, take a long look at the mirror and ask whether you would like to change that. If you decide to make that change, a whole new world is waiting to be discovered by you.

The � rst step is recognising that you have a problem. l

Matthew Islam is a writer, entrepreneur, barrister-at-law, and a Dhaka Tribune columnist. He can be contacted on twitter via @matthewislam or www.facebook.com/thematthewislam.

Opinion12DT

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

Why do we crave bad news? BIGSTOCK

Once you get a leg up in muting negativity around you by carefully selecting who you choose to � lter into your lives, this reduces stress, cynicism, hopelessness, anxiety, and fear tremendously. It also takes practice and time. Be forceful about wanting to be happy and be aware about your life. Understand that it is impossible to shut everything bad out but when you actively seek to, then you can also numb the e� ect of the negative bits that do make it through despite your best e� orts

Cutting out the negativity isn’t easy, but it’s achievable

Does bad news really sell more?

Long Form 13D

TFRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

n Shafi qur Rahman

Many historians and intellectuals regard the Holocaust, the Nazi Germany-led

genocide of European Jews, as the darkest chapter of the 20th century; a century that had more dark chapters than any other period of recorded history.

Some historians have attributed the uniqueness of malevolency to the Holocaust, even though Stalin and Mao were arguably responsible for far more deaths than Hitler. The Nazis planned to eradicate Jews from the body of Europe with the � nality and thoroughness that, arguably, has no parallel in history.

While many historians also have disputed the uniqueness of the Holocaust in the pantheon of genocides, there is no doubt of WWII’s place as the pivotal event of the 20th century, with Isra-el-Palestine becoming an intracta-ble but most consequential global issue of the subsequent decades. Certain factors ensured that the Holocaust continued to attract the most attention and the most con-troversies among other genocides.

Contention about the Holocaust and other events of WWII began right after completion of the Nuremberg Trials in 1946, which is where evidence and records of the Holocaust were � rst presented before the world. Although the Nuremberg Trials were the � rst international e� orts to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity, their procedural � aws and perception among people of e� ectuating “victor’s justice” facilitated controversial assessments of the war and genocide not only by conspiracy theorists with political agendas,

but many respected historians and other academics.

One famous example is acclaimed historian AJP Taylor’s 1961 book The Origins of Second World War in which he claimed that Germany did not start WWII by deliberate, aggressive design, and Hitler was not an atypically anti-Semitic leader; both claims were subsequently rejected by most historians. On the other side of the debate were a group of historians, many of them Jewish, who were determined to meticulously document and analyse the appalling inhumanity of the Holocaust, lest the world forget the lessons.

One of the most famous members of this group was Austrian-born American historian Raul Hilberg, whose 1961 book, The Destruction of European Jews, became the seminal study of the Holocaust. Hilberg established in his work that the “Nazi Final Solution” was not accidental or functional, it was very much intentional, although the � nal eradicative intention only emerged through evolution in stages.

From the very beginning, study of the Holocaust has been intricately related with international politics. Germany, which is so widely lauded nowadays for confronting its dark past, was quite reluctant in the immediate decades after WWII to open up the records and publicise the extent of evil in perpetrating the Holocaust.

Israel, a new state claiming territorial legitimacy from long-standing history, was also not vigourous in publicising the Holocaust in the early decades; many Israelis regarded the passivity of European Jews in the face of a gradually escalating Nazi

genocide an unworthy example for the combative new state.

Governments in the US and Britain were also reluctant to unsettle the new West Germany, which was the linchpin of NATO and EU alliances. The 1960s brought a huge shift in both government policies and public perception of the Holocaust. West Germany was a particular hotbed of the worldwide student protests taking place during the last years of the 60s, and a key demand of the German youth was that the government and the elder generation confront and take ownership of the dark history of the Third Reich.

Flushed with victories in the Six Day War in 1966 and in control of vastly expanded territories, Israel found that the Holocaust can become a uniquely valuable nationalist rallying point and legitimising issue in facing the world community. Meanwhile, a series of popular books, movies, televisions shows, particularly coming out of America, � rmly brought back the Holocaust in the public imagination as a crucial event of modernity.

As the Holocaust became not just an important historical event but a critical, living, breathing issue in the geo-politics of the later decades of 20th century, all kinds of experts and amateurs engaged in large numbers to propagate their own versions of the event -- deniers, revisionists, chauvinists, etc.

Holocaust deniers generally advance the idea that the Nazi genocide of Jews in Europe, as expressed in accepted history, did not happen. It is either outright rejection of the whole deliberate genocide, or complete negation of very important parts of the event.

For example, famous denialist David Irving dismissed existence and use of gas chambers in concentration camps, denied there was any o� cial Nazi policy

of extermination, and claimed that only 100,000 Jews died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, mostly because of disease from unsanitary conditions.

Meanwhile, several historians sought to elevate the Holocaust to such a unique event that any comparison with other genocides was deemed not only unacceptable, but o� ensive. Critics accused this approach as a chauvinistic and self-aggrandising expression of Jewish ethnocentrism.

Holocaust revisionists, on the other hand, seek to re-examine and re-interpret the accepted history of the event by updating

new or previously omitted, more reliable information and theories. They want their thesis to be part of the mainstream, accepted history. Although many people want to con� ate revisionism with denialism, others carefully advocate distinction.

A statement from the history department of Duke University is often cited to distinguish between revisionism and denial: “Historical revision of major events ... is not concerned with the actuality of these events; rather, it concerns their historical interpretation -- their causes and consequences generally. There is no debate among historians about the actuality of the Holocaust ... there can be no doubt that the Nazi state systematically put to death millions of Jews, gypsies, political radicals, and other people.”

We can see revision of accepted history at work even at the updating of the death toll in the Holocaust. After the Red Army liberated Auschwitz in January 1945, the Soviet government declared that four million people were killed in that Nazi death camp, 2.5 million of which were Jewish.

The Polish government installed a stone plaque in front of the ex-camp and now converted

museum, enshrining the four million � gure. Not only was this number the standard textbook � gure in communist countries, this was also widely used in many historical accounts.

But several historians expressed scepticism about the four million number soon after the end of the war. Raul Hilberg’s 1961 book estimated the number in Aucshwitz to be at most one million. Several other historians estimated even lower numbers. During the 1980s, historians used archival information about Nazi transportation records and simulation of logistics to estimate the � gure to be between 1.1 to 1.5

million. In the early 1990s, the Polish

government installed a new stone plaque with the � gure 1.1 million after removing the old one that stood before Auschwitz for more than 40 years.

Famous Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer, who was director of the Division of Holocaust Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at that time, was the one academic who was insistent about o� cially revising the old � gure. He said: “A historian’s � rst duty is to tell the truth, and in this case the truth is horrible enough. Exaggerating the number of dead at Auschwitz would only be grist for the mills of the deniers of the Holocaust.”

Faced with the rising tide of Holocaust denialism and the increasing importance of Holocaust as a geopolitical issue, many countries in Europe started to enact laws against denialism four decades after the end of war. In the next part, I will discuss how those laws have a� ected Holocaust denialism and study of Holocaust history in the public discourse. l

The � nal part of this long form will be published tomorrow.

Sha� qur Rahman is a political scientist.

Is 1.5 million the right number?

As the Holocaust became not just an important historical event but a critical living, breathing issue in the geo-politics of the later decades of 20th century, all kinds of experts and amateurs engaged in large numbers to propagate their own versions of the event -- deniers, revisionists, chauvinists

The atrocities committed by Nazi Germany are well-documented. Then why do many still claim the Holocaust never happened? This is the � rst part of a two-part long form

Holocaust denial, Holocaust history

Opinion14DT

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

n Marcia Bernicat

As people around the globe observe Earth Day today, world leaders are making history at the UN

in New York. Over 100 countries will sign the Paris Agreement on climate change, representing their commitment to join it formally.

This marks a turning point in the story of our planet, and may set a record for the largest number of signers to an international agreement in a single day.

Moreover, last month, President Obama announced with President Xi Jinping that our two countries will sign the Paris Agreement today and formally join this year.

We are con� dent other countries will do so too, with the intention of bringing this historic and ambitious agreement into force as quickly as possible.

A greener future is already in sight.

Leaders of countries and cities are adapting and innovating away from fossil fuels and business owners are investing in a clean energy economy.

The United States is moving forward in its commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions 26%-28% from 2005 levels by 2025.

We are doing this through the strongest fuel economy standards in our history, through our twenty-fold increase in solar generation since 2009, and through proposed rules on everything from energy conservation standards for appliances to reduction in emissions of methane-rich gas from municipal solid waste land� lls.

My home state, New Jersey, has undertaken ambitious programs tackling climate change and promoting renewable energy.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has introduced the Sustainable Jersey program to aid cities and towns in going green, saving money, and taking the steps necessary to ensure long-term quality of life.

Sustainable Jersey provides guidance and � nancial incentives in support of the program.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities’ Clean Energy Program encourages homeowners, businesses, and municipalities to incorporate clean energy into their

lives.The Clean Energy Program

has received the 2016 Sustained Excellence Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency for 15 years of success in promoting clean energy use.

While we are taking signi� cant climate action domestically, the US is also focused on international co-operation to address this global challenge.

Our $500 million contribution last month to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) -- the � rst tranche of the $3bn US pledge to the GCF -- will help developing countries reduce carbon emissions and prepare for climate impacts, while also advancing our commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; another major landmark agreement the world came together around last year.

One of the most successful environmental agreements of all time is the Montreal Protocol, which is phasing out ozone depleting substances globally.

It set the ozone layer on a path to recovery and prevented tens of millions of cases of skin cancer among other health, environmental, and economic

bene� ts.Hydro� uorocarbons (HFCs)

-- which replace many of the ozone-depleting substances -- do not harm the ozone layer, but they are greenhouse gases that in some cases can be thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The US is working with partners to adopt an HFC phase-down amendment to the Montreal Protocol this year that could avoid half a degree Celsius of warming by the end of the century.

We also need international co-operation to change how we transport ourselves and goods.

The aviation sector represents 2% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation is aiming to achieve carbon-neutral growth for international aviation by 2020.

The United States is committed to reaching an agreement on a global market-based measure that will help move the airline sector toward this ambitious goal.

Bangladesh, located at the con� uence of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna rivers, is uniquely vulnerable to climate change.

The 600 kilometre coastal zone faces considerable challenges: Flooding, erosion, rising sea levels, and cyclonic storm surges.

Bangladesh has risen to this challenge.

From the establishment of the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan of 2009 and Climate Change Trust Fund to the continued dedication of over 6% of the annual budget to climate change adaptation, Bangladesh has been on the leading edge of environmental policy.

For all of these reasons, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was awarded the UN’s Champion of the Earth award for Policy Leadership last September.

This Earth Day -- with the signing of the Paris Agreement -- is truly a cause for hope.

It is also a reminder of our shared commitment to combat climate change.

We must all seize upon the momentum from Paris to build a clean energy future for ourselves and our children and grandchildren.l

Marcia Bernicat is US Ambassador to Bangladesh.

Carbon emissions aren’t the only threat facing Planet Earth BIGSTOCK

Bangladesh has risen to this challenge. From the establishment of the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan of 2009 and Climate Change Trust Fund to the continued dedication of over 6% of the annual budget to climate change adaptation, Bangladesh has been on the leading edge of environmental policy

We must build a clean energy future for our children and grandchildren

No turning back in the global � ght against climate change

15D

TBusinessFRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

Capital market snapshot: ThursdayDSE

Broad Index 4,340.3 -0.4% ▼

Index 1,057.9 0.1% ▲

30 Index 1,666.2 -0.1% ▼

Turnover in Mn Tk 4,169.1 -3.9% ▼

Turnover in Mn Vol 100.6 -5.7% ▼

CSEAll Share Index 13,382.0 -0.2% ▼

30 Index 12,257.2 -0.4% ▼

Selected Index 8,130.5 -0.2% ▼

Turnover in Mn Tk 236.7 -16.8% ▼

Turnover in Mn Vol 7.8 -5.0% ▼

Asian banks’ bad debt pile highest since global � nancial crisisBad debts at Asian banks have climbed to their highest since the global � nancial crisis and the trend will likely worsen as regional econ-omies battle against China’s slow-down and volatile oil and commod-ities prices, a Reuters data analysis shows. PAGE 17

PwC plans to groom 500 local professionals PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that recently extended its footprint in Bangladesh plans to recruit and de-velop about 500 professionals local-ly in the next � ve years. PAGE 16

IEA expects biggest drop in non-OPEC oil output in 25 yearsCrude prices steadied yesterday, as the International Energy Agency (IEA) said 2016 would see the biggest fall in non-OPEC production in a gen-eration, helping to rebalance a mar-ket dogged by oversupply. PAGE 18

INSIDE

United Air compels 200 employees to take unpaid leave n Ishtiaq Husain

Private carrier United Airways (BD) Limited has recently forced at least 200 employees to take un-paid leave.

Apart from that, the airliner could not pay the monthly sala-ry of several hundred employees during the last six month because of its fund crunch.

The company’s revenue earning has now been totally stopped as it failed to operate any aircraft on any route due to the technical glitches.

Moreover, it has not yet paid its dues of aeronautical and non-aer-onautical charges worth over Tk125 crore.

“As the employees could not get their due salary for the last six months, many of them have already left the organisation,” ac-cording to an o� cial source.

Dhaka Tribune couldn’t reach Managing Director of United Air Tasbirul Ahmed Chowdhury, despite repeated attempts were made over his mobile number.

Besides, none of the top o� -cials of the airlines also declined to talk about the employees’

forced leave without pay issue. Meanwhile, all the pilots and

engineers of the airlines have al-ready quit the airliner to grab a bet-ter job. Most of them have joined other private local carriers while few others joined foreign carriers.

In mid-January, all the aircraft were grounded. The airliner re-sumed � ights on February 24. Later, it grounded again as the company didn’t maintain proper maintenance.

According to the Dhaka Trib-une investigation, all the aircraft of the airline are now grounded due to technical glitches.

Since its inception in 2007, it had to suspend operations for three days in September 2014 due to � nancial crisis.

A still serving o� cial of the United Airways said: “The owner of the building, which housed the airliner head o� ce, has already served a legal notice to the man-agement few days back to pay all the dues including monthly rent. Otherwise, the airliner will have to leave the building.”

So far, there has been no initia-tive from the management of the

airlines to resume its � ights due to the surfaced business con� ict among the board of directors, the highest policy making body, said another o� cial.

As a public limited company, there is no big investment from the board of director’s end. Around 90% investment came from public money. That is why, they don’t have any interest to resume its � ight op-eration by investing more money.

The airliner had earlier bought some old aircrafts at a cost of Tk400

crore, raised through o� ering rights shares to its shareholders.

Its last international � ight was operated by an MD 83 aircraft to Kuala Lumpur in mid-January which � nally returned to Dhaka after one of its engines was shut-down at mid-air. The aircraft has remained grounded since then due to proper maintenance.

The private carrier having 11 aircrafts in its � eet used to operate � ights to eight domestic and sev-en international destinations. l

Uniform tax rate on tobacco products likelyThe current basis of tax plan becomes void from next FYn Syed Samiul Basher Anik

The government may introduce a uniform tax rate on tobacco prod-ucts irrespective of price range from the next � scal year making the current basis – the higher the price, the larger the amount of tax paid – obsolete, o� cials said.

The plan comes as the present system is said to have failed in reducing tobacco consumption and generating revenue from in-creased taxation as majority in the country are consumers of low-end cigarettes.

As less tax is imposed on low-end cigarettes than on premium brands, experts believe that there has been no signi� cant reduction in the number of smokers after the increase of tax.

A uniform tax rate is, therefore, now under the plan since it is like-ly to serve the both ends – discour-aging the tobacco consumption and generating new revenues.

The National Board of Revenue has started examining the options to bring about a change after a di-rective from Finance Minister AMA

Muhith. Muhith also asked NBR to seek recommendation from the Pol-icy Research Institute on the matter.

O� cials said criticisms of the present system by the anti-tobac-co campaigners and experts had played a signi� cant role in making the government think of a more e� ective option.

Anti-tobacco campaigners have long been urging the government to change the price-based tax sys-tem alleging that the system was not making any di� erence.

PRI Executive Director Ahsan H Mansur said a uniform tax struc-ture could only improve the situ-ation as the current structure was in fact increasing the consump-tion of low-end cigarettes that are more harmful for health than the premium brands.

“The tax on low-end cigarettes has not increased that much com-pared to other cigarettes, encour-aging people choose low-end cig-arettes over premium ones. This has further increased the health hazards while bringing not much additional revenue,” he said.

Ahsan H Mansur said the tax on

high-end cigarettes was now more than 5 times higher than low-end cigarettes. He said the gap could be reduced “easily if the uniform tax rate is adopted which can not only help increase revenue, but also reduce health risks.

At present, a 48% supplemen-tary duty is imposed on low-end cigarettes retailing at Tk18 per packet of 10, 60% on cigarettes retailing at Tk21-42 per packet of 10, 61% on cigarettes retailing at Tk44-69 per packet of 10 and 63% on cigarettes retailing at Tk70 and above per packer of 10.

According to anti-tobacco cam-paigning organisation Progga, as many as 57,000 people die and 382,000 become disabled a year in Bangladesh because of tobacco consumption.

The World Bank data says a sum of Tk11,000 crore is spent every year in Bangladesh on treating people su� ering from tobacco-re-lated diseases. Bangladesh has rati� ed Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a global public health treaty from World Health Organization, in 2004. l

BEZA signs power deal at Mirershorai economic zonen Tribune Business Desk

Bangladesh Economic Zones Au-thority (BEZA) yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) to ensure smooth electricity supply in the Mirershorai Economic Zone.

BEZA Secretary Mohammed Ayub and PGCB Managing Direc-tor Masum-Al-Beruni signed the MoU on their respective behalves at a programme held at BEZA of-� ce in the capital. BEZA Executive Chairman Paban Chowdhury pre-sided over the MoU signing cere-mony.

As per the signed MoU, BEZA will allocate and transfer 50 acres of land belonging to the econom-ic zones to PGCB to establish a 400/230/132/33 KV grid sub-sta-tion to make sure that the zone gets necessary electricity, said a BEZA statement released yester-day.

The government is setting up the economic zone in Mirersho-rai of Chittagong on 7000 acres of land to attract foreign and domes-tic investors. l

Business16DT

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

IFIL declares 13% cash dividendn Tribune Business Desk

The board of directors of Islamic Finance and Investment Limited (IFIL) has declared 13% cash div-idend for its shareholders for the year ended on December 31, 2015.

The decision came yesterday at the IFIL board meeting presided over by its Chairman Mostanser Billa, said a press release.

According to the year-end � nan-cial statements, the net pro� t of the company is Tk19.85 crore and Earn-ings per Share (EPS) is Tk1.64 while the Net Asset value (NAV) per Share is Tk13.35. The board also decided to hold Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company on June 5, 2016 at the Institution of Diploma Engineers, Kakrail, Dhaka. l

PwC plans to groom 500 local professionals n Kayes Sohel

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that recently extended its footprint in Bangladesh plans to recruit and develop about 500 professionals locally in the next � ve years.

The global audit-cum-consul-tancy major, PwC, has already tied up with local professional bodies like the Institute of Chartered Ac-countants of Bangladesh to groom industry professionals from across educational backgrounds like en-gineering, management and char-tered accountancy.

Deepak Kapoor, chairman at PwC Bangladesh, announced the PwC’s plan at a press brie� ng at its new o� ce, which was formally inaugurated by Finance Minister

Abul Maal Abdul Muhith early yes-terday.

“We felt that this was the right time for a full-� edged PwC o� ce in Dhaka, o� ering all PwC services across various industry verticals,” he said.

“We see immense potential in several areas, particularly in Tax Advisory, Forensics, Cybersecurity, Government, Digital and Infrastructure sector. We look forward to playing a larger role in improving the quality of life of the people of Bangladesh, being able to open new opportunities for local business as well as talented workforce.”

Avijit Mukerji, director at the company, said: “The focus for us right now is to quickly build scale

and o� er solutions to clients based on our understanding of both the Bangladesh market and the global trends so that our clients here can get ahead of the curve. This be-comes especially important as we expect our large global clients to invest and expand in new markets like Bangladesh.”

Mamun Rashid, managing part-ner at PwC Bangladesh, said PwC is looking to build a long-term re-lationship with its clients, people, and communities in Bangladesh through its newly set-up o� ce at Dhaka.

“Our plan is to build a high per-forming team of PwC professionals by recruiting talented individuals in Bangladesh. I am con� dent that the team we groom and develop

will support an environment that encourages more companies to grow and expand.”

Till now people across the PwC network travelled to Bangladesh to work on various assignments, he said, adding that the setting up of this o� ce is in line with the ris-ing importance of Bangladesh in a global business scenario and PwC’s commitment to the country, its po-tential and its talent.

British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Alison Blake, and Dep-uty Chief of Mission of US Embassy in Dhaka, David Meale attended the o� ce inauguration event.

In October last year, PwC said the company set up a subsidiary of-� ce in Bangladesh to strengthen its footprint in South Asia. l

Canton Fair gets Walton huge response n Tribune Business Desk

Walton – a local manufac-turer of electronics prod-ucts – has received a huge response from foreign vis-itors and businessmen at Canton Fair 2016.

Canton Fair – also known as China Import and Export Fair – is the largest biannual China trade fair held on April 15 in Guangzhou, China.

Along with the Chinese visitors, a good number of entrepreneurs from Asia, Middle East, Africa, Amer-ica, Europe and Australia showed their keen inter-est to import the ‘Made in Bangladesh’ labelled Walton products into their countries for some distinc-tive features like world-class quality, eye-catching designs and colours and reasonable rates, said a statement of the company.

Walton’s inverter technology-based refrig-erators were the prime attraction for the fair vis-itors, said Walton. Due to price competitiveness and attractive designs, the vis-itors and consumers chose our products, it added.

Some companies have initially agreed to import products from Walton and they will soon negotiate to � nalise the deal, it adds.

Syed Mohammad Ha-bibur Rahman, former di-rector of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Indus-try (DCCI), said: “I am sur-prised with the presence of Bangladeshi brand,

Walton, at Canton Fair. Walton has turned into a giant company.”

Abul Hossain, another former director of DCCI, who also visited the Walton Pavilion at the fair venue, hoped that Walton would be able to grab a signi� cant portion of the world’s elec-tronics market very rapidly.

“We want to see the presence of Bangladeshi brands all over the world.”

Already, some foreign entrepreneurs, including Richard Doglarse of the USA, Dhongana of Singa-pore-based Vet Ghat Ltd, Patrico of RTK Engineering of Mauritius, Min Kim of Miro Company of Korea, Harry Sakharani of Suri-name, Nicolas Arias of AZD Company of Colombia, and Hamad Bo Alio of Saudi Arabia, have shown their keen interest to import Walton brand refrigerators.

In addition, Laka Flender of Slovenia, Raha-manviob of Kazakhstan, Elian De La Vega of Boliv-ia, Raul Sovena of Camer-on and Ayaxs of Turkey also visited the Walton Pavilion at the Canton Fair and gathered information on Walton brand products from the company’s rep-resentatives.

Along with the foreign visitors, many Bangla-deshis are also thronging the Walton pavilion and expressing their excite-ment over the partici-pation of Walton in the world’s largest mega expo of electronics products. l

Stocks � nish weekend with red n Tribune Business Desk

Stocks � nished the week with red amid volatility yesterday with fall-ing trading activities.

The benchmark index DSEX declined by 19 points or 0.5% to 4,340, after a gain of nearly 2 points in previous session.

The Shariah index DSES wit-nessed a fractional rise of 0.7 points to 1,057. The blue chip comprising index DS30 fell by just over 1 point to 1,666.

The Chittagong Stock Exchange Selective Category Index CSCX ended at 8,126, dropping 23 points.

The major concern for the mar-ket participants was the dearth of volume numbers as once again, there was nothing much to talk about as far as trading is con-cerned, brokers say.

The market continued to su� er dismal trading as the DSE turnover stood at Tk434 crore, down around 4% over the previous session’s value.

In its � rst trading day, Bangla-desh National Insurance Compa-ny Limited made a happy debut, jumping 83% to over Tk18 a share on its o� er value of Tk10.

Lanka Bangla Securities said the market tried to � rm up a bit in the middle of the session as soon as stocks continued to declare earnings.

“However, a mixed batch of dec-laration, especially from banking sector, muted the excitement in the market.”

The market bellwether, banks, lost more than 1%, dragged down by the Standard Bank that tumbled over 16% due to its price adjust-ment after dividend deceleration.

Telecommunications rallied 3.4%, extending its gaining streak for the second straight session, led by Grameenphone that remained favourite since its corporate decel-eration. l

Business 17D

TFRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

Asian banks’ bad debt pile highest since global � nancial crisisn Reuters, Hong Kong

Bad debts at Asian banks have climbed to their highest since the global � nancial crisis and the trend will likely worsen as regional econ-omies battle against China’s slow-down and volatile oil and commod-ities prices, a Reuters data analysis shows.

The bad loans pile at 74 major listed Asian banks, excluding In-dian and Japanese banks, reached $171bn at the end of 2015, the sur-vey of banks showed, the highest since at least 2008. Non-perform-ing loans (NPLs) jumped 28% from a year earlier, nearly twice the growth in 2013.

Indian and Japanese banks were not included as their � scal year ends in March.

With economic growth in the region slowing, analysts expect the asset quality of Asian lenders will continue to deteriorate as banks start publishing quarterly earnings, forcing them to make writedowns that will hurt pro� t and depress valuations.

Asian central banks have cut inter-est rates to ensure abundant liquid-ity, but uncertain economic growth and weak export demand will likely lead to more loan defaults in the near term, analysts and bankers said.

“We expect asset quality to weaken and bad loans to increase

... the key factor we see is Asia en-tering into more challenging phase of the credit cycle,” said Gene Fang, Moody’s associate managing direc-tor for � nancial institutions group.

“In the recent past, we saw rela-tively strong growth and low inter-est rates, which encouraged loan

growth and higher leverage. But growth has now weakened, most signi� cantly in China, which is im-pacting the rest of the region.”

The average ratio of bad loans to gross credit for 29 Asian banks for which this data is available stood at 1.9% last year - the highest since

2009, the survey showed. In 2008, the ratio stood at 2.5%.

In China, where the economy grew 6.9% in 2015 - the weakest pace in a quarter of a century - bad loans surged to a decade-high at the end of December, with Moody’s expect-ing continued asset quality pressure

over the next 12-18 months.Top Chinese lenders including

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of Communications, will report March quarter results next week.

Last year, the total bad debt pile for all listed and unlisted Chinese banks stood at $297bn.

Japanese banks’ average ratio of bad loans to gross credit stood at 2.5% at the end of last year, a slight improvement from 2.7% at the end of 2014, Thomson Reuters data showed.

In India, where the central bank is forcing a debt clean-up, total dis-tressed debt surged nearly a third between September and December to $120bn. The March quarter will probably show a further increase, analysts said.

Thailand’s fourth-largest bank Kasikornbank (KBANK.BK), which published quarterly results on Wednesday, expects the ratio of non-performing loans to total loans to rise to 3.5–3.6% this year from 2.7% last year, Admit Laix-uthai, a senior vice president at the bank, told Reuters.

“NPLs for the whole banking system are likely to rise further this year as the overall economy remains weak … I can’t tell when NPLs will peak. It depends on the economic situation.” l

A general view of the � nancial Central district in Hong Kong REUTERS

Iran determined to regain oil market share, can handle low pricen Reuters

Iran is determined to recover its share of the world oil market following the lifting of sanctions, and can with-stand low prices since it has sold oil for as little as $6 a barrel in the past, a source close to Iranian oil policy said.

The source was speaking after Russia, one of the participants at last weekend’s meeting of oil pro-ducing nations which failed to de-liver an agreement to freeze out-put, indicated it could raise supply.

“We paid for our barrels with our centrifuges,” the source said, referring to Iran’s acceptance of curbs on its nuclear program in or-der for Western sanctions on Teh-ran to be lifted.

“We are going to get our share back. For us, oil is only 12% of our GDP. We used to sell oil in the war (between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s) at $6 a barrel.” l

Intel gambit aims for position in post-PC worldn AFP, Washington

The massive shakeup announced by Intel re� ects the rapid changes in the tech sector and aims to po-sition the Silicon Valley titan for a post-PC world.

The chip-making giant said it was cutting up to 11% of its global workforce, or some 12,000 posi-tions, to adapt to a slumping mar-ket for personal computers and rapid growth in emerging technol-ogies.

Intel said the move aims to “ac-celerate evolution from a PC com-pany to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices.”

The move represents a new di-rection for one of the pillars of Sil-icon Valley, which for years domi-nated the PC sector as a key partner with Microsoft.

But both � rms are now scram-bling to adapt to a new reality “where refrigerators and cars and your whole house and highways

and tra� c lights are talking to the Internet,” said Roger Kay, analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates.

Intel “got fat, dumb and happy like everyone else in the PC indus-try,” Kay said, before recognizing the shift to mobile and the “Inter-net of Things.”

Yet Kay said Intel’s move is a gamble because “their processors have to go into things that may not be invented.”

“Your strength is your weakness and your weakness is your strength - when you’re making money on PCs, it’s hard to go into a new area you don’t know,” Kay added.

Patrick Moorhead, analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy noted that Intel’s moves “are very re� ective of what’s happening overall in the technology space - the PC-Inter-net model gave way to the smart-phone-app model which is shifting to the IoT-cloud model.”

“Intel recognizes they need to move more quickly,” Moorhead said.

“Other companies like Microsoft

have been moving in this same di-rection the past few years.”

The PC train wreckIntel’s cuts were announced after surveys showed the deep slump for the personal computer market.

Surveys last week said PC sales fell for a sixth consecutive quarter, to levels not seen since 2007.

Gartner’s survey showed a 9.6% in global PC sales in the � rst quar-ter, while another report by IDC showed an 11.5% decline.

“This is a very aggressive course correction for Intel,” said Bob O’Donnell of Technalysis Research.

“There was some hope they would see a turnaround in PCs and now there is a recognition it’s not going to happen.”

Analysts say Intel is still deliver-ing healthy pro� ts, with strength in areas such as data centers, and that the latest change is aimed at keep-ing a leadership role in the sector.

In the past quarter, Intel report-ed a modest three percent rise in

� rst-quarter pro� t to $2bn, with revenues growing seven percent to $13.7bn.

“Intel is adjusting to what they expect the future to be,” said O’Donnell.

“Regardless of the PC market, people are going to need chips for a long time and Intel is extremely good at doing that. But they need to focus on di� erent kinds of chips.”

Joseph Moore, a Morgan Stanley analyst, o� ered a cautious outlook.

He said that 75% of Intel’s reve-nues still come from PCs and enter-prise servers and “is in mild secular decline.”

Just nine percent is from the cloud, but is “lumpy” and “some-what unpredictable.”

Kay said that inside the compa-ny, “it probably feels like a crisis,” but that these steps are needed to keep Intel competitive with rivals.

“They are taking prudent steps to ensure the business is viable long-term, but right now it looks pretty ugly,” Kay said. l

Business18DT

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

IEA expects biggest drop in non-OPEC oil output in 25 yearsn Reuters, London

Crude prices steadied yesterday, as the International Energy Agency (IEA) said 2016 would see the big-gest fall in non-OPEC production in a generation, helping to rebalance a market dogged by oversupply.

IEA chief Fatih Birol said low oil prices had cut investment by about 40% in the past two years, with sharp falls in the United States, Canada, Latin America and Russia.

Benchmark Brent crude futures eased 7 cents to $45.73 a barrel by 0852 GMT. US crude futures were 4 cents lower at $44.14.

Both crudes have gained around 70% in value from their lows reached between January and February.

The drop in supply from some producers could be o� set by in-creased production in countries in-cluding Russia and Iran, however.

Russia’s energy minister said the country might push oil production to historic highs. Iran has reiter-ated its intention to reach output of 4 million barrels per day, after a global deal to freeze output col-lapsed and Saudi Arabia threatened to � ood markets with more crude.

Nigeria will hold talks with Sau-

di Arabia, Iran and other producers by May, hoping to reach a deal on an output freeze at the next OPEC

meeting in June, the West African country’s oil minister told Reuters.

“The focus of the market is pri-

marily on price-supportive news and that’s just an indication of how sentiment is,” Saxo Bank senior

manager Ole Hansen said.Hansen said fund � ows into

commodities had been strong this week, driven by a weaker dollar.

Earlier this week, the dollar hit 10-month lows against some com-modity-related currencies. The Thomson Reuters Core Commodity Index rose to its highest since early December. [MKTS/GLOB]

“This whole recovery has been driven by supply being capped and supply is price-sensitive and again we’re back to levels where we could see some of these producers breathe again,” Hansen said.

French bank BNP Paribas said any hope of market rebalancing from the current surplus relied on a predicted decline in US oil production.

“The US accounts for the bulk of non-OPEC’s 2016 oil supply con-traction of 700,000 barrels per day forecast. If the decline in the US oil supply proves insu� cient to tight-en balances, then ... the oil price will remain low,” it said.

In re� ned products, China saw exports of diesel and gasoline soar, spilling surplus fuel into a market that is already well supplied, and threatening to further cut Asian benchmark re� ning margins. l

International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol speaks during the Rome 2015 MED, Mediterranean dialogues forum in Rome, Italy REUTERS

China’s zombie steel mills � re up furnaces, worsen global glutn Reuters, Shanghai

The rest of the world’s steel pro-ducers may be pressuring Beijing to slash output and help reduce a global glut that is causing losses and costing jobs, but the opposite is happening in the steel towns of China.

While the Chinese government points to reductions in steel making capacity it has engineered, a rapid rise in local prices this year has seen mills ramp up output. Even “zombie” mills, which stopped pro-duction but were not closed down, have been resurrected.

Despite global overproduction, Chinese steel prices have risen by 77% this year from last year’s trough on some very speci� c local factors, including tighter supplies following plant shutdowns last year, restocking by consumers and a pick-up in seasonal demand fol-lowing the Chinese New Year break.

Some mills also boosted output ahead of mandated cuts around a major horticultural show later this month in the Tangshan area. Local mills must at least halve their emis-sions on certain days during the ex-position, due to run from April 29 to October.

China, which accounts for half

the world’s steel output and whose excess capacity is four times US production levels, has said it has done more than enough to tackle overcapacity, and blames the glut on weak demand.

But a survey by Chinese consul-tancy Custeel showed 68 blast fur-naces with an estimated 50 million tonnes of capacity have resumed production. The capacity utili-zation rate among small Chinese mills has increased to 58% from 51% in January. At large mills, it has risen to 87% from 84%, according to a separate survey by consultan-cy Mysteel.

The rise in prices has thrown a lifeline to ‘zombie’ mills, like Shanxi Wenshui Haiwei Steel, which produces 3 million tonnes a year but which halted nearly all production in August. It now plans to resume production soon, a com-pany o� cial said, declining to be named as he’s not authorised to speak publicly.

Another similar-sized compa-ny, Jiangsu Shente Steel, stopped production in December but then resumed in March as prices surged, a company o� cial said.

More than 40 million tonnes of capacity out of the 50-60 million tonnes that were shut last year are

now back on, said Macquarie ana-lyst Ian Roper. “Capacity cuts are o� the cards given the price and margin rebound,” he said.

Pro� t margins have risen to 500-600 yuan a tonne ($77-$93) on av-erage, the highest in at least two years, said Hu Yanping, senior an-alyst at Custeel.com.

“The government wants to bol-ster the economy and boost de-mand for industrial sectors, but it is also resolute to push forward the supply-side reform, putting it in a dilemma,” said Hu.

To show the world it is serious in slicing its bloated steel sector, Chi-

na has said it cut 90 million tonnes of capacity and plans to cut anoth-er 100-150 million tonnes through 2020.

Yet China’s crude steel output hit a record high of 70.65 million tonnes in March.

Anger at exportsA surge in steel output should be driven by an increase in contract-ed purchases, otherwise mills are just betting on an improvement in demand that may not happen, Liu Zhenjiang, vice secretary general of the China Iron and Steel Associ-ation (CISA), told an industry con-ference in Beijing this month.

“Cutting steel capacity is impor-tant, but controlling steel output is more important,” he said.

CISA, which groups China’s biggest steel � rms including Ba-oshan Iron and Steel, has consist-ently urged its members to show “self-discipline” and not increase output at the � rst sign of rising prices, a plea that’s usually gone unheeded.

On Tuesday, the United States, European Union and others called for urgent action to address global steel overcapacity, a day after Chi-na and other major steel producing nations failed to agree on measures

to tackle an industry crisis. Britain in particular has been hit

hard as its largest producer Tata Steel has announced plans to pull out of the country, threatening 15,000 jobs. Last week, more than 40,000 German steel workers took to the streets to protest against dumping from China.

Anger towards China grew louder since last year as its steel exports surged to a record 112 mil-lion tonnes, but the domestic steel price rally could help limit ship-ments this year as producers sell more at home.

Some private mills have default-ed on export contracts signed a month before shipping because of the rapid rise in domestic prices, according to a trader with knowl-edge of the situation.

Others have delayed deliveries for export orders and cut their ex-port targets, the trader said.

The world could bene� t if Chi-na’s steel production reverts to 2011 levels when the surplus, or the gap between output and consump-tion, was just 34 million tonnes, said BMI Research commodities strategist Mitchell Hugers.

“It’s not the capacity cuts that matter, it’s the amount of exports that matter,” he said. l

‘The government wants to bolster the economy and boost demand for industrial sectors, but it is also resolute to push forward the supply-side reform, putting it in a dilemma’

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016Biz Info 19

DT

23rd convocation of Panpaci� c University, Philippines

Aarong Mother’s Day shop and win campaign

Set menu at Lime & Thyme

Bengali New Year celebrated at Southeast University

Huawei’s ‘Fly to Thai’ O� er Already a Raging Success

Md Sabur Khan, chairman, board of trustees of Da� odil International University (DIU) joined the 23rd Convocation of Panpaci� c University, Urdaneta City, Pangasinan, North Philippines as convocation speaker and delivered the convocation speech held on April 16, 2016, at the PUNP premises. 3,000 participants and over

1,000 graduates were present. Md Sabur Khan was invited and visited PUNP as the guest of honour and the convocation speaker. Shahana Khan, member, board of trustees, DIU and principal, Da� odil International School accompanied him during the visit. In honour of Khan, a lot of billboards and hoardings were set at prime locations

in Philippines. During the convocation he was honored with a crest by Rhonda T Padilla, PhD, president, PUNP.

Established in 1993, PUNP is a private university collaborated with DIU and DIU students and faculty members have manifold opportunities for pursuing higher education through exchange program.l

Aarong will be launching a special Mother’s Day “Shop and Win” campaign starting Friday, April 22, 2016. Aarong.com shoppers who write the best message to their

mothers will have the opportunity to win a three days two nights trip for two people at Mermaid Beach Resort in Cox’s Bazaar. The winner will enjoy a stay at the resort’s

exclusive beach bungalows with round trip � ights from Novoair. He or she will be able to make reservations and book air tickets anytime until August 8, 2016.

Shoppers can make any purchase on aarong.com to be eligible for this o� er before 8 May, 2016 – Mother’s Day. During checkout shoppers will have the option to write a special message for their mother. Aarong will judge the best message based on creativity and sentimental value. The winner will be announced online at aarong.com and facebook.com/brac.aarong after the end of the campaign.

Select from a range of products at aarong.com such as sarees, jewellery, home décor, and other accessories and have it shipped to any location in Bangladesh. Get gift ideas by clicking the Mother’s Day Gifts tab on aarong.com. l

Lime & Thyme at Banani has introduced two new set menu’s (for two and for four people), both of which have been priced exclusively. The Simple Thai set menu for two consists of Thai soup, four pieces of wonton, egg fried rice, beef chilli, chicken red

curry, garlic prawn and Pepsi/7up. This set menu costs Tk849 (all inclusive).

The Simple Set for four consists of the same menu but is meant for four people. It’s priced at Tk1,590 (all inclusive).l

Belleza Beauty Parlor & Spa is a new generation, customer friendly and modern beauty salon. Dedicated to providing

high quality salon services, they currently have a special Boishakh o� er in place. They are providing 30% discount on all parlour services as part of the special o� er. For any skincare and beauty related appointment please contact +880191139935 or log onto their Facebook page at Facebook/bellezaforwoman. They are currently located at Level 2, House 51, Khan Tower, Sonargaon Jonopoth, Sector 7, Uttara, Dhaka (opposite Artisan). l

The Huawei ‘Fly to Thai’ o� er has made a signi� cant impact on smartphone lovers in Bangladesh. Between April 1 and April 20, 20 lucky customers who purchased a Huawei smartphone have been selected for a travel to Thailand for free, 40 customers have each won a Huawei tab, and 200 customers have won a power bank each.

Started April 1, one lucky Huawei customer was selected every day for a free trip to Thailand. Moreover, two lucky

winners received a Huawei Tab each and 10 lucky winners received complimentary power banks each every day. Customers purchasing a Huawei smartphone till April 30 will be considered eligible to be a potential winner under this o� er.

The o� er will be available at the Huawei Experience Centers at Jamuna Future Park and Bashundhara City Shopping Mall as well as brand shops across 64 districts of Bangladesh. l

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| campaign | | o� ers |

| o� ers |

| o� ers |

Downtime20DT

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 1 represents M so � ll M every time the � gure 1 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS1 Droops (4)5 Kingdom (5)9 Buccaneer (6)10 Tiny (3)11 Dash (4)12 Drawing room (5)14 Planet (5)16 Little devils (4)19 Narrow way (4)21 Wax-stemmedmatch (5)24 Precipitous (5)27 Minute particle (4)29 Animal’s foot (3)30 Secure indemnity (6)31 Beer tankard (5)32 Eager (4)

DOWN1 Hurried (4)2 A� ict (3)3 Small stones and pebbles (6)4 Of sound mind (4)5 Begins again (7)6 Boring tool (3)7 Zodiac sign (3)8 Repairs (5)13 Serpent (3)15 Skittle (7)17 Sculptured likeness (6)18 Coarse � les (5)20 Hail! (3)22 Job allotted (4)23 So be it! (4)25 Make lace (3)26 Female sheep (3)28 Metal-bearing rock (3)

SUDOKU

#PANAMAPAPERS LEAK

US launches criminal inquiry into tax avoidance claims n Tribune International Desk

The US Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into the widespread international tax avoidance schemes exposed by the Panama Papers leak, re-ports the Guardian.

Preet Bharara, the US attor-ney for Manhattan, said he had “opened a criminal investigation regarding matters to which the Panama Papers are relevant”.

Bharara has written to the In-ternational Consortium of Inves-tigative Journalists (ICIJ), which coordinated the unprecedented leak of 11.5m � les from o� shore law � rm Mossack Fonseca, to ask for further information to assist with his criminal investigation.

The inquiry comes after Ba-rack Obama described the revela-tions from the leaks – which have caused political tumult across the world – “important stu� ” and global tax avoidance as a “huge problem”.

“There is no doubt that the problem of global tax avoidance generally is a huge problem,” Oba-ma told reporters in an unsched-uled appearance in the White House brie� ng room earlier this month. “The problem is that a lot of this stu� is legal, not illegal.

“A lot of these loopholes come at the expense of middle-class families, because that lost rev-enue has to be made up some-where.”

The US president said the leak from Panama illustrated the scale of tax avoidance involving For-tune 500 companies and running into trillions of dollars worldwide.

“We shouldn’t make it legal to engage in transactions just to avoid taxes,” he added, praising instead “the basic principle of making sure everyone pays their fair share”.

The US attorney general’s o� ce was unable to provide any further details about the criminal investi-gation because it is ongoing.

Bharara, who as US attorney general for the southern district of New York has led several crusades against criminal wrongdoing in the � nancial sector, is already in-vestigating several of the more than 200 US citizens named in the papers.

Among them is Wall Street � -nancier Benjamin Wey, who has been charged with securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and

money laundering for using fam-ily members to help him amass ownership of large blocks of stock in companies through so-called “reverse merger” transactions be-tween Chinese companies and US shell companies. He made tens of millions of dollars of illegal pro� t by manipulating the companies’ stock prices, according to the in-dictment.

The Panama Papers leak shows that Mossack Fonseca helped set up the o� shore companies used in the stock manipulation.

“Ben Wey fashioned himself a master of industry, but as alleged, he was merely a master of manip-ulation,” Bharara said when he an-nounced the indictment against Wey in September. Wey, the chief executive of New York Global Group, denies the charge.

The release of the Panama Pa-pers has sparked public outrage

across the world, including the res-ignations of the prime minister of Iceland and Spain’s industry min-ister following revelations about their o� shore tax arrangements.

David Cameron, the British prime minister, has also been forced to defend his family’s tax arrangements after disclosures about an o� shore fund estab-lished by his late father. He also has taken the unprecedented step of publicly releasing details from his tax returns.

The o� ces of Mossack Fonseca in Panama were raided by police o� cers last week on the orders of the country’s attorney general in an attempt to “establish the use of the � rm for illicit activities”.

Mossack Fonseca is the world’s fourth biggest o� shore law � rm. It specialises in incorporating com-panies in o� shore jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands.

The leaders of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have warned that the industrial scale of internation-al tax avoidance revealed by the Panama Papers represents a “great concern” for the global economy and is having a “tremendously negative e� ect on our mission to end poverty”.

Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, said last week that the revelations that many of the world’s richest and most pow-

erful people are avoiding paying millions in taxes by hiding mon-ey from the taxman in o� shore havens is a “great, great concern” and “very, very damaging” to the bank’s “mission to end extreme poverty”.

“When taxes are evaded, when state assets are taken and put into these havens, all of these things can have a tremendous negative e� ect on our mission to end pov-erty and boost prosperity,” he said.

Christine Lagarde, manag-ing director of the IMF, said the world’s � nancial regulators had long been “alarmed” about Pan-ama’s lax approach to taxation and corruption but failed to take action.

In her strongest comments yet addressing the scandal exposed by the Panama Papers, Lagarde said: “In the case of Panama there had been alert and alarm raised, but there had not been the level of implementation that was ex-pected.”

She said the leak showed that “the [international tax] rules ap-pear to be skewed towards” the global rich. “Clearly what has re-sulted from the review of these Panama Papers indicates that however important [international tax rules to prevent] base erosion and pro� t shifting … it is un� n-ished business,” she said in an opening address to the meeting. l

INSIDE

21D

TWorldFRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

Attacked Uttarkhand police horse buried with honoursA horse was buried with “police honours” after dying from injuries su� ered in an attack allegedly by an ruling BJP politician, with his death triggering renewed outrage. PAGE 23

Boko Haram using birds as bomb carriersBoko Haram is strapping bombs to birds as it continues to develop more deadly weapons in its bloody insurgency in Africa. PAGE 24

Violence mars 3rd phase of W Bengal assembly polls, 1 killed A polling agent of the main oppo-sition CPI(M) in West Bengal was killed and four others sustained serious injuries as sporadic incidents violence on Thursday marred the third phase of state assembly elections which saw 67% turnout, according to di� erent Indian news media. PAGE 23

Police o� cers stand guard next to a company list showing the Mossack Fonseca law � rm in Panama City last week REUTERS

Benjamin Wey REUTERS

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 201622D

T WorldCHRONICLE

Following the bloody history of Koh-i-Noor

It’s a stone that, legend says, should only be worn by a woman or a god; to a man who dares wear it, it will only bring bad luck. But, it adds, one who owns the Koh-i-Noor will own the world, and so for centuries, kings have fought over its possession and for much of the past century, four countries have argued about who gets to keep it now.

It is currently housed in the Tower of London in the UK.

Lately, the much-desired diamond has been hitting the head-lines over ownership disputes. It even came to the stage that In-dian government’s policy was turned inside out within the space of 24 hours!

First, the Indian solicitor-general, during a court hearing, stat-ed that his country would not be pursuing the return of the dia-mond from Britain. A day later, the Narendra Modi government in statement said it would do everything in its power to “amicably” encourage the British government to give back the gem.

Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar’s argument to the Supreme Court was that the Koh-i-Noor, meaning ‘mountain of light’ in Persian, had not been “stolen nor forcibly taken away”. Rather, it had been given to Britain by the successors of Maharajah Ranjit Singh “as compensation for help in the Sikh wars,” which accord-ing to many noted historian including William Dalrymple, is not the accurate account of events.

Accounts of ownership are often disputed and contentious and it is worth looking at how far the diamond has travelled thus far--

1526The � rst “veri� ed” mention of the stone crops up in the Baburna-ma, the writings of Mughal ruler Babur. Babur acquired the rock after defeating Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the Delhi Sultans. Histo-rian NB Sen, among others, has written that from Babur, the di-amond passed to Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, before coming into the possession of his grandson, Sultan Mahamad.

1739Persian General Nadir Shah defeats Mahamad to conquer Delhi – and the diamond -- in 1739 and gives it its now-famous name. He takes the stone back to Persia but is assassinated eight years later. The diamond now passes into the possession of one of his generals, Ahmad Shah Durrani, in whose family it stays for the next generation, writes Sen in his book.

1813The diamond returns to India when Shah Shuja Durrani, a de-scendant of Ahmad Shah, escapes from his quarrelling brothers in Kabul, brings it to Punjab and gives it to Maharaja Ranjit Sin-gh – the founder of the Sikh empire -- in return for being granted asylum.

1839-1843Maharaja Ranjit Singh dies, leaving the diamond – and his king-dom – to his sons. However, after three of his older sons are killed in quick succession, in 1843, � ve-year-old Duleep Singh took the throne, becoming the last Indian sovereign to own the precious gem, writes Sen in his book.

1849The British win the second Anglo-Sikh War and annexe the Sikh kingdom of Punjab under the Treaty of Lahore. 11-year-old Du-leep Singh signs over the kingdom and the diamond over to them before stepping down from his throne. The gem than shipped to Britian for the then Queen of England Victoria.

1852The diamond is taken to England and showcased to the public. Bearing in mind the myth surrounding the stone, Queen Victoria later asks in her will that the Kohinoor only be worn by a female queen. l

Source: HINDUSTAN TIMES, BBC, USA TODAY

This 2002 � le photo shows a replica of the Koh-i-Noor AFP

12 high-ranking Pakistan army o� cers dismissed over graft chargesn Tribune International Desk

In an unprecedented move, Paki-stan’s army chief General Raheel Sharif has dismissed 12 senior army o� cers from service over alleged corruption on Thursday, reports dawn.com and thenews.co.pk.

A lieutenant general, a ma-jor general, � ve brigadiers, three colonels and one major are among those dismissed by the army chief, reports dawn.com quoting military sources.

It is very rare in Pakistani ar-my’s history to make public strip-

ping of senior army o� cials from their ranks over any kind of charg-es. The usual practice is keeping a lid on the matters.

Dawn.com named some of the

discharged o� cers. They are-- Lt Gen Obaidullah, Inspector Gen-eral Arms and Weapons at Gen-eral Headquarters, Maj Gen Ejaz Shahid, Lt Col Haider, Comman-dant Chaman Scouts, Brigadier Rasheed, Brigadier Asad Shahza-da, Brigadier Saifullah, Brigadier Amir, and Maj Najeeb.

The eight o� cers named above served with the Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan and have been charged for corruption during their service with the paramilitary force. The others dismissed were junior com-mission o� cers who worked with

those named above, said an intel-ligence o� cial speaking to Dawn.com on condition of anonymity.

Following the investigation conducted by Adjutant Gen Zubair Mahmood Hayat on the orders of the army chief, the charged of-� cers were asked to return all earnings accumulated through corruption, the o� cial said, add-ing that all perks and privileges had been withdrawn from the o� cers except their pensions, re-ports Thenews.com.pk.

There has been no o� cial con-� rmation regarding the move. l

Attacked Uttarkhand police horse buried with honours

n AFP, Dehradun

A horse was buried with “po-lice honours” after dying from injuries su� ered in an attack allegedly by an ruling BJP poli-tician, with his death triggering renewed outrage.

The police horse, called Shak-timan, became the subject of a weeks-long row between rival political parties in India after his injured hind leg turned gangre-nous and had to be amputated.

Ganesh Joshi, a member of the Uttarkhand local assembly, was brie� y arrested last month on charges of cruelty to the horse which was wounded during a party protest.

Shaktiman was � tted with a prosthetic limb reportedly rushed in from the US and every detail of the animal’s road to recovery was covered by the Indian media.

But Uttarakhand police an-nounced on Wednesday that Shaktiman had gone into shock and died after being given anaes-thesia to treat another infection.

“The doctors had adminis-tered anaesthesia to him as they needed to treat an infection but he could not handle the anaes-

thesia,” senior superintendent Sadanand Datte said.

Datte told reporters that the animal was buried with “full police honours” in state capital Dehradun late Wednesday. Shak-timan was wrapped in a white cloth in a ceremony watched by politicians and police.

The news triggered fresh an-ger, with federal minister and an-imal rights campaigner Maneka Gandhi calling for those respon-sible to be thrown in jail for “kill-ing a police o� cer”.

BJP state lawmaker Joshi again denied he had attacked the horse with a stick during the pro-test. “If I am found guilty, then cut my leg,” Joshi was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

The Uttarakhand government, run by the rival Congress party, had spared no expense in treat-ing the horse, with the creature becoming a cause celebre.

Shaktiman had been treated to repeat visits from the state’s chief minister and an American veterinary surgeon had reported-ly been � own in from Bhutan to provide treatment, in what some critics saw as a case of political point-scoring. l

WorldFRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

23D

T

SOUTH ASIA7 police guarding polio team killed in PakistanMotorcycle gunmen on Wednes-day shot dead 7 policemen guarding a polio vaccination team in Pakistan’s southern port city Ka-rachi, o� cials said, a brazen attack in the country’s economic hub.Feroz Shah, a senior police o� cial, said that 8 gunmen carried out the killings in two separate attacks in the city’s western Orangi Town neighbourhood. -AFP

INDIAUttarakhand HC quashes President’s ruleThe Uttarakhand High Court, on Thursday, quashed the order of the Central government that had put the State under President’s Rule on March 27. Deciding that the Congress shall return to power, the Division Bench of the Court also ordered that a � oor test must be held in the Uttarakhand Assembly on April 29 where former Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s claim of having majority support shall be put to test. -THE HINDU

CHINAXi Jinping moves to take more military command Chinese President Xi Jinping has assumed a more direct role over the country’s powerful armed forces as head of its increasingly important Joint Operations Command Centre, displaying both his strong personal authority and China’s determina-tion to defend its interests. The move comes at a time when Beijing is becoming increasingly bold in its territorial assertions. -AP

ASIA PACIFICIndonesia hopes for EU trade deal, including UKThe EU has agreed to start free trade talks with Indonesia, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday. Juncker said EU made progress on Wednes-day in discussions with Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Indonesian President said he hoped Britain, which holds a referendum on EU membership on June 23, would remain part of the bloc. -REUTERS

MIDDLE EASTArab League chief calls for special court to try IsraelArab League chief Nabil al-Arabi called Thursday for a special crimi-nal court to be set up for Israel, at a meeting to condemn an announce-ment that it will never return the Golan Heights. Delegates to the 22-member Arab bloc based in Cairo are expected to pass a resolution de-nouncing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge Sunday that the occupied Golan Heights would remain Israeli forever. -AFP

Violence mars 3rd phase of W Bengal assembly polls, 1 killed n Tribune International Desk

A polling agent of the main oppo-sition CPI(M) in West Bengal was killed and four others sustained se-rious injuries as sporadic incidents violence on Thursday marred the third phase of state assembly elec-tions which saw 67% turnout, ac-cording to di� erent Indian news media.

The body of 35-year-old Tahidur Islam was found outside a polling booth at Shibapara area of Domkal assembly seat in Murshidabad dis-trict, reports Indian Express.

Four persons were injured in separate incidents in polling booths in Ketugram constituency of Bardhaman district.

One of the CPI(M) workers’ ear was slashed o� by rivals while an-other party supporter’s left leg was fractured during a scu� e in front of a polling centre in Ketugram, re-ports Firstpost.in.

The other two CPI(M) party-men were injured by explosion of a home-made bomb in a nearby poll-ing centre.

Bardhaman district returning o� cer Soumitra Mohan said four persons have been arrested in this connection.

Meanwhile, some confusions

arose over how Islam was killed. Anisur Rahman, the CPI(M) can-didate in Domkal claimed that Islam was killed by an explosion. But Murshidabad police chief dis-missed the allegation saying pre-liminary inquiry did not found any link with murder to the polls.

“Tahidur (Islam) was stabbed somewhere else and his body was dumped near the polling centre, C Sudhakar, Murshidabad superin-tendent of police, said while talk-ing to reporters.

In a knee-jerk response, the CPI(M) in an o� cial statement blamed the ruling Trinamool Con-gress (TMC) for the killing and violence and alleged that it has unleashed a “reign of terror” to in-timidate voters.

In reply, TMC said the death was a fallout of in� ghting between the CPI(M) and it’s alliance in the polls, Congress.

Meanwhile in Kolkata, several complaints of voter intimidation was recorded outside polling cen-tres in Beleghata. Seven people were detained in this connection, o� cials con� rmed.

The highly-intense polling is be-ing held under tight security with 100,000 security personnel de-ployed. l

An Indian police o� cer salutes the body of police horse ‘Shaktiman’ during a burial ceremony in Dehradun on Thursday AFP

Muslim women display their inked � ngers after casting their votes during the third phase of West Bengal Assembly elections in Kolkata on Thursday REUTERS

Gen Raheel Sharif REUTERS

INSIGHT

Sanders raises more cash but Clinton makes campaign dollars go furthern Reuters, Washington, DC/

New York

Democratic presidential front-run-ner Hillary Clinton has spent about $15 per vote so far in the race for the party’s nomination, less than her rival Bernie Sanders, who spent $22, according to campaign � nance reports � led on Wednesday.

Clinton’s e� ciency with money could o� set concern among some of her backers that Sanders, the US Senator from Vermont, has out-raised her in each of the last two months as he wages a � erce � ght to get onto the presidential ballot.

The former � rst lady’s cam-paign has spent a total of $157.8m since launching last April and has yielded a total of 10.4m votes in state nominating contests. That includes $28.7m for 8.7m votes in March, the � lings show.

Sanders, in turn, has spent $168.4m since launching his bid for the White House, while netting 7.7m votes.

Sanders’ campaign has often touted its ability to tap a large number of small donors to out-raise Clinton. In March, Sand-ers pulled in nearly $46m from 900,000 people, with an average

donation of just over $26, it said.That compared to $29.3m for

Clinton in March, from 400,000 people.

Some 96% of Sanders’ donors have given less in total than the $2,700 maximum, according to his campaign, meaning he can go back to them for more funds.

Some of Clinton’s backers say they are nervous about her cam-paign’s fundraising strategy of relying heavily on donors who are able to write big checks, and who max out more quickly.

But the Clinton campaign’s spending e� ciency has helped it preserve a war chest. At the end of March, Clinton had $29m left in the bank -- more than anyone else running for president. Sanders had just $17m.

Preserving the war chest is cru-cial for Clinton’s chance of win-ning the White House in the gen-eral election against a Republican, letting her campaign e� ectively in swing states, attack her oppo-nent’s vulnerabilities and defend her own.

Should she face o� against Republican front-runner Donald Trump, she will need a bank ac-count su� cient to compete with

a candidate who has mastered the knack of earning free coverage.

Approaching the end of the pri-mary campaign with a surplus is a far di� erent scenario from the one in which Clinton found herself at the end of her failed 2008 bid for the nomination against Barack Obama, when she ended up $9.5m in debt.

An example of the campaign’s

frugality: it cut advertising spend-ing by $5m to $12m in March, a month heavy with primaries and caucuses, by using more digital ad-vertising instead of television ads.

Clinton spent only $1.6m on digital ads. The campaign also reduced real estate costs and limited increases in payroll as it sta� ed up. l

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 201624 WorldD

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USA130,000 people urge Obama to kill TTP dealMore than 130,000 people have signed a petition to stop president Barack Obama from agreeing on the controversial Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTP) deal between the US and the EU which protesters say gives more power to corporations. They have demanded that Obama stop negoti-ating the deal with prime minister David Cameron during his visit to the UK this week. -INDEPENDENT

THE AMERICASBlast at Mexico petrochemical plant kills at least 13The death toll from a thunderous blast at a petrochemical plant in Mexico has risen to at least 13, an o� cial said Thursday, in the latest accident plaguing the state-run oil giant Pemex. The toll could rise further as another 136 people were injured, 13 of them critically, in Wednesday’s explosion. -AFP

UKUK to take in up to 3,000 refugee childrenBritain announced plans Thursday to take in up to 3,000 of the most vulnerable children and their fam-ilies from con� icts in the Middle East and North Africa by 2020. The scheme, drawn up in coordination with the UN refugee agency, is aimed at children deemed at risk of child labour, forced marriage and other forms of abuse or ex-ploitation. -AFP

EUROPEEU proposes visa-free travel for UkrainiansThe EU on Wednesday proposed o� ering visa-free travel in Europe to Ukrainians, delivering on a key pledge to the pro-Western govern-ment in Kiev. Visa-free travel is a cornerstone of the so-called East-ern Partnership that is designed to attract eastern European nations into the EU’s sphere of in� uence. Ukraine’s parliament last month approved a key anti-corruption bill that paved the way for a visa-free travel decision in Brussels. -AFP

AFRICAFemale suicide attackers kill 8 in NigeriaTwo female suicide attackers have killed at least 8 people at a camp for people displaced by the jihadist Boko Haram insurgency in north-east Nigeria. The bombings hap-pened on Wednesday in the town of Banki on the edge of Borno state, near the border with Cameroon. Details of Wednesday’s attack were slow to emerge as Banki is remote and largely disconnected from mobile phone networks. -REUTERS

Boko Haram using birds as bomb carriersn Tribune International Desk

Boko Haram is strapping bombs to birds as it continues to devel-op more deadly weapons in its bloody insurgency in Africa.

The commander of a coalition battling the Dae’sh-a� liated mil-itants revealed the discovery at a meeting with American diplomats and security o� cials, reports Brit-ish online publication Independ-ent.co.uk.

Maj Gen Lamidi Adeosun, a senior military o� cial in the Nige-rian army, showed gruesome pho-tos of the victims of Boko Haram’s attacks and their latest weapons during the brie� ng at the Multi-national Joint Task Force’s head-quarters in Chad on Wednesday.

One picture showed a bird with an explosive strapped on its back, demonstrating “a lot of ingenui-ty,” he said.

Adeosun said his forces had received intelligence that Dae’sh members were being embedded with Boko Haram but that the Nigerian terrorist group had not satis� ed requirements for greater operational co-ordination.

It is not the � rst report of birds

being used to carry explosive de-vices.

Photos emerged in July last year claiming to show bombs strapped to chickens by Dae’sh � ghters in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

There was speculation that they could be resorting to increasingly bizarre means of destruction while running out of ammunition but the account could not be veri� ed.

Dae’sh is known to be unu-sually liberal with its use of ex-plosives, which it manufactures

using cheap chemicals and equip-ment readily available on the ci-vilian market.

A Syrian o� cer involved in the operation to re-take the group’s former stronghold of Palmyra last month described how jihadists had “booby-trapped everything”, including animals and trees.

Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau made a pledge of alle-giance to Dae’sh in March last year and released a message urging its fellow sub-Saharan jihadists to do

the same, further increasing the group’s reach.

The move was a major coup for the so-called Dae’sh, which re-named its a� liate Wilāyat Gharb Ifrīqīyyah (West Africa Province).

After expanding its campaign of terror from Nigeria to Chad, Ni-ger and Cameroon, Boko Haram was named the deadliest terror group in the world last year.

The Global Terrorism Index said it was responsible for 6,644 deaths in 2014 and that number is expected to have risen as its insur-gency against Christians and local government continues.

As well as high pro� le ter-ror attacks and massacres, the group has become notorious for large-scale kidnappings including the abduction of more than 270 schoolgirls from Chibok.

Brigadier General Donald Bolduc, commander of US special operations in Africa, described the surrounding Lake Chad Basin region as “ground zero” in the � ght against extremism in Africa.

The US, Britain and other Eu-ropean nations are among those supporting military intervention against Boko Haram. l

Birds perch on wires as the sun breaks through clouds bringing the � rst autumn rains to Cape Town, South Africa on March 30 REUTERS

US Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, left, and Bernie Sanders shake hands before a debate AFP

25D

TSportINSIDE

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

Milner: Klopp starting to work magicManager Juergen Klopp’s preferred style of play has become second nature to Liverpool’s players who took time to get used to the German’s tactics, James Milner has said. After initially struggling, Liverpool have now lost only once in their last 15 games. PAGE 27

Musta� zur, heart of HyderabadBangladesh pace bowler Mus-ta� zur Rahman has been at the centre of attention among his IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad. Sunrisers captain David Warner tweeted that he wants to learn Bengali in order to communicate with the left-arm paceman. PAGE 26

Suarez hits four in 8-0 Barca routBarcelona bounced back from their worst run of La Liga defeats for 13 years in emphatic fashion as Luis Suarez scored four in an 8-0 thrashing of Deportivo la Coruna on Wednesday. PAGE 28

Roma hail Totti, the gladiatorFans cried into their smartphones and fellow players thought they were in a � lm as evergreen Roma veteran Francesco Totti came o� the bench to secure a potentially crucial 3-2 win over Torino on Wednesday. Roma were trailing 2-1 with four minutes to play. PAGE 29

Abahani Limited fast bowler Taskin Ahmed (L) and Kalabagan Krira Chakra captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza yesterday put the � nishing touch to their preparation on the eve of their Dhaka Premier League opener today. While Mashrafe will be looking to complete his 10-over quota more often than not, Taskin will treat the DPL as the perfect platform to � ne-tune his bowling action ahead of his bowling review MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

DPL value not lost on Mashrafe, Tamimn Minhaz Uddin Khan

The Dhaka Premier League, which begins today, still acts as the perfect platform for domestic cricketers to per-form and stake a claim for a place in the Tigers’ set-up, believes Bangladesh limit-ed-over captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza and opening batsman Tamim Iqbal.

The tournament also works as a nursery for the young and aspiring cricketers, they said.

“Selection should only be based on two tournaments – the four-day [National Crick-et] league and the Dhaka League. I believe most of the cricketers you see in the na-tional side were produced in this tournament,” Mashrafe,

who will skipper Kalabagan Krira Chakra this year, told the media yesterday.

“There are also young cricketers who are not regular � xtures in the national side. I notice many of them are get-ting impatient. My sugges-tion to them will be to keep on persevering. One does not necessarily need to set any

goal but should be fully fo-cussed coming to this tour-nament,” he added.

Abahani Limited captain Tamim, whose side take on Mashrafe’s Kalabagan on the opening day at Fatullah’s Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Sta-dium, said this 50-over com-petition is rivalled by no oth-er on the domestic front. He added that the onus lies on the national cricketers to ed-

ucate and nurture the young-sters in the tournament.

“Dhaka Premier League is undoubtedly one of the most important tournaments in Bangladesh. I will say it is no less than English county cricket, given the quality and intensity of the competition between the clubs,” said Tamim.l

Prime Bank v Gazi Group Cricketersin Mirpur, 9:00am

Prime Doleshwar v CCSin BKSP 3, 9:00am

Abahani Limited v Kalabagan KC in Fatullah, 9:00am

TODAY’S MATCHES

Nadir Shah back in businessn Mazhar Uddin

Umpire Nadir Shah will return to the � eld through the Abahani Limited-Kalabagan Krira Chakra match of the Dhaka Premier League in Fatullah today.

The 52-year old was banned for 10 years by the Bangladesh Cricket Board for corruption charges back in March 2013. The board lifted the ban in February this year, after Nadir asked for mercy to the board three months following the suspension.

“I am very excited to be back but it is very important for me to perform well. I have al-ready done two practice matches recently and I feel I am ready to go. The time when I was banned was quite hard for me as people would ask me questions. Now everything is very good and exciting,” said Nadir yesterday.

Nadir was also the member of International Cricket Council’s international panel of umpires when an Indian TV channel claimed to have exposed a few � rst-class umpires. In the sting operation the reporters introduced themselves from a sports management company and promised the umpires to give them assignments in various domestic Twenty20 leagues.l

26DT Sport

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

Sorry Mohammedan crash outn Tribune Report

Local giant Mohammedan crashed out of the season opening KFC In-dependence Cup after su� ering a shocking 3-2 defeat at the hands of Brothers Union at Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

The unexpected victory though was not enough for Brothers to progress to the semi-� nals as they ended their Group A campaign with six points from � ve matches, same as Mohammedan.

Brothers came agonisingly close to breaking the deadlock in just the second minute of the tie when Ni-gerian forward Nkwocha Kingsley’s � erce shot was saved by Moham-

medan goalkeeper Mohammad Ne-hal, who dived to his right side.

Mohammedan also got the op-portunity to take the lead but Is-mael Bangoura’s e� ort was cleared by Brothers captain Ibayed Hossain Komol. Only two minutes later, Brothers had another chance to move ahead but Kingsley’s shot was parried away by defender Poumi Landry, who was stationed at the goalline.

Mannaf Rabby though � nally gave Brothers the lead six minutes after resumption when he headed home a cross from Ghanaian mid-� elder Awudu Ibrahim.

Just a minute had elapsed and it was Mannaf who struck again as

his e� ort took a de� ection o� King-sley before hitting the far post and entering the net.

The traditional Black and Whites soon reduced the arrears through forward Towhidul Alam Sabuj, who capitalised on a late reaction from a Brothers defender and placed home.

Mohammedan then brought parity, courtesy forward Biplu Ahmed, in the 66th minute.

Fifteen minutes from time, Brothers bagged what turned out to be the match-winning goal. Ibrahim had it all to do but the Ghanaian mid� elder was coolness personi� ed, beating Nehal from al-most a zero angle.l

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter poses for the media before the presentation of the book 'Sepp Blatter - Mission & Passion Football' REUTERS

WWE wrestling star Chyna found dead in apartmentn Agencies

Joanie Laurer, who overcame a troubled home life in Rochester, N.Y., to win an international fol-lowing as the pro wrestler Chyna,

has died at age 45, according to her o� cial website and World Wres-tling Entertainment. Police found her body at her home in Redondo Beach, Calif., Wednesday, accord-ing to local media.

The news emerged after this message was posted to her Face-book page last night:

“It is with deep sadness to in-form you today that we lost a true icon, a real life superhero. Joanie Laurer aka Chyna, the 9th Wonder of the World has passed away. She will live forever in the memories of her millions of fans and all of us that loved her.”

With chiseled muscles and a nearly 6-foot frame, Laurer cut an imposing � gure in the ring. With a natural � air for entertainment, she exploded onto the scene of profes-sional wrestling during the sport’s ascendance in the late 1990s.

Armed with training by the wrestler Killer Kowalski, she won

Rookie of the Year honors in the PGWA (the Professional Girl Wres-tling Association) in 1996. She then jumped to the bigger stage of the World Wrestling Federation (now the WWE), where she broke onto the scene as the bodyguard of male wrestler Triple H.

Laurer then broke into the ring, competing with — and defeating — top male wrestlers. She became the only woman to qualify for prestigious tournaments such the Royal Rumble and King of the Ring, as well as the In-tercontinental Championship.

She also appeared in � lms and on magazine covers — as well as TV shows from 3rd Rock from the Sun (2000) to The Surreal Life (2003) and VH1’s Celebrity Rehab with

Dr. Drew (2008). In some of those appearances, Laurer discussed the depression and other personal de-mons that had threatened to derail her career.

“She was truly a pioneer in our industry, and she will be missed,” WWE Chief Brand O� cer Steph-anie McMahon said this morning via a tweet.

According to local TV news sta-tion KTLA, police were called to Laurer’s apartment in Redondo Beach Wednesday afternoon, after a friend who had become worried about Laurer checked on her and found that she wasn’t breathing. No cause of death has been given; KTLA says the Los Angeles County Coroner is investigating the case.l

Musta� zur, heart of Hyderabadn Tribune Report

Bangladesh pace bowling sensation Musta� zur Rahman has been at the centre of attention among team mates of his Indian Premier League franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Sunrisers’ Australian captain David Warner tweeted yesterday that he wants to learn Bengali in order to communicate with the left-arm paceman.

The 20-year old has been outstand-ing with the leather in his debut IPL season, having scalped four wick-ets in three matches, including a brilliant economy rate. Such is his importance to the side that the Sun-risers management has appointed a dedicated translator for Musta� zur.

Last Wednesday, Sunrisers’ men-tor and former Indian batting leg-end VVS Laxman was e� usive in his praise of Musta� zur, terming him the “X-Factor” of the franchise.l

Gujarat Lions’ Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja fails to connect a delivery to be clean bowled by Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Bangladesh paceman Musta� zur Rahman during their IPL clash in Rajkot yesterday. Musta� zur conceded just 19 runs from his quota of four overs, besides picking up the wicket of Jadeja, as Gujarat posted 135/8 in 20 overs

BCCI

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

AZM Nasir promises fair BFF electionThere will be no involvement from the government in the upcoming election of the Bangladesh Football Federation, informed AZM Nasir Uddin, chairman of the Divisional Sports Association, yesterday. “I want to say it very clearly that the forthcoming BFF election on April 30 is going to be fair, and will be held in accordance with the constitution. There will be no in� uence from the government or the Prime Minister,” said Nasir. Nasir, who is also the vice president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board and mayor of the port city of Chittagong, added that there will be no intervention from BCB president Nazmul Hasan as well in the election.

–TRIBUNE REPORT

‘India to host day-night Test against NZ’India is set to host a day-night Test during New Zealand’s visit later this year. Anurag Thakur, the BCCI secretary, said yesterday that the BCCI would use the pink Kookaburra ball for the Test match. “We have decided that we will play one day-night Test match with pink ball against New Zealand later this year,” Thakur said. “Before that, Duleep Trophy will act as a dress rehearsal for the day-night Test match.”

–CRICINFO

Dortmund to face Bayern in Cup � nalBorussia Dortmund eased past Hertha Berlin 3-0 on Wednesday to set up a mouth-watering German Cup � nal against treble-chasing Bayern Munich. A 20th-minute goal from Gonzalo Castro and two late goals from Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan propelled Dortmund into their third successive Cup � nal, and they will be hoping it is third time lucky after they � nished second best in 2014 and 2015. Their win also spoiled the hosts’ hopes of a home game in Berlin’s Olympic stadium on May 21.

–REUTERS

Young SA cricketer dies of suspected heart failureA young South African cricketer has collapsed and died of suspected heart failure while training with his academy side in the Eastern Cape town of Alice. Lukhanya Tsiki, 22, was taking part in � tness tests on Monday at Fort Hare Academy when he suddenly collapsed when his group took a break from their exercises.

–CRICINFO

QUICK BYTES POINTS TABLETeam P W D L GD Pts

Leicester 34 21 10 3 26 73

Tottenham 34 19 11 4 39 68

Man City 34 18 7 9 28 61

Arsenal 33 17 9 7 22 60

Man Utd 34 17 8 9 12 59

West Ham 34 14 14 6 14 56

Liverpool 33 15 9 9 13 54

Southampton 34 14 9 11 10 51

Stoke 34 13 8 13 10 47

Chelsea 33 11 11 11 4 44

Everton 34 9 14 11 5 41

Watford 34 11 8 15 -7 41

Bournemouth 34 11 8 15 -16 41

West Brom 33 10 10 13 -9 40

Swansea 34 10 10 14 -11 40

Crystal Palace 35 10 9 16 -9 39

Norwich 34 8 7 19 -25 31

Sunderland 33 7 9 17 -18 30

Newcastle 34 7 8 19 -26 29

Aston Villa 34 3 7 24 -42 16Manchester United's Wayne Rooney shoots at goal against Crystal Palace during their Premier League match at Old Tra� ord on Wednesday REUTERS

Milner: Klopp formula starting to work magic for Liverpooln Reuters

Manager Juergen Klopp’s preferred style of play has become second nature to Liverpool’s players who took time to get used to the Ger-man’s tactics, mid� elder James Milner has said.

After initially struggling un-der Klopp, who replaced Brendan Rodgers in October, Liverpool have now lost only once in their last 15 games following Wednesday’s 4-0 Premier League win over Mer-seyside rivals Everton.

“The manager’s style is a bit more second nature than it was a few months ago, we know how he wants to play and everyone is on the same page. I think you can see that in the performances,” Milner told the club website (www.liver-poolfc.com). Liverpool are seventh in the league, six points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, who hold the � nal Champions League quali-fying spot with � ve games left.

Klopp also led his side into the Europa League semi-� nals against Spanish side Villarreal after over-

coming his former club Borussia Dortmund in dramatic fashion.

“We seem to be in the rhythm at the moment. You need a full squad and we have got a quality squad of players, a young squad as well but when the younger guys have come in they have done brilliantly as well,” Milner said.

“There’s a lot of competition for places and that’s what you need.”

Liverpool host former boss Ra-fael Benitez’s Newcastle United, who are second bottom of the ta-ble, tomorrow. l

Man Utd, Liverpool � re European hopesn AFP, London

Matteo Darmian inspired Manches-ter United to victory over Crystal Palace and Liverpool crushed der-by rivals Everton 4-0 as both teams enhanced their chances of securing European football on Wednesday.

Italian right-back Darmian scored his � rst goal for United and created an own goal for Damien Delaney as � fth-place United beat Palace 2-0 to close to within a point of fourth-place Arsenal in the Pre-mier League.

Divock Origi scored but was then stretchered o� as Liverpool outclassed Everton to remain with-in two points of sixth-place West Ham United, for whom Mark Noble scored two penalties in a 3-1 defeat of Watford.

“I was very happy with the perfor-mance, but we should have scored

many more goals,” said Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal.

The teams � nishing � fth and sixth stand to qualify for next sea-son’s Europa League, with the top four spots yielding passage to the Champions League.

Van Gaal’s side continue to have designs on the elite competition af-ter warming up for tomorrow’s FA Cup semi-� nal against Everton by

overcoming fellow semi-� nalists Palace at Old Tra� ord.

Darmian helped the hosts get o� to an ideal start as his cross was turned in by Palace centre-back De-laney for a fourth-minute own goal.

With Wayne Rooney once again operating in central mid� eld, Unit-ed created a string of opportunities and added a second in the 55th minute when Darmian slammed home from the edge of the box.

“It was a surprise for us, es-pecially with his left foot!” said United centre-back Chris Smalling. “What a way to get your � rst goal.”

United trail Arsenal by a point and third-place Manchester City by two, although the north London club have a game in hand at home to West Bromwich Albion yesterday.

Everton will go into their Wem-bley date with United on the back

of a Merseyside derby hiding at An� eld that means Roberto Mar-tinez’s men have now gone seven league games without victory.

After a one-sided � rst half, Liv-erpool struck twice in four minutes shortly before half-time as James Milner crossed for � rst Origi and then centre-back Mamadou Sakho to head home.

It was Belgian striker Origi’s � fth goal in � ve appearances, but he was stretchered o� � ve minutes into the second half with a suspected ankle sprain following an ugly foul by Everton centre-back Ramiro Funes Mori, who was sent o� .

Daniel Sturridge came on for Origi and found the net eight min-utes later, tucking away Lucas Lei-va’s pass, before Philippe Coutinho bent in a low shot from the edge of the box to complete the scoring in the 76th minute.l

Liverpool 4-0 EvertonOrigi 43, Sakho 45+2, Sturridge 61, Coutinho 76

Man United 2-0 Crystal PalaceDelaney 4-og, Darmian 55

West Ham 3-1 WatfordCarroll 11, Prodl 64Noble 45-P, 53-P

RESULTS

28DT Sport

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

TALKING POINTSDeportivo v Barcelona

Deportivo 0-8 Barcelona Suarez 11, 24, 53, 64, Rakitic 47, Messi 73, Bartra 79, Neymar 81

Athletic Bilbao 0-1 Atletico Madrid Torres 38

Sporting Gijon 2-1 SevillaKrychowiak 22-og, Iborra 8Lopez 90+1

Malaga 1-1 Rayo VallecanoRicca 90+1 Baena 62

Valencia 4-0 EibarAlcacer 9, 27, 40, Cancelo 56

Real Madrid 3-0 VillarrealBenzema 41, Vazquez 69, Modric 75

RESULTS

POINTS TABLETeam P W D L GD Pts

Barcelona 34 25 4 5 67 79

Atletico 34 25 4 5 42 79

Real Madrid 34 24 6 4 71 78

Villarreal 34 17 9 8 11 60

Athletic Bilbao 34 16 6 12 10 54

Barcelona's football team pose with a model of the project to reform the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona yesterday REUTERS

Suarez hits four in 8-0 Barca rout, Real Madrid, Atletico winn AFP, Madrid

Barcelona bounced back from their worst run of La Liga defeats for 13 years in emphatic fashion as Luis Suarez scored four in an 8-0 thrashing of Deportivo la Coruna on Wednesday.

Ivan Rakitic, Lionel Messi, Marc Bartra and Neymar were also on target as Barca reasserted their control on the Spanish title race.

However, only Barca’s superior head-to-head record continues to separate them from Atletico Ma-drid at the top of the table with four games remaining as Fernando Tor-res’s hot-streak continued with the winner in a 1-0 success at Athletic Bilbao.

Real Madrid remain just a point behind the leaders in third as goals from Karim Benzema, Lucas Vazquez and Luka Modric ensured a 3-0 win over Villarreal.

“We are human, we aren’t ma-chines and we can all commit er-rors or have a bad game,” Suarez told Spanish TV station Movistar+.

“Today is a demonstration that the group is more united than ever and desperate to win the league. It is still in our hands.”

Barca had taken just one point

from their last possible 12 in the league and been dumped out of the Champions League amidst a run of just one win in six games that threatened to derail their season.

However, they remain in control of their own fate and few would bet against them winning their last four games and claiming a 24th Liga title after a performance as good as any in the 39-game unbeaten run they

enjoyed prior to losing at home to Real Madrid earlier his month.

Suarez settled the visitors’ nerves after just 11 minutes when he outmuscled Sidnei to volley home the opener despite the hosts’ desperate appeals for a foul.

Ceslo Borges then missed two huge chances to bring Deportivo level as he was denied by Claudio Bravo and a last-ditch block by Bar-tra before Suarez gave Barca the cushion they desired.l

Barcelona's Luis Alberto Suarez celebrates a goal against Deportivo Coruna at Riazor Stadium, Coruna on Wednesday REUTERS

BARCA’S BIGGEST AWAY WINS

1959 Las Palmas 0-8 Barcelona

2010 Almeria 0-8 Barcelona

2015 Cordoba 0-8 Barcelona

2016 Deportivo 0-8 Barcelona

Zidane: Ronaldo needs more restn Reuters, Barcelona

Portuguese forward Cristiano Ron-aldo needed to take time o� and even miss games if he is to see out an arduous season after he limped o� before the end of Real Ma-drid’s 3-0 victory over Villarreal on Wednesday, according to manager Zinedine Zidane.

The French coach said Ronaldo did not appear to have a serious injury despite walking o� the pitch holding the back of his thigh before the � nal whistle went.

Zidane had already used his three substitutions and could not replace him with another player, leaving his team with 10 men for the remaining seconds of the game.

The Portuguese forward has played every minute of Real Ma-drid’s 34 league games this sea-son and started all 10 games in the Champions League, only being substituted in the 89th minute of the Round of 16 � rst leg at AS Roma.

“Once in a while he needs to be substituted so he can rest,” Zidane said. “It’s necessary for him not

to � nish one game or to miss one game occasionally.

“But he’s a player who always wants to play and give everything he has. It’s di� cult for me at times.”

Spanish newspaper AS reported Ronaldo was su� ering from cramp. He was expected to have medical tests yesterday. Zidane said he was not worried that Ronaldo had a se-rious injury, as Madrid prepare for a La Liga game at Rayo Vallecano tomorrow and their Champions League semi-� nal � rst leg with Manchester City on Tuesday. l

LETHAL LUIS SUAREZThe Uruguayan forward tormented the Deportivo defence throughout the 90 minutes as he found the net four times and set his team mates up thrice. It seemed as if there was no one who could stop the controversial striker. The ex-Liverpool forward took the mickey out of defenders with his pacey dribbles and linked up with his team mates, thanks to his exceptional vision. Apart from the talent and abilities that Suarez naturally possesses, the striker showed hunger for excellence and victory.

BARCELONA BACK TO THEIR OLD SELVES

The Spanish leaders were back in business as they managed to � nd the back of the net eight times, with Suarez, Ivan Rakitic, Lionel Messi, Neymar and even Marc Bartra getting on the score-sheet. All the sublime passing, piercing runs, accurate � nishing and intelligent positioning clearly suggested that Luis Enrique’s men have found their old form again. The second goal of the game probably showcased Barcelona at their best. Andres Iniesta found Messi at the edge of the Deportivo box, who unleashed Suarez with a gorgeous no-look � ick. Suarez took care of the rest, slotting the ball past the Deportivo goalkeeper Manuel Fernandez Muniz with ease.

DEFENSIVE FORTRESS

Even without their main centre-back Gerard Pique, Barcelona’s defence looked impermeable on the eve. Full-backs Jordi Alba and Dani Alves made overlapping forward runs, expanding options in attack for the team. But at the same time, they showed great defensive awareness as they tracked back and made a set of crucial tackles and interceptions, keeping the pressure on the Branquiazuis.

WINLESS STREAK CONTIN-UES FOR DEPORTIVO

Deportivo la Coruna are now without a win in their last four matches and have won only one of their last 17 matches. The Galicians have become known as draw specialists, with 17 ties from their last 34 � xtures so far. Despite conceding two early goals, Deportivo did show some promise as they created a couple of chances of their own in the � rst half. But things just went downhill for Victor Sanchez’s after the second half began as they conceded six times and failed to � nd the back of the net themselves.l

Sport 29D

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FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

Sassuolo 0-0 Sampdoria

Chievo 5-1 FrosinoneFloro Flores 36, Ciofani 5Pellissier 47-P, 80, Rigoni 58, Sardo 60

Empoli 1-0 VeronaMaccarone 51

Genoa 1-0 Inter MilanDe Maio 77

Juventus 3-0 LazioMandzukic 39, Dybala 52-P, 64

Palermo 2-2 AtalantaVazquez 2-P, Borriello 11-P, Struna 76 Paletta 55

Roma 3-2 TorinoManolas 65, Belotti 35-P, Totti 86, 89-P Martinez 80

Udinese 2-1 FiorentinaZapata 2, Thereau 53 Zarate 24

SERIE A

DAY’S WATCHFOOTBALL

TEN 1 12:45AM

Sky Bet Championship Preston North End v Burnley

TEN 212:20AM

French Ligue 1 Nice v Stade De Reims

TEN 33:35PM

A-League: Semi-� nal STAR SPORTS 2

12:15PMGerman Bundesliga

Hamburger v Werder Bremen

CRICKET SONY SIX8:30PM

Indian Premier League Pune v Bangalore

TENNIS TEN 3

6:00PMWTA: Porsche Tennis Grand Prix

Quarter-� nals 1, 2

Roma forward Francesco Totti shoots to score during their Serie A match against Torino at the Olympic stadium in Rome on Wednesday AFP

Roma hail epic Tottin AFP, Milan

Fans cried into their smart-phones and fellow players thought they were in a � lm as evergreen Roma veteran Francesco Totti came o� the bench to secure a potentially crucial 3-2 win over Torino on Wednesday.

Roma were trailing 2-1 with four minutes to play af-ter Josef Martinez had added to Andrea Belotti’s � rst-half penalty in the 80th minute for the visitors. But one-club man Totti stunned the stadium by turning the game on its head.

Just 23 seconds after re-placing Malian mid� elder Seydou Keita, Totti slid in at the back post to meet a down-

ward header from Miralem Pjanic’s free kick to guide the ball past Daniele Padelli.

When Roma won a contro-versial penalty for handball in the area three minutes later, there was only one person eyeing the ball.

Although Padelli got a touch, Totti’s drive found the net and a stadium so used to seeing a moody Totti brood-ing on the substitute’s bench erupted.

Totti now has 303 in total for Roma and 247 in Serie A match. The ageing captain was mobbed by the entire squad and jubilant fans were seen crying with emotion as they � lmed the scenes on their mobile telephones.l

Juventus close inn Reuters, Milan

Juventus notched their 23rd win in their last 24 league games to stay nine points clear of Napoli, who had brief-ly reduced the de� cit with a 6-0 demolition of Bologna on Tuesday.

Mario Mandzukic gave Ju-ventus a halftime lead and the game was e� ectively over af-ter Lazio had Gil Patric sent o� for a second bookable o� ence three minutes after the break.

Paulo Dybala converted a penalty after Leonardo Bonuc-ci went tumbling in the area, a decision which provoked angry Lazio protests, and the Argentine � nished o� a typi-

cally incisive break just after the hour to complete the win.

Juventus have 82 points from 34 games, with Napoli on 73 and Roma on 68.

Roberto Mancini’s Inter saw their Champions League hopes all but extinguished in a 1-0 defeat at Genoa where Sebastian De Maio scored the winner with 13 minutes left.

Bottom three Frosinone, Palermo and Verona all moved closer to Serie B after a dramatic evening at the base-ment end of the table.

Daniel Ciofani gave Frosi-none a � fth minute lead at Chievo but they then had Ar-lind Ajeti and Raman Chibsah sent o� as they crashed to a

5-1 defeat.Palermo also got o� to

a � ying start when Fran-co Vazquez converted a second-minute penal-ty at home to Atalanta. Verona were left seven points adrift at the bot-tom and almost certain to go down after they were beaten 1-0 at Empoli.l

POINTS TABLETeam P W D L GD Pts

Juventus 34 26 4 4 48 82

Napoli 34 22 7 5 43 73

Roma 34 19 11 4 35 68

Inter Milan 34 18 7 9 13 61

Fiorentina 34 17 8 9 17 59

n Showtime Desk

Bengal Art Lounge opened its door for a four-day exhibition titled Wings of Hope, an exhibition celebrating women’s empowerment yesterday.

The exhibition will close on April 24, exactly three years after the tragic collapse of the Rana Plaza building, which caused the death of more than a thousand and injured more than two and half thousand people.

Commemorating the day, the Embassies of the Nordic countries Denmark, Norway and Sweden partnered with Shako - Women Artist Association of Bangladesh, Meena, Arjo Cholochitra Foundation and Fashion Revolution put together an art and sculptures exhibition.

This exhibition complements the International Women’s Day celebration by the Nordic embassies in Bangladesh. The embassies in partnership with Meena, a Bangladeshi NGO working with Rana Plaza survivors, conducted an art workshop for the survivors. There, the survivors created wax sculptures representing their aspirations and desires in life

with thoughtful guidance from Kirsten Fugl, an art educator from Denmark, and the artists of Shako.

The � nal versions of the wax sculptures were then cast in

metal by Dhamrai Metal Crafts. The proceedings from the exhibition will help the Rana Plaza survivors to start their own sewing workshops enabling them

to generate their own income and gain economic independence.

Signi� cantly, the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has kindly extended her support to this project. She

has taken an interest in the rehabilitation of the surviving women and her o� ce has bought one of the sculptures created by the women, in a previous workshop. The Prime Minister also expressed her appreciation towards those who are supporting the cause.

The exhibition is also a tribute to acclaimed artist and � lm director Khalid Mahmood Mithu, who tragically passed away on March 27, 2016 in a road accident. Mithu and his foundation made signi� cant contribution to this project. He was a great advocate for women’s rights in Bangladesh and stood by the Rana Plaza survivors through his artwork and � lms.

In honour of Mithu’s memory, his experimental documentary � lm, Dead Hands Rising, which depicts the tragedy of the Rana Plaza collapse will be screened during the exhibition on April 24 at 6pm.

The � lm True Cost, a feature length documentary that explores the impact of fashion on people and the planet, will also be screened during the exhibition, on April 23 at 6pm. l

Showtime30DT

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

Exhibition to celebrate women’s empowerment

n Showtime Desk

Emir Kusturica, a Serbian � lm-maker, has claimed that his latest � lm was turned down by the Cannes Film Festival over his support for the Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Kusturica, twice a winner of the festival’s top Palme d’Or prize, said he blamed political bias for the failure of his new � lm, On the Milky Road, to make the 2016 o� cial selection.

“Lately, politics has more and more often interfered with the way the Cannes Film Festival works,” the director, actor and musician told the Russian News Service, in comments made public by the Hollywood Reporter. “I have suspicions that someone gave an order that my � lm shouldn’t be accepted.”

On the Milky Road stars the director himself, as well as the Italian screen icon Monica Bellucci. Kusturica revealed he had submitted his movie a day late for this year’s festival, which takes place between 11 and 22 May. But the � lm-maker said he did not believe his own tardiness

had inspired the Cannes chiefs’ decision, because such factors had never been a problem before. “The � lm was submitted, but no one even watched it,” he said.

The director, who won the Palme d’Or in 1985 for When Father Was Away on Business and a decade later for Underground, has been a vocal supporter of Putin in recent years. He was banned from performing in Ukraine last year after declaring his backing for the Russian president’s policies in the former Soviet republic. Kusturica has shown no remorse: he opened a Paris show alongside his band No Smoking Orchestra with the Russian national anthem last week.

The Serbian � lm-maker has previously been regarded

as one of the Cannes Film Festival’s “usual suspects”. He was president of the Palme d’Or jury in 2005 and returned six years later to oversee the Un Certain Regard competition.

On the Milky Road centres on three key stages in the life of the same man: his experiences at war, a later romance with a woman who hopes to save him, and his � nal reclusive existence as a monk looking back on his turbulent past. The � lm is now due to premiere at the Bridge of Arts festival in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-

Don this August. l Source: theguardian.com

n Showtime Desk

Not too long ago, three musicians merged to explore their common passion together, forming Mohai’s Trio – a trio dedicated to the genre known as jazz.

The band will be performing a set of originals and jazz standards at the Bokul Tola, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka on April 23rd.

The trio will be leading the evening with Mohaimin Karim’s bass lines, accompanied by Imran Ahmed’s crafty guitar and Arjo Shrestho’s hypnotic drums.

Mohaimin Karim picked up the bass because of its unique sound and possibilities, and grew up as a young musician playing with some of the � nest

musicians in Dhaka. He also plays bass in the only jazz fusion band in town – the Imran Ahmed Quintet. Karim started o� with funk but is signi� cantly in� uenced by jazz, fusion, blues, RnB, soul, hip-hop and progressive rock.

Imran Ahmed, a composer and guitar player, is heavily in� uenced by jazz and Indian classical music. Having opened for the legendary John McLaughlin and Shai Maestro at last year’s première of Jazz and Blues Festival, Ahmed has mainly been performing as part of the self-titled Imran Ahmed Quintet in Dhaka, as well as collaborating with other artists.

Arjo Shrestho has been playing the drums for a few years. He has been trying to understand the sound that his instrument produces to further enhance his understanding of music. Musicians such as Peter Erskine and Bill Evans have a signi� cant in� uence in the way he approaches his kit. l

Cannes rejected a � lm only because the director supports Putin

Jazz in Charukola

nShowtime desk

Lux-Channel-i Superstar � rst runner-up, Prosun Azad is set to appear in the role of a tea stall girl, in a single episode TV drama airing today on Maasranga TV at 7:40pm.

The story follows Basanti, played by Azad, who is the only daughter of an unemployed, addicted father who doesn’t support the family. Basanti’s mother tries to bare the family’s expenses by arranging to rent a shop, in order to set up a tea stall there. Unfortunately, the teal stall doesn’t generate as much pro� t as her mother expects.

However, from the time when Basanti takes charge of the stall,

the business starts to boom. As a result, her mother encourages her to be present at the stall, often asking her to put some make-up when she does. Her mother observes that it is her daughter’s beauty that attracts the youth, thereby increasing pro� tability of the business. However, Basanti has no interest in attracting customers using her beauty. Instead, she feels used by her mother but continues to help her family’s condition.

Written by Sahhidul Haque Swapan and directed by Shoeb Sadik, the single episode TV drama also casts Pran Roy, Munira Mithu and Fazlur Rahman Babu. l

nShowtime desk

The eldest Kardashian sister is rumoured to have been � inging on-and-o� with Justin Bieber since late last year, and it appears that there’s a reason she keeps going back for more. Kourtney spent nine years with her baby daddy Scott Disick, so she might not have a lot to compare him to.

“There’s de� nitely an age gap there, but they have a lot of chemistry,” a source told the tabloid. In fact, the source says, Kourt thinks ‘Justin is the best lover ever.’

While Kourtney and Justin seem to have a hot physical connection, sources say that the relationship remains casual, an arrangement

both parties are happy with.However, Justin has spent time

with Kourtney’s three children, which Scott can’t be thrilled over.

She’s joked that, “Justin is great with her kids, certainly more playful and fun with them than Scott ever was,” says the source.

It’s no secret that Scott has been pining for Kourtney, ever since she dumped him last year.

In a recent episode of I Am Cait, Caitlyn Jenner asked Scott if he wanted to reconcile with his ex. l

Source: The Hollywood Life

31D

TFRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

ShowtimeWHAT TO WATCH

The IncrediblesZee Studio, 9:30pmBob and Helen used to be Mr Incredible and Elastigirl � fteen years ago. The crime-� ghting superheroes adapt to a civilian life when they retire from their activities. Their children Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack were born with superpowers that they are not aware of. Bob is thrilled when he gets a communication that summons him to a remote island for a top secret assignment. When he gets there, he realises that solving the problem will need the e� orts of a super family. Voice: Craig T Nelson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee, Samuel L Jackson, Dominique Louis

Edge of TomorrowHBO, 9:30pmWhen Earth falls under attack from invincible aliens, no military unit in the world is able to beat them. Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), an o� cer who has never seen combat, is assigned to a suicide mission. Killed within moments, Cage � nds himself thrown into a time loop, in which he relives the same brutal � ght and his death over and over again. However, Cage’s � ghting skills improve with each encore, bringing him and a comrade (Emily Blunt) ever closer to defeating the aliens.Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Jonas Armstrong, Tony Way, Kick Gurry l

Prosun Azad dons tea stall girlKourtney Kardashian called Justin Bieber the ‘best lover!’

nRumpa Farzana Zaman

The movie Ice-cream is directed by TV director Redoan Rony, who caused quite a stir back in 2012 with his debut � lm Chorabali. Over three years since then, he is back with his second cinematic venture titled Ice-Cream, which got the go ahead from the censor board without any complications. The movie is all set to premier very soon. In the latest trailer of the � lm, which has come out recently, it is mentioned that the � lm team has dedicated

the movie to the late media personality Parveen Sultana Diti and young actor Sayem Sadat.

Actress Diti recently passed away, having succumbed to her long battle with cancer. Diti completed shooting of the � lm but was unable to make time for dubbing, which was later done by Mahmuda Apon.

The young artist Sayem also recently passed away only a week after his wedding. His sudden and untimely death came as a shock to the Bangladesh media. As a young artist, Sayem had quickly

become popular among the country’s young audience.

Both Diti and Sayem will be seen in Redoan Rony’s � lm. For the team behind the � lm, this is an extremely emotional situation, as they sorely miss the two well loved member, while also looking forward to their new venture. That is what lead the team to dedicate their labour of love to Diti and Sayem.

The new trailer of the � lm features a message of dedication where the two stars are mentioned. Redoan Rony says,

“Losing them is a great loss to the Media industry. We want to remember them all the time and so we are dedicating this � lm to the evergreen media personalities Diti and Sayem.”

The movie is a romantic � lm about the young love where Rony wrote the entire story, script and dialogues. All three central roles of Uday, Raj and Tushi are played by fresh débutantes in the industry and the director hopes to deliver something completely new to the audience. Various roles in the � lm have been played by leading artists including Omar Sunny, Diti and ATM Shamsuzzaman. The � lming of Ice-cream partly took place in a few scenic localities at Saint Martin Island. The � lm is set to be released on April 29, 2016. l

Ice-cream dedicated to Diti and Sayem

Back Page32DT

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016

MARCIA BERNICAT’S OPINION ON CLEAN ENERGY PAGE 14

DPL VALUE NOT LOST ON MASHRAFE, TAMIM PAGE 25

ICE-CREAM DEDICATED TO DITI, SAYEM PAGE 31

Biggest limestone reserve foundn Aminur Rahman Rasel

The biggest limestone reserve in Bangladesh has been found in Naogaon’s Badalgachhi upazila, the Geological Survey of Bangla-desh (GSB) has said.

“We conducted a bore-hole drilling in Tajpur village and found a 61-foot thick layer of limestone around 2,214 feet deep,” GSB Direc-tor General Md Nehal Uddin told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

It is estimated that the lime-stone reserve could cover over

50-sq-km surrounding the point, while 15 more bore-holes are need-ed to con� rm the estimation, the DG added.

However, Bangladesh is still not technologically capable of extract-ing limestone from such a deep re-serve as the high temperatures at this depth makes mining risky and expensive.

The drilling project in Tajpur is being implemented by state au-thorities at a cost of Tk80 lakh and the bore-hole would go down to 3,500 feet.

On February 20, the drilling started and is expected to end by June. The overall work will take at least three years to complete, Ne-hal said.

Claiming that the limestone found there was of good quality, the GSB DG said Tajpur reserve would be able to provide supply for the en-tire country’s cement production.

A geologist of GSB said the stone reserve was around 50 million years old and from the upper stage of Sylhet limestone formation.

Earlier, the GSB found limestone

reserves in Joypurhat’s Panchbi-bi and Jamalganj, and at Tekerhat in Sunamganj. High temperature made it impossible to extract lime-stone at Panchbibi, while the pro-jects in Jamalganj and Tekerhat were found to be unpro� table.

Badrul Imam, professor of Ge-ology at Dhaka University, said ex-tracting limestone from the depth of 2,200 feet or 500 metre was a challenging prospect under the cir-cumstances in Bangladesh.

The main challenge was the temperature; the deeper a mine

was, the higher its temperature,he said.

Bangladesh is yet to adapt to necessary technology for extract-ing limestone from such depths, said Prof Badrul.

If the limestone reserve was found at depths of 100-200 metre, then extracting it would have been � nancially viable, he said.

“My advice is to conduct explo-ration work at the shallow depth of north zone. If minerals are found there, then we can extract those easily,” the DU professor said. l

Ancient monasteries discovered in Naogaon

n Khandker Rauf, Naogaon

A nearly 1,500 years old Bud-dhist site has been unearthed in Naogaon, home to a number of other historical sites.

Mohammad Abu Al Hasan, a PhD researcher at Jahangirnagar University, discovered four mon-asteries at Raninagar upazila’s Ujalpur, which he says, initially appear to share similarities with Paharpur Vihara.

Hasan, also an assistant direc-tor at Bangladesh Bank currency Museum, in his yearlong exten-

sive research pointed out possi-bilities of � nding ancient historic sites at Raninagar’s Rajapur Dhibi, Dighirpar Dwip, Ghora Pata and Ujalpur.

He said he turned his attention to the area as many high mounds in the district’s low-lying Ranina-gar and Atrai were not examined.

Hasan started excavation with a six-member team from Sunday with the government’s permis-sion. The district and local admin-istration are also assisting him.

In July last year, examinations hinted at possible presence of ar-

tefacts. “I started excavation from April 17 this year at personal ini-tiative with the Archaeology De-partment’s permission,” he said.

“The structure of the mon-asteries initially appear similar to that of the Paharpur Viharas. Although I am not entirely sure, but at a glance it seems like a Bud-dhist educational institution.”

Artefacts found at the site seem to predate the Pal dynas-ty, he said adding that it was not possible to ascertain facts before � nishing the excavation.

Locals welcomed the discov-

ery. They said the site was being used for Eid congregations before Hasan unearthed the monaster-ies. MP Md Isra� l Alam expressed indignation at the inaction of the Archaeology Department which, he said, “only talked big.”

“We have many historic sites including Patisar, laced with Ra-bindranath Tagore’s memories, the Gandhi Ashram, and Pahar-pur. Although the Archaeology Department took over the sites, it is yet to take visible and e� ective steps to preserve them.

“The measures it has already taken are progressing at snail’s pace, that are not enough to at-tract people.”

Preserving the sites will boost the district’s tourism, he added.

Archaeology Department’s Bogra region Assistant Custodian Zayed Ali said the size of bricks and structure of the monasteries uncovered so far indicate that they are either from the Pal dy-nasty or before that period.

Asked if the government will take initiatives to excavate the dis-covered mounds, he said: “There has been no such decisions.”

Noted Historian Dr Pinaki Bhattacharya rushed to Naogaon to take a look at the newly-discov-ered monasteries. He sought the Archaeology Department’s assis-tance, saying the excavation was costly and would be di� cult to continue with personal funding.

“Once revealed, the monas-teries will enrich the country’s history,” he said. “There are many such monasteries scattered across Bangladesh. We need to conduct extensive research.” l

Archaeology researcher Mohammad Abu Al Hasan, who discovered the site, says it initially appears to share similarities with Paharpur Vihara DHAKA TRIBUNE

Superstar Prince dies at 57 n Reuters

US music superstar Prince, whose hits included “Purple Rain” and “Kiss,” was found unresponsive yesterday at his Minnesota home and was later declared dead, his publicist said. He was 57.

“It is with profound sadness that I am con� rming that the leg-endary, iconic performer, Prince Rogers Nelson has died,” said pub-licist Anna Meacham.

There were no immediate de-tails on the cause of death, and the local medical examiner declined to comment.

Prince � rst found fame in the late 1970s, and over the next three decades became known as one of the most inventive and eccentric forces in American pop music.

Prince sold more than 100 mil-lion records during his career, won seven Grammy awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. He won an Oscar for best original song score for “Purple Rain,” the 1984 movie whose music was based on his al-bum of the same name. Prince also starred in the movie.

Last week, the singer was brie� y hospitalised with the � u. l

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