Author: Asian Bangla

Asianbangla Desk: Despite a recorded age of almost 118 years, Julia Flores Colque still sings with joy in her indigenous Quechua tongue. She was born on October 26, 1900 in a mining camp in the Bolivian mountains. At 117 and just over 10 months, she would be the oldest woman in the Andean nation and perhaps the oldest living person in the world. But Guinness World Records says it has received no application for her and Flores Colque doesn’t seem to care that her record hasn’t been confirmed. She hasn’t even heard of the reference book. Nowadays, Julia enjoys the…

Asianbangla Desk : Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday indicated that a no-deal Brexit would not be a disaster for Britain, playing down warnings of serious consequences for the UK economy. Afp, London May said she was confident of striking an acceptable new deal with Brussels as Britain prepares to leave the European Union in March. She cited WTO director general Roberto Azevedo as she made her case. “Look at what the director of the World Trade Organization has said,” she told British media on her tour of Africa. “He said about a no-deal situation that it would not be a…

Asianbangla Desk : Israeli forces demolished the home of a Palestinian who carried out a deadly knife attack in a settlement in the occupied West Bank, the army said yesterday. Minor clashes broke out between Palestinians opposed to the raid and soldiers in the West Bank early yesterday. Afp, Jerusalem

Asianbangla Desk : Indian police on Tuesday arrested five rights activists for suspected links to Maoist rebels in raids on their homes and offices in several places in the country. Police also accused the five of delivering speeches that triggered protests and violence between low-caste Dalits and right-wing groups near the western city of Pune in December. The government says Maoist rebels, who are active in several states, are India’s biggest internal security threat. The rebels, inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting the Indian government for more than four decades, demanding land and jobs for tenant…

Asianbangla Dhaka : Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said the government will take effective steps to create more specialist physicians to provide better medical services in the country. “We’ll take steps so that specialist physicians are created in all the fields of medical services, including ophthalmology and ENT (Otorhinolaryngology),” she said. The Prime Minister said this while inaugurating Community Vision Centres in 20 upazilas of eight districts centring Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Eye Hospital and Training Institute in Gopalganj through a videoconference from her official residence Ganobhaban aiming to provide better ophthalmological services among the local people. Sheikh Hasina…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Rice imports nosedived in the past two months and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) predicted total import would dip to 6 lakh tonnes in 2018-19 due to higher production in boro season and reinstatement of import tariff. The private and public sectors imported 38.92 lakh tonnes of rice in July-June of 2017-18, the highest in the last three decades, according to food ministry data. Since July of the current fiscal year, 38,060 tonnes of rice grains were imported. The US agency linked the slumping rice import to the imposition of a 28 percent import duty in July…

Asianbangla Dhaka : In a latest development in politics, a new platform has been floated under the joint leadership of Prof AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury and Dr Kamal Hossain to take part in the next general elections. The two senior political leaders of the country came up with the declaration after a two-hour meeting at the house of Dr Kamal, president of Gonoforum, last night. “We — former president and Juktofront Chairman AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury and constitution architect Dr Kamal Hossain — have agreed to work unitedly at the present moment of crisis of the nation,” B Chowdhury said after the…

Asianbangla Desk : All sides in Yemen’s bloody conflict may have committed war crimes, UN investigators said yesterday, highlighting deadly air strikes, rampant sexual violence, and the recruitment of young children as soldiers. Afp, Geneva In their first report, a team of UN-mandated investigators said they had “reasonable grounds to believe that the parties to the armed conflict in Yemen have committed a substantial number of violations of international humanitarian law.” Many of these violations may amount to “war crimes”, the report said, pointing to widespread arbitrary detention, rape, torture and the recruitment of children as young as eight to…

Asianbangla Dhaka : Mobile call volume dropped by 15 percent since the introduction of the minimum uniform call rate, as users attempted to minimise costs, industry insiders said yesterday. However, earnings of mobile phone operators rose by five percent since the new rate of Tk 0.45 a minute came into force two weeks ago, they added. The rate, which came into effect on August 14, affected many customers, as all the regular packages of the top mobile operators are now charging more than Tk 1.20 per minute. Additionally, operators have also introduced a number of offers that are close to…

Asianbangla Dhaka : In Bangladesh, industrialists and businesspeople become shareholders and directors of banks, and borrow money from each other’s banks. And not only that, up to four members of a family can now be in the board of directors of a bank, up from two previously, after the relevant rules were amended last year following Finance Minister AMA Muhith’s recommendation. But the picture is completely different in neighbouring India. No industrialist or businessperson there can become a director of any bank as this creates a conflict of interest between the custodians and the borrowers of the institution. India’s Banking…