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North America World

Hurricane Laura death toll climbs to 14 in the US

Fourteen people are now confirmed dead in the United States after Hurricane Laura battered southern states.Ten of the victims were in Louisiana and four in Texas.

Winds of up to 150mph (240km/h) caused severe damage, with power cuts to more than half a million homes and a chemical fire from an industrial plant.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has asked the federal government for immediate financial assistance in dealing with the fallout, BBC reported.

Categories
Business

E-valy, the latest digital business scam

E-valy offers consumers all sorts of lucrative deals, with ‘cash back’ offers going up to 100 to 150 per cent. If you buy, for example, Tk 100 worth of goods, you can get the same amount back or even more. Thousands of consumers are being lured in by these almost unbelievable deals being offered by this Bangladeshi e-commerce company. A few are even making a profit, but most are still waiting to see the big bucks.

People should understand that the seller or the company which is giving you 100 per cent or 150 per cent cash-back is not paying from their own pocket or inheritance. They are cheating others and resorting to other unethical means.

Not even two years into the business, this company has already sold products worth Tk 10 billion (Tk 1000 crore). Yet the company’s paid-up capital is only Tk 50,000. As the business grows, a growing number of complaints have also been lodged against with various government agencies. Experts apprehend that this method of business is conducive to money laundering.

Categories
National

Pradeep made the fortune, his wife washed the dirt off it

While on duty, former officer-in-charge of Teknaf Police Station Pradeep Kumar Das, accused in ex-major Sinha Rashed Md Khan killing case, used to make money from bribes and corruptions.

His wife Chumki Karan, on the other hand, under the disguise of business had been legalising the ill-gotten property of her husband.

But their misdeed came to the fore after the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) began an inquiry against their illegal wealth.

In the inquiry, the commission has found that Chumki amassed about Tk 3.95 crore of wealth from her husband’s “illegal income”.

Categories
National

Aminbazar waste-to-energy plant to be a gamechanger: Minister

Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, which generates some 6,000 tonnes of garbage every day, is expected to see a sea change in garbage disposal once the country’s first proposed waste-energy plant in Aminbazar goes into operation.

“No garbage will be seen lying indiscriminately in the city once the proposed waste-energy plant in Aminbazar starts generating electricity. When the plant is set up, it’ll require 3,000 metric tonnes of garbage a day. If a power plant collects so much garbage, there’ll be no more waste everywhere in the city,” said Local Government, Rural Development (LGRD) and Cooperatives Minister Md Tazul Islam.

The LGRD Minister made the remarks while visiting Aminbazar Dumping Station and Gabtoli Mechanical Workshop in Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).

Describing the waste-to-energy plant as his dream project, Tazul Islam warned that no irregularity and corruption will be tolerated in the project.

Categories
Business

Factory activity slumps by more than a quarter in April

Manufacturing activity in Bangladesh dropped as much as 28.78 per cent in April from a month earlier, official figures showed, in a first glimpse of the major blow the coronavirus pandemic dished out to the economy. 

It declined 25.57 per cent in April from a year earlier, according to the Quantum Index of medium and large-scale manufacturing industries, mining and electricity prepared by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

The manufacturing activity came to a screeching halt on 26 March after the government was compelled to enforce a countrywide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

As a result, the general manufacturing production index dropped to 282.60 in April, from 396.85 in March this year and 379.71 in April last year.

Categories
National

Families of Teknaf ‘Gunfight’ Victims: The false hope of ‘public hearing’

People taking turns to talk on a particular issue, placing testimonials, and administrators listening cautiously and coming up with certain commitments publicly is how a public hearing takes place.

And people in Teknaf turned up at the office of the in-charge of Rohingya Camp-23 at 10:00am yesterday expecting something like this.

But a public hearing is not what they got. At 11:25am, a high-level investigation committee, formed by the home ministry to investigate the killing of Major (retd) Sinha Rashed Khan in police firing, began a closed-door meeting at the office in Shamlapur area, only with a handful of preselected persons. The meeting continued till 4:40pm and those persons were sent home through a back door.

Categories
National

FM seeks cooperation from diplomats in bringing back Bangabandhu’s killers

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Sunday sought cooperation from foreign diplomats in bringing back fugitive killers of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

He was addressing a virtual discussion with foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka and New Delhi marking the National Mourning Day to commemorate the 45th anniversary of martyrdom of Father of the Nation.

Law Minister Anisul Huq and State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam also spoke at the discussion while Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen delivered the welcome remarks. 

Around 83 diplomats stationed in Dhaka and New Delhi joined the discussion hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Categories
Business

For China’s landlords, rent-to-riches dreams fade in red flag for fragile economy

Not yet 30, Beijing office worker Li thought she was already on her way up China’s private property ladder with two apartments bought and rented out. Then came the new coronavirus, jobless tenants leaving town and a rent falloff.

She’s one of millions of Chinese landlords who have bought apartments to let in a highway to the country’s growing middle class, many now facing a first slump in rental income.

Analysts say there’s little prospect of widespread mortgage defaults for now, and property prices continue to grow, albeit more slowly. But the rental woes underline China’s economic fragility, with the landlord legions already cutting back on spending amid their gloom.

Li, who declined to give her full name, said she had to almost halve the rent at one of her apartments between February and May to hang on to a tenant, while her own salary was slashed 25 per cent as her employer made coronavirus cutbacks.

Categories
Business

Lufthansa cabin crew union members back cost cut deal

Cabin crew at Lufthansa have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a deal to stop pay rises and cut hours, the UFO trade union said on Saturday as the German airline battles to rein in losses due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Lufthansa reached the deal in June with UFO, which represents 22,000 cabin crew, to reap more than 500 million euros ($592.05 million) in savings from shorter hours and an equivalent cut in pay as well as a temporary reduction in pension contributions.

Last week, the airline put German workers on notice of compulsory layoffs, saying the slump in travel and slow progress in union negotiations meant cuts were unavoidable after the carrier lost 1.7 billion euros in a single quarter.

Lufthansa, which in June received a 9 billion euro government bailout to secure its future, said last week it expected capacity to recover to only around 50% of normal by the end of 2020 and to two thirds of last year’s level in 2021.

Categories
Business

Malaysian economy shrinks most in over 20yrs

Malaysia’s economy suffered its worst contraction in more than 20 years during the second quarter, hit by a collapse in global trade and tough curbs to contain the coronavirus, the central bank said Friday.

The economy shrank 17.1 percent on-year in April-June — the first since the global financial crisis in 2009 and the deepest since the Asian financial turmoil 11 years before that — putting it on course for recession.

The reading was much worse than the 10.9 percent drop forecast in a survey by Bloomberg News, despite interest rates being cut to record lows.

It shrank 16.5 percent on-quarter.Wan Suhaimi Saidi, an economist at Kenanga Investment Bank, warned that the trade-dependent economy was  “heading into a recession since there is no sign of a full recovery in demand and business activity”.