A Dhaka court accepted the charge-sheet filed in a case against  against Dr Yunus, 13 others for allegedly embezzling Tk 25 crore from the company. Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Ash Shams Zaglul Hossain passed the order today (April 2) for further proceedings  the case was sent to Dhaka Special Judge Court-4. The court fixed May 2 for the next hearing of the case. Grameen Telecom director, Md Shahjahan, one of the accused who failed to appear before the court on this day, the court canceled his bail and issued an arrest warrant. Earlier, Dr. Yunus and other accused appeared in the court around 1:45 pm. On May 30 last year, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC)  filed a case against 13 people, including Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, for embezzling Tk 25.22 crore from Grameen Telecom's workers' welfare fund. Gulshan Anowar Pradhan, Deputy Director of Anti- Corruption Commission filed the case. On February 1, ACC Deputy Director Gulshan Anwar Prodhan, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet against 14 people, including Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) appointed former Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar as the head of operations of women's cricket on Tuesday, February 20. Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) confirmed the matter in a press release on Tuesday (February 20). According to the statement, Bashar will serve as the head of operations of the Women's Wing.  Notably, Habibul Bashar is a member of the national selection panel of BCB between 2016 to 2024 before it was dissolved, selection panel will officially end on February 28 this year.

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) approved the charge sheet against Grameen Telecom and Nobel laureate professor Muhammad Yunus as well as 13 others on Januray 29 in a case filed for allegedly embezzling Taka 25 crore from the company. The approval came from a meeting which was held at the commission’s headquarters at Segunbagicha in Dhaka on Monday (Jan 29) afternoon.  Mahbub Hossain, ACC Secretary has confirmed the matter to the reporters.   Professor Yunus is the chairman of the company. The accused people, who have been named in the charge sheet in the case are Chairman of Grameen Telecom Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Managing Director Nazmul Islam, Director and former Managing Director, MD Ashraful Hasan, Director Parvin Mahmud, Naznin Sultana, Md. Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum and Director SM Hajjatul Islam Latifee, Advocate Md. Yusuf Ali, Advocate Zafrul Hasan Sharif, President of Grameen Telecom Sramik-Karmachari Union President Kamruzzaman, General Secretary Feroz Mahmud Hasan and Office Representative Md. Mainul Islam has been accused. According to the case statement, on May 9, 2022, a decision was made at the company’s 108th board , which was presided over by Dr Yunus,  But it was found that the account was opened only a day before the decision was even made. On May 30 of last year, ACC filed a case against 13 people including Muhammad Yunus for embezzling 25 crores 22 lakhs 6 thousand 780 taka of workers' welfare fund.  Gulshan Anwar, Deputy Director of the organization, filed the case.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has coauthored an article with CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation Patrick Verkooijen on climate change in the famous American weekly news magazine, Newsweek. The article was published on Thursday (November 30) while the global leaders are convening for the COP28 climate summit in Dubai to find ways to fight climate change impact globally. Following is the full article: Let's Put People Back at the Heart of Climate Action By Sheikh Hasina and Patrick Verkooijen Climate change is a global disaster inflicted by the rich upon the poor-and increasingly upon themselves. Global leaders convening for the COP28 climate summit in Dubai need to understand that their top-down approach can never work. Rather, we need to put the victims in charge of the fight back and fund their battle. The climate breakdown will not wait while leaders equivocate. It is already unleashing typhoons and floods on communities, and spreading hunger through crop failures and drought. Only a tiny fraction of climate funding reaches the people battling the worst effects of climate change-they are without the resources needed to protect themselves and their livelihoods, leaving them more vulnerable. Climate injustice is being exacerbated. Climate action at a global level makes no sense unless it helps protect people on the frontlines of climate change. We need to find ways to quickly and efficiently channel all necessary funding to locally led climate-resilience initiatives. This calls for fresh thinking and a new approach. At COP28, the world needs to double down on adaptation finance. The Loss and Damage Fund must become fully operational so we can respond rapidly and urgently to meet the needs of local communities to rebuild infrastructure and adapt more effectively to climate impacts. This is also a vital step toward climate justice. Moving from Global to Local To ensure adaptation finance flows from developed to developing countries double to reach $40 billion by 2025, as pledged at COP26 in Glasgow, finance providers must on average increase annual adaptation flows by at least 16 percent between 2022 and 2025. Yet adaptation finance flows to developing countries declined 15 percent in 2021 to $21.3 billion. That is clearly too little. Yet less than 6 percent of this sum, and perhaps as little as 2 percent, reaches climate-resilience projects led by local communities. Estimates vary due to a lack of properly tracking and reporting money flows-and this needs to improve. But it's also because climate policy and decision-making flows from the top down. The people who know which towns, streets, fields, and homes are most vulnerable are those who live there. We must encourage and empower them to get together and draw up and implement their own projects to protect themselves against the consequences of climate change. This is easier said than done. Local communities often lack the time and skills to manage longer-term projects aimed at strengthening climate resilience. They need help and training to draw up project proposals; and to access funding they need basic things such as legally constituted organizations and bank accounts. Bangladesh has always been a leader in locally led climate adaptation and recently the government has been exploring various ways to channel climate assistance to local communities. The Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan makes it easier to access low-interest loans for adaptation, has a climate risk fund to train communities and local governments to lead adaptation, expands green banking services, and explores paying communities for ecosystem services.    Through the Global Hub on Locally Led Adaptation in Dhaka, the government is also helping scale up solutions and share best practices with other vulnerable regions of the world. These efforts are already achieving dramatic improvements on the ground. From Challenges to Opportunities In Mongla, the second-largest seaport in Bangladesh, the mayor and residents are drawing up a plan to identify economic opportunities in their climate challenges. Like other major cities, Mongla has seen a large influx of climate migrants even as it struggles with rising sea levels-a consequence of global warming-that are contaminating the city's fresh water supplies. Mongla is mapping settlements, identifying key climate vulnerabilities, and developing locally led initiatives. With the support of the U.K. and Canadian governments working through BRAC, an international development agency, and the Global Center on Adaptation, it is hoped that Mongla's People's Adaptation Plans might become a blueprint for other towns and cities adapting to climate change. This shows us that locally led adaptation is the way forward. But we need to massively scale up these approaches. For that, we need to find ways to finance local communities, without creating undue risk for donors. Strong intermediary organizations can be valuable here to act as a transmission belt to accelerate People's Adaptation Plans into the portfolio of large financiers, including international finance institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. COP28 will only be a success if it achieves real benefits for the communities most affected by the climate crisis. This year's climate summit must ensure that finance flows to the poor communities most affected by climate change, and into locally led, appropriate, and effective adaptation. If we achieve this, the world will have taken a big step toward redressing the gross injustices of climate change. Source: BSS

Police resorted to baton charge at a university in the city of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in a bid to disperse a group of protesting students, a media report said on Wednesday.   The students were demonstrating on Tuesday for holding online exams due to the surge in Covid-19 cases, the Dawn newspaper reported.   Police took some 50 students into custody but they were later released in the evening after a commitment that they would not disturb the exam process.   According to the university officials, the same group of students had also created a ruckus on the city campus last week. They had urged the varsity to go for online exams.   But the demand could not be met given the guidelines by the Higher Education Commission.   Source: ANI

Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque today (Sunday) said the government has taken initiatives to fix medical service charges for private hospitals to make healthcare cost affordable for all. “Out-pocket expenditure is gradually increasing as most private hospitals are charging very high from service seekers…. Service will be fixed on the basis of standard of different private hospitals,” he told a meeting on “Incorporating private sector in healthcare facilities” at his ministry, an official release said. Secretary of Health Service Division Abdul Mannan, Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam and President of Bangladesh Private Medical Association Mubin Khan, among others, were present at the meeting. Describing various reasons for the increase of out-pocket expenditure, the health minister said other key reasons for higher medical cost include taking medical treatment from abroad, dependency on private hospitals and price hike of medicines. Maleque acknowledged private medical sector’s considerable contribution to providing healthcare facilities to the people alongside public hospitals. But a section of private hospitals are charging very high from patients, creating huge financial burden on service seekers, he added. There are huge number of clinics in the country, the health minister said adding, many clinics are not equipped enough to provide quality healthcare services to the people. “We are working to fix a set of conditions for all clinics in the country to ensure quality medical service,” he added Source: BSS AH

Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh has taken charge as the Mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC). The Mayor took over the charge from DSCC Chief Executive Officer Abdul Hye at the Nagar Bhaban in the capital on Saturday. DSCC Public Relations Officer Uttam Kumar Roy said, after taking the charge the newly elected Mayor briefed the newsmen through online. Earlier, Bangladesh Awami League nominated candidate Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh was elected Mayor of DSCC unofficially in the election held on February 1 this year.   AH

Md. Atiqul Islam has taken charge as the Mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) for the second consecutive term. He took charge from the acting mayor Jamal Mostafa. Atiqul Islam was handed over the responsibility at a simple ceremony organized at the DNCC Nagar Bhaban at Banani in the capital at around 12 pm on Wednesday. High officials including DNCC Chief Executive Officer Abdul Hye, Secretary Rabindrashree Barua, Chief Medical Officer Brigadier General Mominur Rahman Mamun were present in the program. Mentionable, Md. Atiqul Islam won the election for DNCC mayoral post for second consecutive term held on February 1. Earlier he was elected as the mayor for the first term in the by-election that was held on February 28, 2019 following the death of first DNCC mayor Annisul Huq. In that tenure he performed his duty for nearly one year as the mayor. AH      

Two Dhaka University (DU) students have been detained reportedly for their involvement in extorting money from a truck driver in the city’s High Court area. The detainees are Jobair Ahmed Shanta of the International Relations department and Md Al Amin of Criminology department. Both of them are third year students and inmates of Ziaur Rahman Hall. Police arrested the duo when they were demanding money after beating Md Kaiser, driver of a sand-laden truck, around 4:30am on Saturday. Confirming the matter, Abul Hasan, officer-in-charge of Shahbagh Police Station, said the truck was parked in front of the High Court after one of its tyres got deflated. The accused students then approached its driver and demanded money from him. They also beat the driver when he refused to give the money. In the meantime, Sohel Rana, helper of the truck, informed the matter to a nearby policeman, Abul Hossain said. “We later arrested them with the help of the university's proctorial team. They were sent to a court on Saturday morning,” the OC said. Truck helper Sohel Rana filed a case in this regard. Contacted, DU Proctor AKM Golam Rabbani said police informed them about the incident. “University authorities will take action against them if the allegation is found to be true.” Source: UNB AH

Police have charged batons on left-democratic alliance’s ‘Black flag’ procession on way to the Prime Minister’s Office. Chase and counter chases were took place. Leaders and activists said that 20-25 people were hurt in the incident. The incident took place at Mathsha Bhaban area in the capital on Monday afternoon. The left-democratic alliance organized the procession to observe 30th December as ‘Black Day’ terming the eleventh national parliament election as an election of ‘vote robbery’. Left-democratic alliance coordinator Abdullah Al Kafi Ratan said, 25-26 leaders and activists including alliance leader and general secretary of Biplabi Workers Party Saiful Haque and chief coordinator of Gonosanghati Andolon Zonaed Saki were injured in the police attack. They were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Protesting the attack the left-democratic alliance has called a demonstration gathering in front of National Press Club on Tuesday. In this regard Ramna zone DC of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Sajjadur Rahman said, we requested them not to break the barricade. Their leaders and activists did not follow the request. They attacked police with the sticks and bamboos attached to the placards. Five police members were injured and of them two were hurt critically. We have showed the sense of patience and later we disperse them. Officer in Charge of Ramna police station Monirul Islam said, we have taken several people into police custody. We will take action after watching the video footage. AH