Polish voters are going to the polls in local elections that will test the public mood under a new liberal government. Premier Donald Tusk is seeking confirmation of support for his pro-European course. Voters across Poland are casting ballots in local elections on Sunday four months after the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk took power, ending eight years of conservative nationalist rule in the country. Nearly 190,000 candidates are vying for positions as mayors and councillors across the nation of 38 million people. Recent voter surveys have shown a close race is likely between Tusk's Civic Coalition  and Law and Justice (PiS), the conservative party that governed the country from 2015. The results will be closely watched in Brussels ahead of European Parliament elections in June. Litmus test for liberal pro-European stance The vote is being seen as a first electoral test for Tusk's coalition government. Tusk has pledged to reverse the  previous government's changes to the judicial system and public media, which were seen by the European Union as violating its democratic standards. This led to frequently strained relations between Warsaw and Brussels. However, change in several areas has been slow in coming, as new legislation will be needed, for example, to give the judicial system back its independence. The strict abortion laws introduced by the PiS are also supported by some conservatives in Tusk's own coalition, hampering reforms. Nonetheless, the reforms enacted by Tusk have already led to the unblocking of billions in EU funds that were frozen over the bloc's concern about the state of the rule of law under the PiS. Tusk warns of backsliding The prime minister himself has warned that a win for his liberal Civic Coalition (KO), the largest grouping in the ruling alliance, is vital if Poland is to not to slip toward a return of the nationalist rule of the PiS. "Our dream — once a beautiful dream, and today an increasingly better reality — may end overnight," he told a rally in Warsaw on Friday. "If someone believes that freedom, human rights, women's rights, democracy, free economy, self-government — that all this is permanent, will defend itself ... we will lose it all again." The PiS has repeatedly rejected accusations that it undermined democracy and human rights during its time in power. PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has called on voters to show Tusk's government "a yellow card" — a warning given to players by soccer referees.  A second round of voting in mayoral races will be held on April 21.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said today (March 4) that the local people of Cox's Bazar have now become a minority by sheltering the forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar. She also said that a large number of Rohingyas have now become a threat to the environment of Bangladesh. Professor Payam Akhavan who is the appointed lawyer of Bangladesh in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her Sangsad Bhaban office on Monday (March 4). Sheikh Hasina reiterated the importance of ensuring the return of the forcibly displaced Rohingyas to their homeland. At the same time, the prime minister said a part of the Rohingya people has already been involved in criminal activities like smuggling arms, women and drugs. This is a matter of great concern for Bangladesh.  

Election to 233 local government bodies, including by-polls to Cumilla City Corporation (CCC) and general election to Mymensingh City Corporation (MCC), will be held on March 9. Election Commission (EC) secretariat secretary Jahangir Alam announced the polls schedule at a press conference held at Agargaon Nirbachan Bhaban today (Jan 24). According to the schedule, the last date for submission of nomination papers to the returning officers is on February 13 and nomination papers will be scrutinized on February 15. Appeals against cancellation of candidatures will be settled on February 19 and 20.   The last date for withdrawal of candidatures is February 22 and symbol will be distributed on February 23.   Voting will take place from 8am to 4pm on March 9.   EC secretary said voting of city corporations, pourashavas and district councils will take place in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). But ballot paper will be used in general elections of union parishads and different vacant posts, he added.   Jahangir Alam said Regional election officials will act as returning office for Mymensingh and Cumilla city corporation polls.   Source: BSS

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday (November 01, 2023) launched local currency card Taka Pay to reduce dependency on international card schemes like Visa and Mastercard and save much-needed US dollars. Bangladesh Bank introduced the card, first of its kind in the country. Reports UNB PM Hasina inaugurated the card from her official residence Ganabhaban. She was connected virtually with the headquarters of state-owned Sonali Bank, private City Bank and Brac Bank. The three banks have been given responsibility to issue the Taka Pay card in collaboration with the central bank. 'Taka Pay' will provide the same service nationally through the use of 'The National Payment Switch of Bangladesh', an electronic payment platform operated by the BB. Initially, the card can be used within the country. Later the central bank will introduce Taka-Rupee card which can be used for shopping in neighbouring India.

Police said on Saturday that more than 50 people suffered coughing, vomiting and shortness of breath due to irritant gas at a local festival tent in a German town. Dozens were treated on the site in the Hessisch Oldendorf town in the northwestern state of Lower Saxony while three were hospitalized.  Several people apparently threw so-called pepper balls on the ground, slowly releasing the gas into the air as they burst in a festival tent. Police said they arrested two 20-year-old suspects as part of their investigation into the incident.  The event, which started on Friday into the early hours of Saturday, was immediately evacuated by the police. According to the German news agency DPA, 900 people had to leave the tent where the incident occurred.

A local court in Islamabad on Thursday summoned former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on September 25 in a case related to his alleged ‘un-Islamic’ marriage with Bushra Bibi, Pakistan-based The Express Tribune reported citing Express News. Civil Judge Qudratullah in an order issued to the Superintendent Attock Jail directed the latter to ensure that Imran Khan is presented before the court, The Express Tribune reported. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has been imprisoned in jail after being convicted in the Toshakhana case. He was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore on August 5.  During the hearing, the judge will examine the arguments of the PTI chairman's lawyer challenging the court's jurisdiction in hearing the said case. The judge asked Imran Khan's counsel to prepare arguments after he sought time from the court.  Imran Khan is facing charges of allegedly getting married to his third wife during the time of her Iddat, the report said. Iddat is an Islamic terminology that is considered to be a specified time period of waiting for a woman before marrying someone else after getting divorced or after her husband's death.  Earlier in July, the PTI chairman challenged a trial court’s decision to accept a petition seeking criminal proceedings against him and his wife for cohabiting after their first nikah that allegedly took place during her Iddat period, according to The Express Tribune report.  On July 18, a judicial magistrate in Islamabad, Qudratullah issued a nine-page detailed judgement stating that the petition filed against Imran Khan related to his ‘illegal’ marriage was admissible, The Express Tribune reported. The judge also directed Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi to appear in his court. On July 14, Islamabad Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Azam Khan sent the case to the judicial magistrate. He also dismissed another civil court’s decision declaring the plea challenging the legality of the marriage inadmissible. In his petition, the former Pakistan PM said that the allegations mentioned in the private complaint do not constitute an offence within the ambit of Section 496 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). It further stated, “Thus continuation of the trial would amount to the abuse of the process of law."

For lovers of big music concerts, 2023 has been a renaissance year. After the pandemic put the squeeze on large events for the better part of three years, a host of megastars have embarked on world tours. Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and Taylor Swift are among a range of performers selling out stadiums and arenas around the world for the first time in years. Similar price hikes have been reported in other cities. When Beyonce performed in Sweden earlier this year, hotel prices surged and Michael Grahn of Danske Bank said a hike in the country's consumer price index that month was likely down to the American superstar. As well as bringing joy to their fans, however, the tours have led to massive spikes in prices for accommodation, transportation and various kinds of hospitality in cities at and around the time of the concerts. That's not to mention the soaring costs of the actual tickets. Some examples have been egregious. When it was announced that Swift would perform in the Irish capital, Dublin, in June 2024, one hotel inexplicably canceled bookings made by fans in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, before rooms became available again hours later at dramatically increased prices. Smaller economy, bigger impact It was a striking suggestion. But can such events seriously impact overall inflation figures in any meaningful sense? Yes and no, said Tony Yates, a macroeconomist who previously worked at the Bank of England. "They can certainly cause a significant increase in demand for local hospitality, and push up prices of those services, but only in very small countries will this be enough to register in the aggregate inflation rate," he told DW. Official measurements of inflation typically involve comparing prices of a range of goods and services over a period of time. Yates said hotel prices would typically be included if they form a large enough part of the average spending pattern. However, he said it's also important to consider that spending on events such as concerts means people are diverting spending from other areas in the local economy, unless they come from abroad specifically for the event. So overall spending locally may not increase by much, as price rises in some areas will be offset by falls where demand has dropped. Yates said that the bigger the economy, the less impact the spending diversion would have on inflation. "In an economy of tens of millions, 100k people switching spending from one thing to another for a while is not a big deal." 'Nice narrative,' but not necessarily true Andrew Goodwin, chief UK economist with Oxford Economics, is skeptical about the extent to which these events can influence overall inflation figures. "It's a nice narrative, but one that is hard to stand up when looking at the data," he told DW. Goodwin said that in the UK, a major live music destination, concert tickets are included as part of cultural services. That accounts for around 2% of the overall inflation basket but it has been growing at a slower pace than overall UK inflation. "So essentially it's a very small category with a below-average inflation rate," he said. However, he conceded that associated price hikes in hospitality are harder to measure and that they could have an impact if a concert happened to coincide with the day that inflation data was collected. "But you would then expect it to quickly reverse the following month," he added. Play it again, Taylor High prices are certainly not putting off concertgoers. Tickets for the slew of big-time concerts announced this year and next have sold in record numbers in several countries. Average ticket prices for concerts have increased sharply. Data from UK financial services firm Barclays found that consumer spending on the entertainment sector rose by 15.8% in July, compared with one year earlier. Yates said some of this can be explained by the fact that there has been a surge on hospitality spending since lockdowns first ended, as people have been keen to spend money on activities they could not engage in during the pandemic. Ticket prices for artists such as Beyonce or Swift can cost several hundred dollars, but they don't seem to dampen fan enthusiasm. Swift's Eras Tour, which began in March and ends in November 2024, could pull in around $1 billion (€922 million) in revenue, according to some experts, making it the most successful tour of all time. Singing all the way to the bank Prices and associated costs are not expected to ease any time soon, even if inflation comes down, some experts have said. "I think that there's going to be a lot of resilience in the prices of musical and other cultural events," Klaus Baader, global chief economist at Societe Generale, told CNBC earlier this year. He and other experts believe this is all related to the post-pandemic surge in interest in attending such events after years of lockdowns. Concerts on the scale of those offered by the likes of Swift and Beyonce have become enduring cultural phenomena. It's not all financially-sapping news from a consumer point of view either. Evidence suggests that big concerts can have significant benefits for a local economy. One study by the US-based Common Sense Institute found that two shows by Swift in the city of Denver contributed around $140 million to Colorado's GDP. That should be music to many ears, fans or otherwise.

Four high-impact community development projects (HICDPs) constructed with financial assistance from the Government of India have been handed over to the local government concerned in Dailekh district on July 3. The project includes the building of three school buildings of Shree Malika Higher Secondary School, Lalikanda; Shree Bhairav Secondary School, Badabhairav; Shree Jagadish Secondary School, Badakhola and one Campus building of Shree Narayan Campus, Rampur, in Dailekh with financial assistance of NRs 108.60 million from the Indian government, the Indian embassy in Nepal said in an official release on Monday. The project comes under 'Nepal-India Development Cooperation' and was formally handed over by Prashant Kumar, Sona, SS (DP), Embassy of India and Namraj Shahi, Chief, District Coordination Committee (DCC), Dailekh. Under an agreement between India and Nepal, these projects were taken up as High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDPs) which will help the students in the area by providing them with quality educational infrastructure and will create a suitable environment for good quality education in Dailekh District, as per the official release. Moreover, all these school and campus building projects were implemented through DCC Dailekh. The ceremony was attended by Mr Top Bahadur BC Chairman of Gurans Rural Municipality, Mr Ganesh Bahadur Thapa Chairman of Bhagawatimai Rural Municipality, Ms Manju Kumari Sharma (Pandey), Acting Chairman of Mahabu Rural Municipality and Mr Loman Sharma, Mayor, Narayan Municipality. However, social workers, political representatives, officials of the Nepal Government and local community leaders were also present on the occasion. "India has taken up over 544 HICDPs in Nepal and has completed 480 projects since 2003. Amongst these, 14 projects are in Karnali Pradesh of which 4 projects are in Dailekh," according to the release. In addition, on the occasion of Independence Day and Republic Day, India has gifted 940 ambulances and 184 school buses to various hospitals, health posts and educational institutions in Nepal. Amongst these, till date, six ambulances have been provided to the Dailekh district, the release added. Furthermore, these projects reflect India's development partnership with Nepal and complement the effort of the Government of Nepal in elevating infrastructure in the field of education. 

In a heartwarming display of interfaith harmony, the Sikh community in the border tehsil Karnah of Kupwara District, North Kashmir, bid a heartfelt farewell to local Haj pilgrims. The members of the Sikh community donned garlands and expressed their solidarity and support for their Muslim neighbours embarking on the sacred pilgrimage. Jatinder Singh, a Sikh community member, emphasized the strong bond between the Sikh and Muslim communities, stating, “We live with Muslims in brotherhood and participate equally in every auspicious occasion. It is our duty to extend our warm wishes and support to our Muslim brothers and sisters undertaking the holy Haj pilgrimage.” Echoing Jatinder’s sentiments, Jasvinder Singh shared a prayer for the acceptance of their neighbours’ Haj journey and said, “We pray to God that their Haj will be accepted by Allah. We are all brothers and sisters, regardless of our faiths.” The local Haj pilgrims, Raja Ali Gowhar and Raja Mehmood Khan were deeply moved by the show of unity and expressed their gratitude. Raja Ali Gowhar emotionally remarked, “We are overwhelmed by the support and affection shown by our Sikh brothers and sisters. This act of solidarity is a testament to the beauty of our country and our region. In a world divided by religion, race, and caste, such examples of humanity taking precedence are exceedingly rare.” Raja Mehmood Khan echoed his sentiments, stating, “We will always remember this gesture and will continue to pray for the preservation of our cherished brotherhood. Our bonds transcend religious boundaries, and this incident reinforces the harmony that exists within our diverse community.” The heartening display of unity and respect between the Sikh and Muslim communities in the border tehsil Karnah serves as a shining example for the rest of the nation. It is a testament to the enduring spirit of tolerance, mutual respect, and communal harmony that flourishes in the region, reflecting the rich cultural fabric of Kashmir. As the local Haj pilgrims embark on their spiritual journey, their Sikh neighbours stand firmly by their side, ensuring that love and brotherhood transcend all divisions, fostering a stronger and more cohesive society.

In recent days, there has been a lot of instability in the chicken market in the country. The price of broiler chicken, which was 170-180 taka per kg, is now nearly three hundred taka. Along with this, the price of beef has also increased.  In such a situation, at a meeting on Thursday, March 23, Md. Jashim Uddin, the FBCCI president, made this statement regarding the import, storage, supply, and market situation of essential commodities during Ramadan.  "It is necessary to import beef and chicken meat as needed to control the local market price," he added. The President of FBCCI stated, "We are concerned about the sudden increase in the price of chicken in the last few days. We called for a meeting with business owners related to this today. They did not come. Even though, they did not send us a logical answer. Previously, when the price had increased. They decreased the product price when we pressurised them to control the market." He questioned, "Why has the market price increased again on the occasion of Ramadan?" He said, "The import of meat had been banned for so long. If they cannot provide beef and broiler chicken at the reasonable price, then imports must be allowed. If necessary, we will ask the government to ease the import of beef and chicken for two to three months. We don't see any other solution instead of this." At this time, the FBCCI board of directors, along with the President of Bangladesh Shop Owners Association and various wholesale market businessmen, were present.