Donald Trump has argued that Democrat-heavy Manhattan would produce a jury that was prejudiced against him. The April 15 trial would be the first criminal trial for a former US president. A New York judge rejected on Monday a bid by former US President Donald Trump to delay his hush money criminal trial, due to start next week, as he tries to move the case out of Manhattan, New York. Associate Justice Lizbeth Gonzalez issued her decision shortly after a half-hour hearing at the Appellate Division in Manhattan. Why was Trump trying to postpone the case? The former president and his legal team argued that Manhattan, where the trial is set to take place on April 15 and the jury is due to be assembled, is a Democrat stronghold with residents biased against him. Emil Bove, a lawyer for Trump, said the former president's legal team surveyed residents of the New York borough and cited results suggesting that 61% of respondents thought Trump was guilty, and 70% had a negative opinion of him. "There is real potential prejudice here to moving forward," Bove said, without specifying where the team preferred to hold the trial. "Jury selection cannot proceed in a fair manner starting next week in this county." Steven Wu, a lawyer from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said biased jurors can be weeded out during the jury selection process. "The question in this case is not whether a random poll of New Yorkers from whatever neighborhood are able to be impartial, it's about whether a trial court is able to select a jury of 12 impartial jurors," Wu said. Why is Trump being tried? Trump is being tried over the accusation of covering up his former lawyer Michael Cohen's $130,000 (approximately €119,700) payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, also known as Stephanie Clifford. The money was allegedly paid to silence Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election, regarding a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied having the encounter with Daniels and has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. His trial is among four criminal cases in which the former president and Republican candidate for this year's race is currently embroiled.  

The judge said former President Donald Trump's hush money trial will begin with jury selection on March 25. Trump has claimed the case is politically motivated ahead of the 2024 election.   Donald Trump's hush money trial will go ahead as scheduled after a judge on Thursday threw out his request to dismiss the criminal charges. Justice Juan Merchan set a trial date of March 25 for the case, which relates to money that the former US president allegedly paid to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. "Given all the information I have before me, we are moving ahead to jury selection on March 25," the judge said. Trump repeated unfounded claims that the case brought against him is politically motivated. "They wouldn't have brought this except for the fact — no way — except for the fact that I'm running for president and doing well," Trump said in a hallway outside the Manhattan courtroom. The front-runner in the Republican primaries also faces three other criminal cases. He is likely to face off in a rematch against current Democratic President Joe Biden in the November presidential election.  Why Trump could still be elected president even if convicted Although the case is expected to influence the presidential election later this year, the trial and criminal charges have no bearing on whether or not Trump is actually allowed to hold office. "The motion to dismiss was based on the argument of selective prosecution and a second argument that they had this evidence and they kind of sat on it, those are not likely to win an appeal," John Culhane, a professor at Widener University Delaware Law School, told DW. "But more importantly, these cannot be appealed until after the jury reaches a verdict. And assuming that verdict is a conviction, that's when the appeal would be appropriate. So there's no appeal right now that could be lodged." "In theory, he could be elected and he could serve as president even if he's in prison," Culhane said. "And of course, if that were the case, it would be up to the the Congress to impeach him. That would be the only way to get him out of office."   What is the Stormy Daniels case about? Prosecutors allege that Trump illegally falsified business records to hide hush money paid to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 (€120,000) to keep quiet about an alleged affair and paid $150,000 to a New York tabloid to buy, but not publish, a story from former Playboy model Karen McDougal. The Trumo Organization then reimbursed Cohen and logged the payments as legal expenses to hide the true nature of the payments, prosecutors said. Cohen pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws in 2018. Trump now faces 34 counts of accounting fraud. His legal team has argued that no crime was committed and Trump also denies he had an affair with Daniels.  

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus had reached to the head quarters of Anti-Corruption Commission to face the interrogation on Thursday, October 05.  After completed the interrogation his lawyer Abdullah Al Mamun told to the media that, "After receiving the notice from the ACC, my client came to the ACC office to present his statement, showing respect to the laws of the country." "This case is baseless and fictitious. It has no legal basis," he added. At 9.37 am he entered the acc office. In that time the current and former managing directors of Grameen Telecom was present.   On September 27, ACC Deputy Director Gulshan Anwar Pradhan issued the letters. Earlier on Wednesday, ACC secretary Md Mahbub Hossain told that they summoned the grameen officials and interrogated them for the sake of investigation. The three are - Grameen Telecom’s director Naznin Sultana, Nurjahan Begum and Hajjatul Islam Latifi.

Taliban which itself destroyed the historically and culturally significant ‘Buddhas of Bamiyan’, now want to make money from the empty niches as it is desperately in need of cash. Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist of religions and author, wrote in his piece in Bitter Winter, how despite being an avid traveller he ended up rejecting the proposal to visit Afghanistan because he doesn’t want the Taliban to benefit from the sites destroyed by them. “The Afghan regime desperately needs cash. It cannot show the Bamiyan Buddhas for the good reason it blew them up. But it would take tourists to the site for a fee,” he stated. According to the author, the Taliban smashed the sixth-century CE giant statues in 2001 with artillery fire and by detonating anti-tank mines. Now, the public can only see the empty niches where these masterpieces of Buddhist sculpture once stood, and meditate there. But this not for free, but by paying money to the regime, Bitter Winter reported. The author went on to say that he can even pay a fee to see the Nuremberg propaganda headquarters of the Nazi Party and the location of the Khmer Rouge mass graves in Cambodia, because, here the money is not going to Adolf Hitler or Pol Pot, but the subsequent current governments. However, in the case of Afghanistan, it is the Taliban itself that perpetrated the crimes and are willing to reap money while being in the government. “I understand the empty niches of the destroyed statues do have their own melancholic beauty. But I do not want to support the Taliban with my ticket. I would rather not go,” Massimo Introvigne further stated in his piece. According to the author, the Taliban smashed the sixth-century CE giant statues in 2001 with artillery fire and by detonating anti-tank mines.

The current fiscal year is about to close with extraordinarily tight fiscal positions and the austerity policy of the PDM government, but discretionary spending on development schemes for constituencies of parliamentarians of the coalition partners and publicity continues to grow. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Tuesday enhanced the allocations for parliamentarian’s constituencies under the so-called Sustainable Development Goals Achievement Programme (SDGs-AP) by Rs1bn to Rs91bn when it approved a total of nine supplementary grants worth about Rs11bn. The meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was told that the government had allocated Rs70bn in the budget 2022-23 for ‘running community-based SAP’ to achieve the SDGs addressing the urban-rural social development constraints across the country. The funds for the scheme were increased by Rs17bn to Rs87bn in October last year to ensure that all 174 members of the National Assembly belonging to Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) get Rs500m worth of small schemes — sewage lines, gas, water and electricity connections, and repair and maintenance of streets — in the name of SDGs. Accordingly, the sources said, the Ministry of Planning surrendered Rs17bn from funds earlier allocated in the budget for areas such as Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and parts of the provinces. The funds were subsequently enhanced by Rs3bn more to Rs90bn “which has already been released/transferred to the respective ministries, divisions and provincial governments under the Demand No. 92-IB-0600-Develo­pment Expen­diture of the Cabinet Division”, the ECC was informed on Tuesday. Of the already disbursed funds, the lion’s share of Rs46.125bn went to Punjab, followed by Rs29.155bn to Sindh and then Rs7.73bn and Rs6.99bn to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, respectively. The development schemes under the SAP, recommended by members, are then cleared by a steering committee led by the planning minister — an arrangement put in place a few years ago to sidestep a Supreme Court judgement. The ECC also approved two supplementary grants of Rs5.57bn and Rs1.146bn to the Ministry of Commerce as 50pc share of the expenses on the import of urea fertiliser and exchange rate differential to Pakistan’s trade missions abroad, respectively. The meeting also approved two supplementary grants of Rs1.666bn and Rs100mn to the National Highway Authority (NHA) to meet its expenditure incurred on the restoration of roads damaged during flood 2022 in KP, GB, Balochistan and Sindh, and for the construction of roads from Dalbandin to Ziarat Balanosh (77km), respectively. The ECC also approved Rs17.3m to Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission to meet its employee-related expenditures and Rs922m to Power Division for the execution of the development project “Construction of 2nd Circuit stringing from Jiwani to Gwadar”. The committee also approved a Rs50m grant to the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation & Social Safety for SOS Children’s Villages, Pakistan and Rs550m to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for publicity/awareness campaigns of the federal government during 2022-23. Source: Dawn

Anti-state propaganda works on many levels. Since independence, India has faced an unending dilemma of creative propaganda by neighbouring Pakistan. The propaganda mostly revolved around terrorism, separatism, and Muslim human rights in India, the International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS) reported. Unfortunately, the very diversity that is celebrated in India is exploited by a religious monotheist Pakistan that alleges a threat to India's minorities. The latest project that has proved to be a nuisance is revamped Khalistan's demands. On March 24, this year, Amrit Pal Singh, the self-proclaimed Khalistan leader, was arrested after getting cornered by the Punjab police. Over a hundred followers of this man have already been arrested since 18th March, IFFRAS reported. Developments in the previous month would be nothing less than a shock for the makers of the Khalistani project hailing from Pakistan, Canada and the United Kingdom. What was supposed to be a massive rebellion turned out to be a damp squib. There were no massive rallies, no outpouring of public support, and even rural areas remained immune to Khalistani outcry. To understand why Khalistani protests were witnessed across Western countries but remained absent in India's Punjab, we must understand the history of Sikhs in Canada and their evolution in an alien land. The Komagata Maru incident in 1914 can be used as a reference to the beginning of Sikh immigration to Canada, IFFRAS reported. As of 2021, Canadian Sikhs make up about 2.1 per cent of the population and are concentrated significantly in provinces like Vancouver, Toronto, etc. A small but powerful section of these Sikhs supports the Khalistan project that was conveniently propped up by the Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI around the 1970s. The word Khalistan was only coined in the 1940s and remained buried till 13th October 1971, when Jagjit Singh Chohan published an ad for an independent Sikh state in the New York Times. Before this event, Chohan was in contact with the Pakistani diplomatic mission and in 1971, he visited Pakistan where he met military dictator Yahya Khan, IFFRAS reported. This Khalistan issue was propped in the West around the same time when East Pakistan had rebelled against Islamabad. For the greater part of that decade, ISI sewed a sinister separatist plot with multiple groups based in India's Punjab and Pak-friendly Western countries. In May 1980, Chohan announced the formation of Khalistan in London and remained in contact with Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale who instigated Sikhs in Punjab. Chohan also facilitated the assassination of former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE, IFFRAS reported. The rise of ethnic-Sikh gangs in Canada beginning in the 1970s brought certain Sikh families wealth and fame. The involvement of multiple ethnic Punjabi gangs in Canada with illegal narcotic drug makers and crimes including murders have been recorded. The rise of influence of this gun culture also had a direct impact on their respective villages in Punjab which received indirect benefits. The much-recent rap gun culture prevalent in Punjab is a result of this influence, IFFRAS reported. The handiwork of ISI in promoting the Khalistani agenda among certain powerful elements in Canada is evident as it adopted a similar tactic. Ranjeet Singh Neeta, based in Pakistan heads the banned Khalistan Zindabad Force. In 2009, KZF took responsibility for killing the religious leader of Dera Sachkhand Ballan in Vienna. Originally from Jammu, ISI has cultivated him for peddling drugs across the border in both Kashmir and Punjab. Apart from this, he also engineers the namesake solidarity between Kashmiri Terror organizations and Khalistani extremists, IFFRAS reported. Similarly, the banned international terrorist group Babbar Khalsa International organized a wave of rallies in Canada and Europe during the 1980s and committed a series of murders during the Punjab insurgency years. Talwinder Singh Parmar, founder and leader of Babbar Khalsa was also the leader of the Air India flight bombing over Canada in 1985. The group was tacitly supported by ISI which lent arms to its members. Even today, dozen-odd groups have been kept alive by ISI who peddle drugs, conduct assassinations, and instigate Sikhs through propaganda. Another level of propaganda that ISI continues to peddle is the Muslim-Sikh Brotherhood. These brotherhood meetings can be found in places like Canada, the USA, the UK and certain places in Europe. A host of little-known figures in these countries make up the bulk of the Khalistanis and Muslim brotherhood activities, IFFRAS reported. But these activities contradict themselves. The bombing of the Gurudwara in Kabul, the attack on the holy Nankana Sahib by Muslims in Pakistan and atrocities against the dwindling Sikh minority in the Sunni state of Pakistan are self-explanatory. The Muslim Brotherhood propped by the Pakistani state conveniently blames India for certain issues in the state of Punjab. But, as the Amrit Pal Singh episode reveals, there is little support for separatism among the people of Punjab. Apart from some foreign/Pakistani-run social media channels and little-known Khalistani groups in the West; there is little ground support for anything called "Khalistan." With Western intelligence cracking down on the Pakistan-run threat, the ground is slipping for Khalistan.

Switzerland’s ambassador to India Dr. Ralf Heckner stated that black money is no longer a problem in Switzerland-India financial relations because both parties have previously shared multiple batches of information. In an interview with ANI, Ralf Heckner explained that he has been the Swiss ambassador for more than two years but he heard hardly anything about black money. "The black money issue has been dealt with by a bilateral treaty between Switzerland and India in 2018 on the automatic exchange of bank information between Switzerland and India. We had several batches of information exchange between Switzerland and India, so the black money issue isn't the issue anymore. There is not even one cloud over bilateral relations when it comes to financial relations," he said. According to some reports, Indian investment in the Swiss banking system witnessed a sharp rise in 2021. Switzerland had shared information about Indian account holders in four batches since the automatic exchange of bank information agreement was signed in 2018. Traditionally, Switzerland was seen as a safe tax haven for Indian businessmen, politicians and industrialists. According to a release by the Federal tax administration of Switzerland, in 2021, it exchanged information on financial accounts with 101 countries. The exchange took place within the framework of the global standard on the automatic exchange of information (AEOI). Switzerland says it has committed to adopting the global standard for the international automatic exchange of information in tax matters. The legal basis for the implementation of the AEOI in Switzerland came into force on January 1, 2017. Identification, account and financial information are exchanged, including name, address, country of residence and tax identification number, as well information concerning the reporting financial institution, account balance and capital income. The exchanged information allows the cantonal tax authorities to verify whether taxpayers have correctly declared their financial accounts abroad in their tax returns. The OECD's Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) reviews the implementation of the AEOI. Swiss ambassador further said, "I see a lot of convergence now because sustainability is very dear to honourable prime minister and the same applies to the Swiss government. Our government came up with a strategy for Switzerland's financial centre. The Swiss government wants to see a shift toward sustainability. We are not talking USD 100 billion being invested in climate mitigation or climate adaptation, we are talking about trillions of US dollars being managed by Swiss banking funds, insurance and banks that according to the Swiss government be invested in a sustainable manner." He also elaborated on the opportunities for Indian investors in the sustainable financial model. "What does it mean for India, for example, if you are a sustainable Indian company, you might be the company that the Swiss center would like to invest in. You are an Indian fin-tech company and you have data on sustainable companies and sustainable business models. You might be the company of choice for banks insurances and pension funds in Switzerland to direct money flows to sustainable business solutions," he said. Source:ANI

Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 9th season will take place in a few days. From sunday, Official practice of the teams has started.  However, BCB announced  good news for the teams before the practice session.  Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has doubled the prize money of upcoming BPL than before. Also, the prize money for the tournament best player is also soaring more than 5 times. BPL Governing Council member-secretary Ismail Haider Mallick informed the matter.  He said, 'The champion team will get 2 crore taka this year. Runner up will get 1 crore taka. Total there will be a prize money of about 4 crore taka." Earlier, last year's Champion team, Comilla Victorians, earned Tk. 1 crore. Fortune Barisal, Runners-up team got Tk. 50 lakh. This year both Champion and Runners-up team will get the double prize money than before. Last season, Shakib Al Hasan got 2 thousand dollars as a reward of the best player of the tournament. In Bangladeshi currency, best player amount was around 1 lakh 70 thousand taka before. This time it has been increased to 10 lakh taka. In this regard, Ismail Haider said, 'There is a thought of giving 10 lakh taka to the man of the series (tournament best player). Apart from this, the best bowler, the best batsman will also be awarded a good amount. 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today announced providing prize money to all the players of the Bangladesh Women Football Team in recognition of clinching maiden title of the SAFF Women's Championship beating Nepal by 3-1 goals, after returning home from the USA. The Prime Minister is now in New York, USA to attend the 77th session of the United Nation General Assembly (UNGA). Sheikh Hasina also declared to give houses to women football team players who requires homes. She asked all concerned to collect necessary information about those who need homes to take next course of action. PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim confirmed BSS. Earlier, on Wednesday the Premier directed the authorities concerned to take necessary measures to build a house for Rupna Chakma, the goalkeeper of the Bangladesh Women Football team, in her Rangamati village home. Rupna Chakma was judged as the best goalkeeper in the SAFF Women's Championship, 2022. Sheikh Hasina gave the directive of building a house for Rupna Chakma as a picture of her dilapidated house having been viral on social media brought the premier's attention. The prime minister's fresh directive on building houses for the women footballers who needs came as a news on necessary of a house of another player drew her attention. The SAFF champions were received warmly after their return home on Wednesday as a victory parade on an open-deck bus was arranged for them. The bus was decorated with images of the footballers along with a big image of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina holding a football. Bangladesh beat Maldives, Pakistan, India and Nepal on their way to the ultimate victory. Bangladesh scored 23 goals in the event and conceded only one in the final. Source: BSS AH

The prime accused of NRB Global Bank financial scam and money launderer worth more than thousand crore taka Prashanta Kumar Halder ( PK Halder) has been arrested in India, sources said. Indian central intelligence agency Enforcement Directorate has claimed that PK halder was arrested while conducting a drive in West Bengal state in the morning on Saturday. Earlier, the agency mentioned that huge amount of wealth was unearthed allegedly owned by PK Halder and his associate Sukumar Mridha. On Friday Enforcement Directorate conducted drive at a time in nine spots in West Bengal state. It was informed that the Indian central intelligence agency became active after obtaining specific information and message from the Bangladesh government. Huge amount of money was spent to buy different types of establishments in the name of Sukumar Mridha which was sent by PK Halder who has been wanted in Bangladesh. The Enforcement Directorate found huge amount of wealth named after Sukumar Mridha who is a fish trader by profession while the agency was gathering information about PK Halder. Meanwhile, about one month earlier former Bangladesh Bank deputy governor SK Sur and former executive director Shah Alam were interrogated over the allegation of associating PK Halder to launder money abroad. One accused earlier gave confessional statement noting that these two former officials associated PK Halder to misappropriate money from different financial organizations. Mentionable, so far 34 cases have been filed in connection with the embezzlement of funds of different financial organizations. The Anti Corruption Commission so far arrested 12 individuals for associating PK Halder. Of them 10 accused have delivered confessional statement before the court. AH