Emma Raducanu says she is "not too concerned" about tournament results, as the priority this year is to develop her game. The 21-year-old has won three matches in the four tournaments she has played since returning from an eight-month absence from the tour through injury. She will play qualifier Rebeka Masarova in the first round at Indian Wells on Thursday. "I want to work on becoming a better tennis player," Raducanu said. "I think for me I'm not too concerned about this year's tournaments. "A lot of people out there would say that I need matches, but I think that for me I want to work on my game and development. "Taking time to do that is very necessary and not just following the crowd, or playing a lot of matches, or dropping down [to Challenger level] to do that. I want to work on developing skills," she told BBC Sport in Southern California. Raducanu played her best tennis of 2023 in Indian Wells, reaching the fourth round having found out just before the tournament began that she was likely to need surgery on both her wrists. "It's just a bit of a journey for me, I would say, you don't really know what to expect after being out for eight months," she continued. "I felt like because I was so go-go-go since December, I felt like I became a little fatigued, so it was good to go back, freshen up and practise for the American swing, which I'm a big fan of." Raducanu also told BBC Sport she is likely to play in Great Britain's Billie Jean King Cup qualifying tie in France in April, if selected by captain Anne Keothavong. "I don't know if I'll get the call-up," she said. "But if she asks me to, I think it makes sense because it's before [the WTA tournament in] Stuttgart [which is also] on indoor clay." British number one Katie Boulter has had little time to prepare for Wednesday's first-round match against Italian Camila Giorgi, having won her second WTA title in San Diego on Sunday. "I think emotionally and physically there's always going to be a little bit of wear and tear after a week like that. I've only ever played in qualifying here, I've never played main draw," Boulter explained. The top 32 players in the world receive a bye into the second round, but world number 27 Boulter is having to play a first-round match as the seedings are based on last week's rankings. British men's number one Cameron Norrie does have a bye into the second round and will not play until Saturday. But Jack Draper, Andy Murray and Dan Evans are all in first-round action, with Draper and Murray playing on Wednesday. Draper has had little time to recover from a bout of food poisoning, which forced him to retire during the deciding set of Friday's Mexican Open semi-final against Alex de Minaur. The 22-year-old plays Christopher O'Connell of Australia while Murray takes on qualifier David Goffin of Belgium on Centre Court. Murray announced in Dubai last week that he is "likely not going to play past this summer", but says he doesn't feel any relief at sharing his plans after months of questioning. "I've been asked about it most weeks since Wimbledon last year. I personally don't think it has much bearing on how I play or perform but I guess we'll find out on the match court. Since I arrived here, practices have been good, so let's see," the former world number one added. Liam Broady and Harriet Dart failed to add their names to the 96-player draws when they fell in the final round of qualifying on Tuesday.     Source: BBC

The admission test results for the academic year 2023-24 of the government and private medical colleges of the country have been published. Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Professor Dr Samanta Lal Sen, officially announced the result. This time, 1,04,374 candidates participated in the examination. 49 thousand 923 students have qualified this year. The passing rate is 47.83 percent. The minimum marks (pass mark) in the MBBS and BDS admission test has been kept at 40. Students scoring less than 40 marks in written examination are considered as failure. The district quota has been canceled in the admission test. Among the candidates,Tanjim Muntaka Sarba, former student of Holy Cross College, has secured the top spot among medical admission seekers for the 2023-24 session.

The madness of Qatar World Cup is over. Also, the RTV World Cup Quiz Competition 2022, courtesy of Grameen Digital Health and in collaboration with Seagull Hotel, has ended.  This quiz competition started from the opening day of the Football World Cup, November 20 till December 18, the last day of the World Cup. It had two quizzes per day. Millions of readers answered the quiz. Among the most correct respondents, 10 lucky winner will be awarded attractive prizes based on lottery. The lucky winners will be announced next Tuesday (December 20). The prizes include five tabs, three smart phones, two nights free stay at Hotel Seagal in Cox's Bazar and a health package courtesy of Grameen Digital Health.  Stay tuned for the result of the  Grameen Digital Health Present RTV World Cup Quiz – https://www.rtvonline.com

Three weeks after losing Brazil's election by the narrowest margin seen in decades, outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro has filed a long-shot appeal claiming votes should be thrown out due to faulty voting machines. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro filed a 33-page formal appeal with Brazil's election authority, blaming the lost election on software bugs and demanding that votes cast on majority of the nation's electronic machines be annulled. The complaint characterized the bug as "irreparable non-compliance due to malfunction" and called into question the authenticity of the results. "We always distrusted these machines. ... We want a massive audit," the outgoing president's son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, had said last week. The Liberal Party claimed that 280,000 of voting machines lacked individual identification numbers in internal logs. However, the complaint did not specify what this meant for the results. "The inconsistencies do not allow the voter's vote to be verified. This does not mean that there was fraud, but rather that there is no certainty that the ballot boxes are credible," Marcelo Bessa, a lawyer for the Liberal Party, told reporters in Brasilia. The challenge comes three weeks after left-wing political heavyweight Lula da Silva won the election over Bolsonaro by the narrowest margin seen since Brazil's return to democracy in 1985. What are Bolsonaro's chances? Bolsonaro has not explicitly conceded the election, which has fueled protests by his supporters across Brazil in the weeks following the vote.  However, political analysts say Bolsonaro's move is unlikely to get him the presidency, as Brazil's election authority has already formally acknowledged da Silva as the victor. Many of the president's political allies have also accepted the election results. Da Silva is set to take office on January 1, 2023. Independent experts told the Associated Press that that the glitch will not have affected the results and that all machines can still be identified through other means. Alexandre de Moraes, head of Brazil's electoral authority, responded to the request by questioning whether the voting machines in question were used in both the run-off, as well as for the first round of voting on October 2. Moraes said the complaint would need to be amended within 24 hours to include the first round of voting, or else it would be thrown out. 

After dominating New Zealand over the last three days, Bangladesh are now looking forward a positive result in the first Test  despite knowing that two days are still enough for the hosts to hit back into the match.    Bangladesh haven't won any game in any format of cricket yet on New Zealand soil and even they lost a Test match here in 2017 despite declaring at 595 and with sizable lead. Shakib hammered a 217 and Mushfiqur scored 159 in that match but still Bangladesh ended up losing that game.     But Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud Sujon believed that this group of cricketers is able to create a history on New Zealand soil this time around.     He said with two days still left and if they bat deep and take a 150-plus lead on the fourth morning, they still can sense a chance.     "They [the players] have worked hard, did everything to get to this stage. I still think it is too early to say anything in this game. We have two more days left. We want to do well - even if we can't win, we definitely want to draw this Test," Mahmud said during a virtual press conference from New Zealand today.    "I usually speak to everyone individually. I particularly remember telling them that we lost nine Tests in New Zealand on the trot. In 2017, we lost despite declaring on 595 in Wellington. I told them that we can't keep losing here. One group has to stand out, so why not this group? Why can't we play better cricket?    He went to saying: "Results will come later, but we can play with courage. These are tough conditions for every visiting side, but I felt that we could do well here. I tried to pass this on to this young team. Definitely, there was fear within us. We have five batters - Shadman, Joy, Shanto, Yasir and Litton - who are not very experienced in Tests. They all possess the ability to play well, but working in specific areas really paid dividends for us."    Bangladesh are now leading the New Zealand by 73 runs after ending the third day on 401-6. The most important aspect of the Bangladeshi batters game  was that they showed the required patience to worn out New Zealand bowlers.  Young opener Mahmudul Hasan Joy played 228 balls for his 78, skipper Mominul Haque played 244 balls for his 88 and Liton Das took 247 balls for his 86 against a bowling attack that included - Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Kyle Jamieson-arguably the best bowling line up in the world at this moment.    "It was a fantastic partnership between Mominul and Liton. They batted very well against a New Zealand attack that always comes at you with discipline. Mominul played an excellent innings. He spent a lot of time in the middle, he left a lot of balls, like Joy had done earlier. Mominul is a more experienced Test cricketer than Litton but both batted superbly. By Allah's grace, we are now in a position to dominate the match."    "I think New Zealand bowled superbly with the second new ball, but we stuck to our plan. They weren't giving us many freebies. They were bowling such tight lines that, at the start of the day, Joy and Mominul couldn't even get singles. But we spent time at the crease, rather than thinking about runs. Mushfiqur [Rahim] and Mominul, both experienced players, did a great job in that situation. The execution was perfect."  Source: BSS AH

The US Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a bid by Texas to overturn the results of the presidential election, which Republican Donald Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, in a fresh setback for the president. The longshot suit lodged late Tuesday against four states key in the November 3 vote — Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — challenged Biden’s victory in each jurisdiction. But the Supreme Court, made up of nine justices including three appointed by Trump, said Texas — which voted for the president — “has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.” The court’s decision “is an important reminder that we are a nation of laws, and though some may bend to the desire of a single individual, the courts will not,” tweeted Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel. Biden spokesman Mike Gwin said the ruling was “no surprise.” “Dozens of judges, election officials from both parties, and Trump’s own Attorney General have dismissed his baseless attempts to deny that he lost the election,” he said. The Texas suit had been seen as audacious and barely legally sound, given that no one state has any legal right to interfere in another’s voting processes. Even so, it was backed by 106 Republican lawmakers and 17 state attorneys general. Texas alleged that the results in the other four states were “unconstitutional” because of their heavy use of “fraud-prone” mail-in votes during the coronavirus pandemic. It offered no proof of significant fraud, and didn’t challenge the use of mailed ballots in states Trump won. The suit cited numerous alleged examples of potential fraud already rejected by lower courts. – Dozens of court losses – Trump and his allies have filed dozens of lawsuits in several key states, almost all of which have been thrown out by the courts. On Tuesday the Supreme Court also refused his bid to overturn his loss in Pennsylvania. Trump had hoped that the high court, whose bench he has tipped solidly to the right, would intervene in his favor. In 2000, the Supreme Court halted a recount in Florida, where George W. Bush was only 537 votes ahead of Democrat Al Gore, allowing the Republican to win the election. Minutes before Friday’s ruling came down Trump released a new TV ad again falsely claiming that the election was stolen, calling it an “outrage” and telling supporters to contact their legislators. Earlier Friday he urged the Supreme Court to show “great Wisdom and Courage” in a tweet that claimed that the “American People” needed the Texas lawsuit to win. He also retweeted a conspiracy theory about voter fraud declaring that “Joe Biden will not set foot in that White House.” The lawsuit came as all 50 states plus Washington, DC have formally certified their vote tallies, opening the way to convene the Electoral College. There is no doubt that Biden won the presidency, with state-by-state wins giving him 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232. The Democrat snagged 51.3 percent of the ballots compared to Trump’s 46.9 percent, a seven million vote margin. The Electoral College is set to affirm Biden’s win on December 14, and he will be sworn in on January 20. Source: AFP/BSS AH

Sylhet education board has faced a debacle in the current year’s SSC and equivalent examinations results. But the board’s Examination Controller has claimed that they are not dissatisfied over the results rather the standard of quality education has increased. This year the pass rate of Sylhet education board is 70.42 percent which is 9.84 percent less than the previous year. Last year the pass rate was 80.26 percent. This year 3 thousand 191 students got GPA-5 which was 2 thousand 663 last year. Of those 1 thousand 718 are boys and 1 thousand 473 are girls. Boys are ahead than girls for obtaining GPA-5. Sylhet education board Examination Controller Md. Kabir Ahmed formally declared the results at a press conference organized at the board’s conference room on Sunday. He said that the pass rate of overall examination results has decreased this year due to bad result in the subjects of General Mathematics and English. He said, the reason is that in Sylhet there is no cent percent able teacher to provide lessons under creative method. Besides, last year the pass rate in General Math was 91.19 percent. This year that has decreased to 76.61 percent. The same condition is in English. Last year pass rate was 96.26 percent in English. This year the rate has stood at 90.45 percent. Kabir Ahmed said, this year the examinations were held under same question papers throughout the country. Though the pass rate has decreased but the GPA-5 achievers have increased by 582. 892 educational institutions under four districts took part in this year’s examinations under Sylhet Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board. Of those cent percent students have passed out in 23 institutions including 13 of the Sylhet district. Sylhet is the most successful district of the four districts under this board. This year the pass rate of Sylhet district is 73.80 percent, in Habiganj it is 70.34 percent, in Moulvibazar 66.99 percent and in Sunamganj 68.53 percent. Whereas there is no zero pass rate institution under the board. This year 1 lakh 8 thousand 928 students took part in the SSC examinations. Of them 47 thousand 867 were boys and 61 thousand 61 were girls. Of them total 76 thousand 710 student passed out in the examinations. AH                

In this year’s Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) examinations 83.65 percent students have passed. The transcript of the results of JSC and JDC examinations was handed over to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid and Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman handed over the copy of the results to the Prime Minister at 10 am on Saturday at Gonobhaban. Later at Primary and Mass Education Minister at 1 pm and Education Minister at 2 pm upheld details of the results at separate press conference. In the program arranged at the Prime Minister’s official residence Gonobhaban the premier also inaugurated the program of free text book distribution to the students for the new education year. The JSC and JDC examinations started in November 1 and concluded in November 18. The total number of examinees was 24 lakh 69 thousand. AH