Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that we are a nation of heroes, we will keep our heads high. No one can stop our indomitable progress. He made this remarkes while addressing a reception and discussion meeting of freedom fighters organized by Dhaka district administration at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on Tuesday (March 26). He said Bangladesh's independence was achieved through a series of movements. Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the inspiration of a series of movements from 1952 to 1971. "Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a source of inspiration for all of us who took part in the war. Today, Bangladesh is transforming into a smart Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. This trend will continue in the coming days.

Actor Jaya Ahsan with People for Animal Welfare (PAW) Foundation have jointly filed a writ petition in the High Court  to  to stop cruelty on elephants on Sunday (Jan 18). In addition to acting, her love for animals is remarkable. A writ petition has been filed with the High Court seeking a ban on the use of elephants in circuses, travel on elephants' backs, decoration at weddings and advertisements at rallies of commercial and political organisations.  Barrister Saqeb Mahbub, who filed the writ petition, said that some organizations have been organizing various  programs for several years demanding an end to training of captive elephants through inhuman torture. In the meantime, various promises were made by the forest department, but no fruitful role was noticed.   

Losar, the Tibetan New Year, which fell on Feb 10 this time, was celebrated in the US State Department while Mayor Michael Melham of Belleville Township in the state of New Jersey flew the Tibetan national flag on Feb 9, rejecting a written objection from China’s vice consul in New York. Extending warmest wishes to all those celebrating Losar, the Tibetan New Year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Feb 9, “On this first day of the Year of the Wood Dragon, we celebrate the strength and perseverance of the Tibetan community around the globe. Here in the United States, tens of thousands of Tibetan-Americans are integral to the preservation of Tibetans’ distinct cultural, linguistic, and religious heritage.” He wished Tibetans celebrating all across the world peace and prosperity in the new year. Meanwhile, in Belleville, Mayor Melham went on to raise the Tibetan flag, rejecting a second last-second letter, from China’s vice consul in New York, imploring the mayor to cancel the noon event at town hall, claiming the flag was a symbol of “an illegal separatist political group,” reported tapinto.net, cbsnews.com and other news outlets Feb 10. The reports said the mayor responded in writing to vice consul Huang Ping, saying: “Here in Belleville, New Jersey, we pride ourselves on fostering an environment of inclusivity and acceptance, regardless of nationality or territorial affiliation. Our community’s rich history is deeply rooted in these principles, shaping the very essence of who we are.” The mayor has added: “It’s essential to clarify that our intentions are not aimed at challenging the sovereignty of any nation. Instead, our gesture symbolizes solidarity with the Tibetan people and their aspirations for freedom and self-determination.” “We stand with the Tibetan people in their struggle for autonomy and respect for their cultural heritage,” the mayor has concluded, urging Ping to delve into Belleville’s “fascinating Chinese history, which spans over a century and a half.” The mayor has also noted that Belleville was live-streaming a Chinese New Year event on Feb 10, serving “as a testament to our deep appreciation for Chinese culture and traditions. It is a reflection of our longstanding relationship with the Chinese community.” He has also said, “As a Township, we remain committed to fostering understanding, dialogue, and mutual respect among all peoples, both locally and globally.” The mayor said his decision was not political and that he sent a respectful letter back to China’s vice consul saying the flag went up because his diverse community respects all voices, according to the cbsnews.com report. This year, the Tibetan New Year fell on the same day as the Chinese Lunar New Year.   Source: Tibetan Review

“You are the representatives of people, you must  pay attention to them. Ensure that the farmer gets the real price. The price of the product should not  increase for extortion and hoarding," she said. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressed the public representatives to be strict in stopping extortion and hoarding in the area. “Extortion and hoarding must be stopped everywhere in this country. You are representatives of different areas, you also have to pay attention to this. On the one hand, attention should be paid to ensure that the farmer gets the real price." she said in her introductory speech at the extended meeting of Awami League(AL) at her official residence Ganabhaban on Saturday (Feb 10). The Awami League president commented that there was a conspiracy about the election and said, "Conspirators repeatedly created obstacles so that Awami League cannot come to the government but People are our strength.

China's stock market has seen net selling for a record six straight months, Bloomberg data shows. Foreign investors have fled amid economic problems and a tepid policy response from Beijing. In January, global funds sold $2 billion worth of Chinese equities. January marked the sixth consecutive month foreign investors were sellers of Chinese equities, according to a Bloomberg report. Last month, global funds sold 14.5 billion yuan worth of stocks — about $2 billion — and Beijing has yet to offer any policy solution to reverse the outflows. Chinese equities have shed roughly $6 trillion in market value since peaking in 2021.  The post-pandemic economic rebound never fully materialized for China, and instead, it's had to contend with severe real estate trouble, deflation, and fresh demographic challenges including an aging population and historic youth unemployment.  "You have an uber-bearish narrative around China that is proving very difficult to dislodge," Nicholas Spiro, a partner at Lauressa Advisory, told Business Insider in a recent interview. "China is emphatically out of favor with global investors." On January 22, Bloomberg reported that Chinese authorities were weighing a rescue package for stocks worth as much as $278 billion, pulled primarily from offshore accounts of state-run firms.  Yet experts told Business Insider that even sizable initiatives may not bring bears clamoring back to China. The bleak outlook stems from China's real estate market, which accounts for the majority of household wealth in the country. With property values depreciating, people's willingness to spend has also deteriorated, as has sentiment across the economy and markets. Deep-seated structural issues in real estate, experts say, make it difficult to envision what has to happen for investors to regain confidence.    Source: Business Insider  

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said they would ensure that none can burn the people to death alive in future by giving exemplary punishment to the arsonists and the masterminds behind the heinous acts. "We are taking required measures against the arsonists and their masters so that none can burn the people to death and such heinous acts," she said. The premier made the remarks while speaking at a post-election greeting and view exchange meeting with leaders and activists of Kotalipara AL and associate bodies in Kotalipara Upazila Chattar here. Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's younger daughter and prime minister's younger sister Sheikh Rehana was present. Sheikh Hasina, also president of the ruling Awami League (AL), said many persons involved in the arson violence and their masters have already been brought to book while the remaining others must be netted after scrutinizing the video footages of the CCTV cameras which are now available everywhere. "None of those who have done such heinous acts will be spared. We are currently taking measures against them and will continue the legal actions against others," she said. The Prime Minister came down heavily on the BNP-Jamaat clique for their activities for what they call democracy, saying, "Their movement means burning people to death alive and torching vehicles, including buses and trains." She said they did the same thing this time in the name of movement to prevent the 12th parliamentary election what they had done in 2013, 2014 and 2015. After forming the government for the record fifth term and fourth in a row, the Prime Minister went to Gopalganj to visit her Tungipara-Kotalipara constituency to pay homage to the Father of the Nation at his mausoleum in Tungipara alongside exchanging greetings and views with party leaders and activists. She spent Saturday (Jan 13) night at her own home in Tungipara and is scheduled to reach her official Ganabhaban residence tonight. The Awami League had won the 12th parliamentary election with landslide victory getting 222 parliamentary seats out of 298.  

Some civil society activists in Pakistan demanded a stop to the forced deportation of Afghan refugees from this country. These protesters said that law enforcement agencies in Pakistan are persecuting Afghan refugees. The Islamic Emirate assured it has made necessary preparations to welcome the refugees and said that more than 400,000 people have returned to the country so far. Some members of the civil society, lawyers and legal and political activists of Pakistan started a rally and demanded to stop the arrests and forced deportations of Afghan refugees from Pakistan. The Joint Action Committee for refugees, which is one of the organizers of this protest, said in a newsletter that after Pakistan's decision to deport illegal refugees, Afghan refugees were harassed by the police and other law enforcement agencies. "They have asked Pakistan to stop the process of refugees being forcibly deported from here and to allow them to stay legally," said Sediq Kakar, an advocate in Pakistan. The Islamic Emirate said Pakistan's decision is cruel but the necessary preparations to deal with the refugees have been made. Zabihullah Mujahid added that more than 400,000 people have returned to the country so far. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers it its duty to resettle the refugees who return to their homeland and cooperate if we have the facilities and we are sure that the returnee refugees are more than 400,000," said Zabihullah Mujahid. Some returnees from Pakistan also talk about the bad behavior of Pakistani soldiers. "They destroyed our house, we had our own house. The Pakistani police forcibly dragged us and said that we will deport you and you have no right to stay in our country," said Mazuddin, a returnee. Earlier, the former foreign minister of Pakistan said that the policy of the interim government of this country regarding the deportation of illegal refugees is not clear. Source: tolonews.com

Police said a suspect was in custody after a vehicle hit a group of people waiting at a bus stop near a facility housing migrants. The cause for the incident was not immediately clear. Seven people died and at least six others were injured on Sunday after a vehicle hit people at a bus stop in the Texas border city of Brownsville, police said.  Police have taken a male suspect into custody. "We are doing an investigation in forms of intoxication to see if [the suspect] was intoxicated at the time of the accident," investigator Martin Sandoval of the Brownsville Police Department was quoted as saying by US media. Sandoval said the crash happened at 8:30 a.m. local time (1330 UTC).  It took place near the Ozanam Center, which, according to its website, was originally attended to house political refugees from Central America and later "expended to serve anyone who needs temporary shelter."  What we know about the victims  Most of the victims were Venezuelan men, the AP news agency cited the Ozanam Center director Victor Maldonado as saying. Maldonado said he reviewed the center's surveillance video after the crash.  "What we see in the video is that this SUV, a Range Rover, just ran the light that was about a hundred feet away and just went through the people who were sitting there in the bus stop," Maldonado said. The center is the only overnight shelter in Brownsville, according to the AP. The agency also said the center manages the release of thousands of migrants from federal custody. "In the last two months, we've been getting 250 to 380 [migrants] a day," Maldonado said. Brownsville is one of the Texas cities that have issued emergency declarations as the US prepares to lift COVID-era migration restrictions. The measures have blocked migrants caught at the border with Mexico from seeking asylum in the US since 2020. Sunday's crash came just hours after Texas saw another tragedy: eight people were killed in a shooting at an outlet mall in Dallas. 

An advocacy group and the mother of one of his children asked the court to protect the rights of the affected families. The 41-year-old, named as Jonathan M., faces a €10,000 fine if he ignores the ruling. A Dutch court ruled Friday that a man who fathered more than 550 children is no longer allowed to donate sperm. An advocacy group and a mother who had a child with the man's sperm had applied for an injunction against him, citing clinical guidelines, which say a donor should not father more than 25 children in 12 families to prevent incest.  The Hague court warned that a penalty of €10,000 ($11,000) per case could be imposed if the man fails to comply. What do we know about the sperm donor? The 41-year-old Dutch national was identified in local media as Jonathan M., due to privacy rules. He has reportedly also used other names. Since 2007, he has donated his sperm to fertility clinics, sperm banks and also to countless couples via internet forums, the court heard. More than 100 of his children were born in clinics in the Netherlands and others privately. But he also donated semen to a Danish clinic named Cryos, which then dispatched his sperm to private addresses in various countries, the judge added. He was able to circumvent the rules because there is no central register for sperm donors. It is also not known how many children the man had fathered abroad. According to his defense lawyer, the man just wanted to help couples who were otherwise unable to conceive. What did the court rule? The court found that Jonathan M. had deliberately misinformed parents about the number of donations and the number of children conceived. Judge Thera Hesselink said the ruling "prohibits the defendant from donating his semen to new prospective parents after the issuing of this judgment." Hesselink wrote that the defendant should refrain from contacting prospective parents, joining any organizations that facilitate donations or advertising his services as a sperm donor. "All these parents are now confronted with the fact that the children in their family are part of a huge kinship network, with hundreds of half-siblings, which they did not choose," she added. The court considered it "sufficiently plausible" that this has or could have negative consequences for the children, including issues around identity and possible incest.     While the case was about conflicting fundamental rights, the court said that "the interests of the donor children and their parents outweigh the interest of the donor in continuing to donate sperm to new prospective parents." The defendant was also ordered to disclose the names of fertility clinics and sperm banks worldwide to which he had provided sperm and stocks must be destroyed. Mothers and lawyers welcome ruling The mother of one of the children in the court case, identified only as "Eva," said she was grateful for the ruling, adding that his "mass donations have spread like wildfire to other countries." "I'm asking the donor to respect our interests and to accept the verdict because our children deserve to be left alone," she said in a statement. Mark de Hek, one of the lawyers in the case, said the ruling was the first in the Netherlands, adding that it was "a clear signal and, as far as I am concerned, a final warning to other mass donors." The case is the latest in a series of fertility scandals to hit the Netherlands. In 2020 a deceased gynecologist was accused of fathering at least 17 children with women thinking they were receiving sperm from anonymous donors. The year before, it emerged that a Rotterdam doctor fathered at least 49 children while inseminating women seeking treatment.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said intensified global steps were needed to stop war in Ukraine as it continued to cause common peoples miseries across the world, as she gave an exclusive interview to the CNN TV. “I feel that the world should come forward to stop the war as the common people are suffering," she said while the US-based Cable News Network (CNN) broadcast her interview’s first episode this morning. Asked for comments on Bangladesh stance on the war, Sheikh Hasina said "we believe in a peaceful solution”. “If there is any conflict, through dialogue it can be solved. We (Bangladesh) never support any kind of invasion or any conflict," she said. Numerous questions regarding the Ukraine crisis, Bangladesh relations with China including its loan issues and Rohingya crisis largely featured the first episode of the interview. CNN is set to air the second episode of the interaction with the Bangladesh premier later this evening while the network’s famed journalist Richard Quest interviewed her. Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh's foreign policy is very clear, "Friendship to all, malice to none" and “and we're following that, so, when we see any human rights violation or invasion, we definitely oppose it”. She, however, said no war could be one-sided alone as it needs involvement of both sides “(but) I believe each country has its own rights to live in their own territory (with freedom) and protect their own territory."