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News 11<br />
SUNDAY, JULY <strong>23</strong>, <strong>2017</strong><br />
DT<br />
Neil Armstrong’s moon bag sells for $1.8m<br />
Sotheby’s Cassandra Hatton displays the Apollo 11 Contingency Lunar Sample<br />
Return Bag, used by Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11 to bring back the very first<br />
pieces of the moon ever collected, during a media preview for Space Exploration<br />
auction in New York on <strong>July</strong> 13, <strong>2017</strong><br />
AFP<br />
• AFP<br />
WORLD <br />
A bag Neil Armstrong used to collect the<br />
first ever samples of the moon — which<br />
was once nearly thrown out with the<br />
trash — sold at auction Thursday for $1.8<br />
million, Sotheby’s said.<br />
The outer decontamination bag,<br />
which was flown to the moon on Apollo<br />
11 and still carries traces of moon dust<br />
and small rock, was sold on the 48th<br />
anniversary of the first moon landing in<br />
1969.<br />
Auctioneer Joe Dunning introduced<br />
the lot as “an exceptionally rare artifact<br />
from mankind’s greatest achievement.”<br />
It sold to an anonymous buyer on the<br />
telephone following a sluggish five-minute<br />
bidding war.<br />
Its previous owner was an Illinois<br />
lawyer, who bought it in 2015 for $995.<br />
But even with the buyer’s premium<br />
added to Thursday’s $1.5-million hammer<br />
price, the bag fell short of Sotheby’s<br />
pre-sale estimate of $2-4 million.<br />
Sotheby’s said it was the only artifact<br />
from the Apollo 11 mission left in private<br />
hands. After Apollo 11 returned to Earth,<br />
nearly all the equipment from the mission<br />
was sent to the Smithsonian, the<br />
world’s largest museum.<br />
But an inventory error left the sample<br />
bag languishing in a box at the Johnson<br />
Space Centre.<br />
Staff were about to throw it out before<br />
offering it to a collector who ran a<br />
space museum in Kansas, keeping it unaware<br />
of its provenance.<br />
When the collector was later convicted<br />
of theft, fraud and money<br />
laundering, the FBI seized the box<br />
from his garage to auction it off for<br />
restitution.<br />
The bag — which has a tear and is<br />
made of the same fire-retardant material<br />
as space suits — was offered four<br />
times for sale, before the Illinois lawyer<br />
bought it in 2015.<br />
Noticing dark smudges inside, she<br />
sent it to NASA for testing, which confirmed<br />
in 2016 it was indeed moon dust<br />
from the Apollo 11 landing site, and that<br />
it was the decontamination bag listed in<br />
the Apollo 11 stowage list.<br />
A legal battle ensued over ownership,<br />
which ended in a federal judge<br />
ordering NASA to return the bag to the<br />
lawyer — who then offered it for sale. •<br />
Interpol circulates list of 173 suspected<br />
members of IS suicide brigade<br />
• Tribune Desk<br />
WORLD <br />
IS fighters in Raqqa in 2014<br />
Interpol has circulated a list of 173<br />
Islamic State fighters it believes<br />
could have been trained to mount<br />
suicide attacks in Europe in revenge<br />
for the group’s military defeats<br />
in the Middle East, the Guardian<br />
reports.<br />
The global crime fighting agency’s<br />
list was drawn up by US intelligence<br />
from information captured<br />
during the assault on IS territories<br />
in Syria and Iraq.<br />
European counter-terror networks<br />
are concerned that as the IS<br />
“caliphate” collapses, there is an<br />
increasing risk of determined suicide<br />
bombers seeking to come to<br />
Europe, probably operating alone.<br />
There is no evidence that any of<br />
the people on the list have yet entered<br />
Europe, but the Interpol circulation,<br />
designed to see if EU intelligence<br />
sources have any details on<br />
the individuals, underlines the scale<br />
of the challenge facing Europe.<br />
The list, sent out by the general<br />
secretariat of Interpol on 27<br />
May, defines the group of fighters<br />
as individuals that “may have<br />
been trained to build and position<br />
improvised explosive devices in<br />
order to cause serious deaths and<br />
injuries. It is believed that they can<br />
travel internationally, to participate<br />
in terrorist activities.”<br />
The data was originally collected<br />
by the US intelligence “through<br />
trusted channels”. The material<br />
was handed over to the FBI, which<br />
transmitted the list to Interpol for<br />
global sharing.<br />
Reliability of the sources<br />
US intelligence is apparently confident<br />
about the reliability of the<br />
sources used to compile the list.<br />
But western counter-terrorism<br />
forces have said they face an uphill<br />
struggle identifying potential suspects,<br />
who have access to a mountain<br />
of false documents, double<br />
identities and fake passports.<br />
Interpol stressed the list’s transmission<br />
came as part of its role<br />
circulating information between<br />
national crime-fighting agencies.<br />
“Interpol regularly sends alerts and<br />
updates to its national central bureaux<br />
(NCB) on wanted terrorists<br />
and criminals via our secure global<br />
AP<br />
police communications network,”<br />
a spokesman said. “It is the member<br />
country which provides the information<br />
that decides which other<br />
countries it can be shared with.<br />
In 2015 the UN considered there<br />
were 20,000 foreign fighters in Iraq<br />
and Syria, of whom 4,000 were<br />
from Europe, but there has not previously<br />
been a specific list of those<br />
fighters including those born in the<br />
Middle East who have been identified<br />
as potential suicide bombers.<br />
The speed with which IS fighters<br />
are likely to attempt to reach<br />
Europe will depend on a range of<br />
issues including whether the group<br />
tries to set up a new base in Syria<br />
in the wake of the impending fall<br />
of Raqqa, its last major redoubt in<br />
north-west Syria. There is a growing<br />
suggestion that IS fighters will<br />
shift south from Raqqa to the defensible<br />
territory stretching from<br />
Deir el-Zourez-Zor to Abu Kamal.<br />
US Army Col Ryan Dillon on Friday<br />
estimated there were around<br />
2,000 IS militants in the city, who<br />
he said were using civilians and children<br />
as human shields. The distance<br />
between SDF forces on the eastern<br />
side of the city and on the western<br />
fronts is now just under 2km.<br />
The United Nations estimates<br />
that about 190,000 residents of<br />
Raqqa province have been displaced<br />
since April, including about<br />
20,000 since the operation to seize<br />
the provincial capital began in early<br />
June.<br />
US diplomats this week admitted<br />
that the SDF forces, due to<br />
their ethnic make-up, will be constrained<br />
from going south of Raqqa<br />
to pursue IS as far as Deir Azzour,<br />
saying this may be the task of the<br />
Syrian forces under Bashar al Assad,<br />
or even Iranian-backed Shia<br />
militia. •<br />
Bangladesh Public Relations Association (BPRA) celebrated 38th anniversary of<br />
its founding bu cutting a cake at the National Press Club in Dhaka on Saturday. The<br />
function was attended by Samakal Editor Golam Sarwar, National Press Club General<br />
Secretary Farida Yasmin, BPRA President Mostafa-E-Jamil, Secretary General<br />
Moniruzzaman Tipu and journalists and public relations officers from different<br />
organisations, said press release. BPRA was founded on <strong>July</strong> 22 in 1979 COURTESY<br />
Govt, Green Delta sign<br />
deal on healthcare project<br />
• Tribune Desk<br />
METRO <br />
Health Economics Unit (HEU)<br />
of Ministry of Health and Family<br />
Welfare and Green Delta Insurance<br />
signed an agreement for<br />
implementation of second phase<br />
of Shashthya Shurakhkha Karmashuchi<br />
(SSK) project.<br />
Green Delta has been working<br />
as the scheme operator of the SSK<br />
since launching of the programme<br />
on March 24, 2016, said a press release.<br />
Now the HEU is initiating the<br />
second phase in Kalihati, Ghatail<br />
and Modhupur of Tangail and<br />
Green Delta will be continuing its<br />
services as the scheme operator.<br />
SSK is a “dream project” of<br />
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for<br />
the population living below poverty<br />
line.<br />
The World Health Organization<br />
(WHO) has brought a concept titled<br />
“Universal Health Coverage (UHC)”<br />
to ensure health care for everyone,<br />
regardless of their social status.<br />
The Bangladesh government<br />
has also taken up the challenge to<br />
achieve the UHC by the year 2032<br />
through implementing the SSK<br />
project.<br />
The project was initially taken<br />
up in Kalihati of Tangail district<br />
and was seen as a huge step in<br />
revolutionising the healthcare delivery<br />
system for the poor by introducing<br />
micro insurance.<br />
The poor people selected under<br />
certain criteria will get a card to<br />
receive treatment for 50 diseases<br />
commonly found in them.<br />
The treatment will take place in<br />
government health facilities of the<br />
district. The government will give<br />
Tk1,000 per family each year as<br />
the premium for a pool fund. One<br />
family will get Tk50,000 treatment<br />
a year.<br />
The signing ceremony was held<br />
at the health ministry office. HEU<br />
Director General Md Ashadul Islam<br />
and Managing Director and CEO of<br />
Green Delta Insurance, Chartered<br />
Insurer Farzana Chowdhury ACII<br />
(UK) signed the MoU on behalf of<br />
their respective organisations. •