e_Paper, Monday, August 7, 2017

10
MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 2017
DT
News
US, China pressure North Korea
after sanctions vote
• AFP, Manila
WORLD
The United States and China piled
pressure on North Korea Sunday
to abandon its nuclear missile programme
after the UN Security Council
approved tough sanctions which
could cost Pyongyang $1bn a year.
One day after Council members
voted unanimously for a partial ban
on exports aimed at slashing Pyongyang’s
foreign revenue by a third,
top diplomats from the key powers
in the dispute met in Manila.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
said he was encouraged by
the vote, but officials warned that
Washington would closely watch
China – North Korea’s biggest trade
partner – to ensure sanctions are
enforced.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang
AmarMP site
wins Indian
mBillionth award
• Tribune Desk
EVENT
Bangladesh’s voluntary organisation
AmarMP.com has won the
prestigious mBillionth Award 2017
for providing comprehensive information
of parliament members and
means to communicate with them.
“Amar MP” delegation received
the award in a gala event held at
New Delhi, India, on August 4.
The delegation included Titu
Das, Mahabub Alam, Imtiaz Emon,
Md Shahin, Abdur Rahman and
Nazrul Islam.
The mBillionth Award South
Asia is presented each year, starting
in 2010, for socially valuable
innovations in mobile communications
in South Asia.
The scheme is run by the Digital
Empowerment Foundation, an
Indian NGO seeking to improve
access to and usage of digital communications.
Seven organisations were selected
out of 196 in the category of
Government and Citizen Engagement
this year.
“This recognition will inspire
us. We have been awarded several
times this year because of the hard
work of our volunteers,” said Sudhanta
Das Gupta, chairman of AmarMP.com.
AmarMP.com, a social initiative,
has started a ground-breaking, social
democratic movement by coordinating
all information about MPs. •
Yi met his North Korean counterpart
Ri Hong-Yo before a major regional
security forum being hosted
by the 10-nation Association of
Southeast Asian Nations.
He urged the North to halt its
nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
Pyongyang’s top envoy has so
far avoided the media in Manila.
But in a characteristically fiery
editorial before the latest sanctions
were approved, the North’s ruling
party newspaper Rodong Sinmun
warned against US aggression.
“The day the US dares tease our
nation with a nuclear rod and sanctions,
the mainland US will be catapulted
into an unimaginable sea of
fire,” it said.
‘Military option’
The urgency of the situation was
underlined by President Donald
Trump’s national security adviser
H R McMaster, who told MSNBC
Weeklong Chinese food festival
kicks off at Westin Dhaka
• Tribune Desk
METRO
The Westin Dhaka will organise
Chinese food festival “Culinary
Treats from China,” at the hotel’s
buffet restaurant Seasonal Tastes,
where guests can come and taste
exclusive delicacies from all over
China for a week.
The festival will start today and
continue until August 13. Chef Tan
news that the US leader was reviewing
plans for a “preventive
war”.
“He said he’s not going to tolerate
North Korea being able to
threaten the United States,” Mc-
Master said.
Saturday’s UN resolution
banned exports of coal, iron and
iron ore, lead and lead ore as well
as fish and seafood by the cashstarved
state.
If fully implemented it would
strip North Korea of a third of its
export earnings – estimated to total
$3bn per year despite successive
rounds of sanctions since the
North’s first nuclear test in 2006.
The resolution also prevents
North Korea from increasing the
number of workers it sends abroad.
Their earnings are another source
of foreign currency for Kim’s regime.
Kwang Aik from JW Marriott Hotel in
Kolkata has been flown in as the guest
chef, according to a media release of
the hotel. He who will be delighting
guests with his culinary magic.
Meanwhile, a press conference
and a food tasting event were held
yesterday ahead of the festival in
the hotel’s Silver Room, where Tan
Kwang, Westin Dhaka’s Executive
Chef Stephen Mcgarrie, Director (operations)
and acting General Manager
Shakawath Hossain, and Director
It prohibits all new joint ventures
with North Korea, bans new
investment in current joint companies
and adds nine North Korean
officials and four entities including
the North’s main foreign exchange
bank to the UN sanctions blacklist.
What next?
Trump hailed the vote – saying
in a tweet that the sanctions will
have “very big financial impact!” –
and thanked Russia and China for
backing a measure that either could
have halted with their UN veto.
The United States began talks
on a resolution with China a month
ago, after Pyongyang launched its
first intercontinental ballistic missile
on July 4, followed by a second
ICBM test on July 28.
But the measure does not provide
for cuts to oil deliveries, which
would have dealt a serious blow to
the North’s economy. •
Guest Chef Tan Kwang Aik from the JW Marriott Hotel Kolkata poses with some of the many dishes on offer at the Westin
Dhaka on the occasion of Chinese Food Festival 2017
SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN
(sales and marketing) Md Al-Amin
were present. During the food tasting
session, Chinese dishes such as
sweet and sour fish, Hunan Kung
Pao and Sichuan style lamb with ginger
were prepared by guest chef Tan
and presented to guests for tasting.
The food festival is a dinner-only
event, and the buffet dinner
is priced at Tk5,000 per person.
Guests will have to make reservations
by calling at +8801730374871
to attend the dinner. •
Chhatra Dal
leaders deny
conducting
urine tests on
aspiring leaders
• Md Wali Newaz, Manik
Miazee
NATION
Are political leaders – especially
young leaders of tomorrow – required
to be drug-free?
BNP’s wing organisation Bangladesh
Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal’s
Boalmari upazila unit seems to
think so. The upazila Chhatra Dal
secretly conducted a urine test of
eight candidates for its committee.
According to locals, former MP
and BNP’s central leader Shah Md
Adu Jafar collected the urine samples
and sent it to a diagnostic centre
in Dhaka on Friday for analysis.
When asked, the senior leader
told the Dhaka Tribune that he was
asked by central leaders of Chhatra
Dal and women leaders in the district
to usher in a new generation of
pure leadership.
“The next generation of leaders
should not be addicted to marijuana,
phensedyl or yaba, we cannot have
drug addicts as leaders,” he said.
But when the district Chhatra
Dal unit President Benazir Ahmed
Tabriz was asked, he denied knowing
of any such matter.
He said: “Abu Jafar has no right
to interfere in anyone’s personal affairs,
especially matters regarding
bodily functions.”
Chhatra Dal President Rajib Ahsan
also denied of any such drug
tests being taken.
He called the test fake news and
said a upazila unit has no right to
elect members for a committee.
He said: “We have no information
about the committee and our
student organisation has no systems
regarding this manner.” •
Syrian army
takes last IS-held
town in Homs
• Reuters, Beirut
WORLD
Syrian government and allied forces
have taken the last major town in
Homs province from IS, the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said,
as the army advances toward militant
strongholds in the east of the country.
The town of al-Sukhna lies some
50km northeast of the ancient city
of Palmyra, which was captured by
government forces in March.
al-Sukhna is some 50 km from
the administrative frontier of Deir
al-Zor province, which is almost entirely
under Islamic State control. •