05-02-2022

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2022
7
State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Dr Enamur Rahman as the chief guest addressed a view exchange meeting organized
by Madarganj Upazila Administration on Thursday.
Photo: TBT
Canada, US and allies talk
aid for Haiti at meeting
TORONTO : Haiti's spiraling
insecurity and growing concerns about
its ability to hold general elections
following the killing of President
Jovenel Moise prompted two dozen
international senior officials to meet
Friday and agree to increase aid.
Canada, which hosted the more than
three-hour-long meeting with
representatives from countries
including the U.S., France and Mexico
as well as U.N. officials, pledged $39
million in aid while other countries
promised to improve Haiti's security
situation so it could hold successful
elections. They also committed to
bolstering Haiti's National Police as
violence spikes and gangs become
more powerful, with more than
20,000 Haitians forced to live in
unhygienic shelters amid the
pandemic after losing their homes in
recent months to gang turf battles.
"The increase in violence is only
worsening the already precarious
humanitarian situation," said
Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau ahead of the meeting, which
was behind closed doors. "We must
work together to restore stability, and
to protect the safety and well-being of
the Haitian people."
Representatives of 19 countries took
part, including Haitian Prime Minister
Ariel Henry, U.S. Deputy Secretary of
State Wendy Sherman and French
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
"In order to tackle insecurity, the
partners agreed to strengthen their
current and future support of the
security sector, including the Haitian
National Police, with a focus on respect
for the rule of law, justice and human
rights," the office of Canadian Foreign
Minister Melanie Joly said in a
statement after the meeting.
Joly said all stakeholders in Haiti
need to work together and "that
without such an agreement, reestablishing
security will remain a
challenge, as will the holding of free
and credible elections."
Henry, Haiti's prime minister, said
he expects to have a provisional
electoral council in place in upcoming
days and has pledged to hold elections
this year, although he has not provided
a date. He thanked the international
community for helping Haiti during "a
particularly trying time" and noted
that violence was considerably
disrupting everyday life and isolating
several cities and towns in the
southern part of the country, cutting
off much needed aid.
"There is an urgent need to address
these problems and find lasting
solutions," he tweeted during the
meeting. "I am convinced that the root
cause of such a situation lies mainly in
the abject poverty in which a
significant part of our population
lives."
Haiti is a country of 11 million
Biden starts second year with
charm offensive-and bad polls
WASHINGTON: The White House launched a
charm offensive, complete with a Tom Hanks
video, to mark Joe Biden's first year as president
Thursday, but dire new polls and a major
congressional setback told another story, reports
BSS.
Biden, who was sworn in to replace Donald
Trump at noon last January 20, marked the day
by meeting with top cabinet members in charge
of rolling out his signature infrastructure
spending plan, a $1.2 trillion splurge he got
passed in November with rare bipartisan
support.
"Our nation has never fully made this kind of
investment," Biden said, celebrating one of his
biggest wins of last year-and a project that should
keep delivering good news as bridges, roads and
other large public works roll out.
The previous evening, the 79-year-old
Democrat held an epic press conference lasting
an hour and 52 minutes, longer even than the
famously rambling events Trump used to stage.
Defending himself on his handling of the Covid
pandemic and roaring inflation, Biden said he'd
got "a lot done" in the face of unprecedented
difficulties for a president. "He was having a good
time," Press Secretary Jen Psaki said of his
marathon performance.
Despite the cheerful messaging, Biden begins
his second year as president facing a slew of bad
news, including failure in the Senate late
Wednesday of his cherished push for election law
reforms-something he has said is needed to
safeguard US democracy from Trump
supporters' attempts at fixing the vote.
The polls also seem to be getting only worse.
According to new NBC and AP-NORC polls, 54
percent and 56 percent of Americans respectively
disapprove of Biden's performance.
The numbers point ominously to what most
analysts expect to be a heavy defeat for
Democratic legislators in November midterm
elections, leading to Republicans taking control
of Congress.
Asked about his sliding popularity, which is
now in the area that Trump consistently
inhabited, Biden told the press conference
Wednesday: "I don't believe the polls."
Biden likes to laugh off doomsayers, telling
them to share his trademark sunny outlook.
On the occasion of World Cancer Day, a rally and discussion meeting was
organized in Morrelganj on Friday morning.
Photo: TBT
inhabitants where about 60% earn less
than $2 a day, and it is facing a
deepening economic crisis, with
inflation spiking and an estimated 4.4
million people at risk of hunger. It is
also struggling to recover from the July
7 assassination of Moise at his private
residence and a 7.2 magnitude
earthquake that struck last August,
killing more than 2,200 people and
destroying or damaging some 137,500
homes.
Moise's killing complicated an
already fragile political situation in
Haiti.
He had been ruling by decree for
more than a year after dissolving a
majority of Parliament in January
2020 amid a delay in legislative
elections that have yet to be held, with
only 10 senators currently in power.
Opponents, meanwhile, claimed that
Moise's own term should have ended
in February 2021, while he insisted it
should continue to Feb. 7 this year - the
fifth anniversary of his inauguration,
which had been delayed by
controversy over his election.
Some worry Haiti's instability will
deepen in early February when the
term of the slain president expires.
Shortly before his death, Moise had
tapped Henry to serve as prime
minister and many observers think
that Henry's term should end on Feb. 7
as well, though he is not expected to
step aside on that date.
Malaysian ex-PM
Mahathir admitted
to hospital again
KUALA LUMPUR : Former
Malaysian prime minister
Mahathir Mohamad has
been admitted to a specialist
heart hospital for the third
time in the space of a few
weeks, a spokesperson said
Saturday.
The 96-year-old is in the
cardiac care unit of the
National Heart Institute in
Kuala Lumpur, a
spokesperson who asked not
to be named said, without
giving further details, reports
BSS.
Media descended on the
hospital as news spread that
Mahathir had been admitted
again, about a fortnight after
he had a procedure at the
same facility.
He was also admitted in
December for several days to
undergo a check-up.
He has had numerous
heart problems over the
years, suffering several heart
attacks and undergoing
bypass surgery.
Mahathir is one of
Malaysia's most dominant
political figures, having
served twice as prime
minister for a total of 24
years. He was leader from
1981 to 2003, then returned
to power in 2018 at the age of
92, heading a reformist
coalition. But that
administration collapsed in
2020 due to infighting.
Global Covid
cases surpass
345 million
DHAKA : Amid the global
scare over the rising
Omicron cases, the overall
number of Covid cases has
now surpassed 345 million.
According to Johns
Hopkins University (JHU),
the total case count mounted
to 345,747,702 while the
death toll from the virus
reached 5,584,037 Saturday
morning.
The US has recorded 70,
166,329 cases so far and
884,489 people have died
from the virus in the country,
the university data shows.
India's Covid-19 tally rose
to 38,566,027 Friday as
347,254 new cases were
registered in 24 hours across
the country, as per the
federal health ministry data.
Yemeni rebels say
Saudi-led airstrike
on prison killed 70
SANAA, Yemen : A Saudi-led coalition
airstrike hit a prison run by Yemen's Houthi
rebels on Friday, killing at least 70 detainees
and wounding dozens, a rebel minister said.
The strike was part of a pounding aerial
offensive that hours earlier knocked the Arab
world's poorest country off the internet,
reports UNB.
The intense campaign comes after the Iranbacked
Houthis claimed a drone and missile
attack that struck inside the United Arab
Emirates' capital earlier in the week - a major
escalation in the conflict in Yemen where the
Saudi-led coalition, backed by the UAE, has
battled the rebels since 2015.
Taha al-Motawakel, health minister in the
Houthi government which controls northern
Yemen, told The Associated Press that 70
detainees were killed at the prison and that he
expects the number to rise as many others
were seriously wounded.
"The world cannot be quiet when faced with
these crimes," Al-Motawakel said and asked
for international aid organizations to send
medical staff and aid. He said medical workers
in Yemen have been exhausted by the influx of
injured from the strikes, after already
operating with scarce resources during the
pandemic.
Earlier Friday, a Saudi airstrike in the port
city of Hodeida - later confirmed by satellite
photos analyzed by the AP - hit a
telecommunication center that's key to
Yemen's connection to the internet. Airstrikes
also hit near the capital, Sanaa, held by the
Houthis since late 2014.
The escalation was the most intense since
the 2018 fighting for Hodeida and comes after
a year of U.S. and U.N. efforts failed to bring
the two sides to the negotiating table.
Basheer Omar, an International Committee
of the Red Cross spokesperson in Yemen, said
rescuers continued to search for survivors in
the rebel-run prison in the northern city of
Saada. The Red Cross had moved some of the
wounded to facilities elsewhere, he said.
Doctors Without Borders put the number of
wounded alone at "around 200." Ahmed
Mahat, MSF's head of mission in Yemen, said
they had reports of "many bodies still at the
scene of the airstrike, many missing people."
The organization Save the Children said the
Saada prison holds detained migrants.
"Migrants seeking better lives for themselves
and their families, Yemeni civilians injured by
the dozens, is a picture we never hoped to
wake up to in Yemen," said Gillian Moyes,
Save the Children's director in Yemen.
The Saudi-led coalition did not confirm the
Saada attack. It has frequently struck civilian
locations during the war, now in its eight year.
It remained unclear if the detention facility
was the intended target.
As for the airstrike in Hodeida, NetBlocks
said the nationwide internet disruption began
around 1 a.m. local and affected TeleYemen,
the state-owned monopoly that controls
internet access in the country after a strike on
a telecommunications building. TeleYemen is
now run by the Houthis who have held Sanaa
since late 2014.
Over 18 hours later, the internet remained
down. The Houthi's Al-Masirah satellite news
channel said the strike on the
telecommunications building killed and
wounded an unspecified number of people. It
released chaotic footage of people digging
through rubble for a body as aid workers
assisted bloodied survivors.
Save the Children said the Hodeida strike
killed at least three children playing on a
soccer field. Satellite photos analyzed by the
AP corresponded to photos shared on social
media of the telecommunications building
being flattened by the airstrike.
The Saudi-led coalition acknowledged
carrying out "accurate airstrikes to destroy the
capabilities of the militia" around Hodeida's
port. It didn't immediately confirm striking a
telecommunications target, but instead called
Hodeida a hub for piracy and Iranian arms
smuggling to back the Houthis.
Iran has denied arming the Houthis, though
U.N. experts, independent analysts and
Western nations point to evidence showing
Tehran's link to the weapons.
On Friday, Houthi supporters rallied, calling
the airstrikes "an American escalation."
Houthi media distributed video of thousands
in the street. The Houthis commonly equate
the Saudi-led coalition with the United States,
condemning America in fiery terms.
The undersea FALCON cable carries
internet into Yemen through the Hodeida port
along the Red Sea for TeleYemen. The
FALCON cable has another landing in
Yemen's far eastern port of Ghaydah as well,
but the majority of Yemen's population lives in
its west along the Red Sea.
A cut to the FALCON cable in 2020 caused
by a ship's anchor also caused widespread
internet outages in Yemen. Land cables to
Saudi Arabia have been cut since the start of
the war, while connections to two other
undersea cables have yet to be made amid the
conflict, TeleYemen previously said.
Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shaon, Member of Parliament for Bhola-3 constituency as the chief guest distrubted
land and housing among 150 landless and homeless families of Shambhupur and Chandpur Union on
the occasion of Mujib Borsho at Tazumuddin Dakbanglow premises on Friday morning. Photo: TBT
New Zealand to start easing
tough Covid border controls
AUCKLAND : New Zealand will start
easing some of the world's toughest
pandemic border restrictions this month
but will not fully reopen until October,
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said
Thursday, reports UNB.
Ardern announced a five-step plan to
reconnect New Zealand to the rest of the
world, beginning with waiving hotel
quarantine requirements for its nationals
stranded overseas by the pandemic.
"It's time to move again," said Ardern,
who has been under pressure recently to
relax border policies that have been largely
unchanged since the beginning of the
Covid-19 crisis almost two years ago.
"Families and friends need to reunite,
our businesses need skills to grow,
exporters need to travel to make new
connections."
Ardern said New Zealanders in Australia
could return home and self-isolate, rather
than going into quarantine, from February
27, followed two weeks later by Kiwis
elsewhere in the world.
The option will then be progressively
made available to other groups such as
skilled migrants, international students,
Australians, and eventually all vaccinated
foreign nationals.
It will involve international arrivals selfisolating
for 10 days instead of undergoing
a 10-day hotel quarantine monitored by
New Zealand military personnel.
Only 800 rooms per month are available
under the current system, with demand
regularly exceeding supply tenfold.
Many New Zealanders have criticised it
as too harsh on international arrivals, with
business groups saying it was contributing
to a labour shortage and crippling the
tourism industry.
There have been numerous stories of
fully vaccinated overseas-based New
Zealanders unable to get home to see dying
loved ones or give birth, such as pregnant
journalist Charlotte Bellis.
Bellis prompted a rare about-face from
officials this week when she said her initial
failure to secure a quarantine spot left her
no choice but to deliver her baby in
Afghanistan under the Taliban regime.
13 reported killed
as US forces launch
raid in Syria
ATMEH : U.S. special forces
carried out what the
Pentagon said was a largescale
counterterrorism raid
in northwestern Syria early
Thursday. First responders
at the scene reported 13
people had been killed,
including six children and
four women, reports UNB.
The operation, which
residents say lasted over two
hours, jolted the sleepy
village of Atmeh near the
Turkish border - an area
dotted with camps for
internally displaced people
from Syria's civil war. The
target of the raid was
unclear.
"The mission was
successful," Pentagon press
secretary John Kirby said in
a brief statement. "There
were no U.S. casualties.
More information will be
provided as it becomes
available."