Samsung has launched dual SIM
handset Galaxy S Duos, in the local market.
Powered by Android Ice
Cream Sandwich, the device has
1 GHz processor and optimised Touchwiz UX all to deliver
a faster and smooth
navigation and superb browsing experience.
The phone has 4-inch large display, 5MP rear camera with LED and front facing camera as well.
The S Duos has 3GB internal memory, which is expandable up to 32 GB. It also features Bluetooth
3.0, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, A GPS, 3.5 mm earjack, push email and native SNS links and 1500 mAH battery.
The Samsung Galaxy S Duos is available in the market at Tk 27,900 in 2 colours -black and white.
Asus has launched its
new gaming laptop
ROG G55VW in the
local market.
The
15.6-inch notebook has the latest 3rd generation Intel core i7-3610QM
processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M graphics card and Asus SonicMaster
audio technology.
The notebook comes with 1TB hard disk, 8GB RAM,
DVD writer, HD webcam, Thunderbolt port, HDMI, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports and
eight-cell battery.
The laptop has a price tag of Tk 1, 46,500.
Barack
Obama brought his sophisticated social media campaign to an emotional
climax, proclaiming his victory on Twitter and Facebook
just as TV networks were breaking the news.
Obama
overcame the burden of a slow economic recovery and high unemployment
to beat Republican foe Mitt Romney after a relentless get-out-the-vote
push on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and other platforms.
"This
happened because of you. Thank you," he tweeted to his 22 million
followers just minutes after the first US network called his victory, in
an indication of the importance he attached to social networks in his
campaign.
"Four more years," he said straight afterwards, posting a
photo of himself hugging First Lady Michelle Obama as other TV networks
followed suit and, one-by-one, announced his re-election as 44th
President of the United States.
The post was his most re-tweeted
-- 472,000 shares in three hours -- according to Twitter's politics
account @gov. It was also the most popular ever, topping a message from
singer Justin Bieber, website BuzzFeed said.
The same picture of a
happy, serene-looking Obama hugging his wife appeared on the
president's Facebook account -- and was shared tens of thousands of
times by some of his 32 million fans.
"We did it, we voted for
you, now please dear president Obama do what you said you will do, make
us proud: Education, Health Care, Green Energy for USA!," Angela De
Jesus said under the photo, one of 80,700 comments.
Social
networks have emerged as key tools in the months-long US presidential
campaign, with both Obama and Romney staging major pushes on these
popular platforms to draw in supporters and get them to go out and vote.
But
while Romney has increased his presence hugely on social media compared
to 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Obama is seen as
having retained the upper hand from his successful online campaign four
years ago.
Already in January, Obama's campaign manager Jim
Messina had hinted at a huge social media campaign in an interview with
Newsweek.
"Our efforts on the ground and on technology will make 2008 look prehistoric," he was quoted as saying.
And
even as election day drew to a nail-biting close late Tuesday
afternoon, Obama made a surprise appearance on social news website
Reddit, where he made a last-ditch plea for more votes.
"I'm
checking in because polls will start closing in this election in just a
few hours, and I need you to vote," he said on the popular site, which
allows users to rank posted information according to whether they like
it or not.
As the evening progressed, the Democratic incumbent
continued to push voters to the polls on social media, even as polls
shut in one state after the other.
His campaign team fired
messages to those Twitter followers located in states that were still
voting, reminding them to stay in line even if polling stations had
officially closed.
Romney, by comparison, sent a general tweet out
early evening to his 1.8 million followers asking them to vote, but
stayed silent thereafter.
"With your help, we will turn our country around and get America back on the path to prosperity. Please vote today," it read.
According
to Twitter, the election has become the most tweeted about event in US
political history, with some 31 million poll-related posts fired out
throughout day.
When networks called the victory, Twitter went
into manic overdrive, with election-related tweets rising to an average
of 327,452 a minute.
Netizens flocked to social networks to congratulate the re-elected President, as did British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"Warm congratulations to my friend @BarackObama. Look forward to continuing to work together,"
he tweeted, during a visit to the Middle East.
A research by G&R, a local online ad network and digital expert,
shows that internet consumption in Bangladesh differs during hartals and
different type of holidays.
For this research, G&R team
analysed internet usage throughout 2012 and focused on hartals, Bangla
New Year, Durga Puja and Eid holidays.
The research was done by constantly looking at the data G&R generates through its digital ad network.
In
the research they found that during hartals, a massive 33% more people
were online. This indicates that with the limitations in commuting, more
individuals actually access the web. This, however, did not impact the
amount of time each person spent online as they tended to visit a
similar array of websites they would do at other times.
When
looking into user behaviour on April 14th (Bangla New Year), they found
that unique users accessing the web declined by 40%. In stark contrast
to hartal days though, those were online on average spent 15% more time
browsing the web.
The decline in unique users is clearly
correlated to the outdoor festivities for Bangla New Year but the data
leads to believe that those were online are the heavy internet users.
While this may not seem meaningful at first, it is often agreed that
heavy internet users are major influencers in day-to-day society so this
more select audience during such holidays could represent an
interesting opportunity for local business and organisations looking to
generate buzz online.
Focusing now on the recent Durga Puja and
Eid-ul-Azha holidays, again there was major impact on internet
consumption. With trends more in line with the April holiday, we saw
that unique internet users started dropping on October 24th, by around
25%, with the Puja holiday but it was actually the Eid day where users
declined considerably even more pronounced than seen during April 14th.
For the 2 days, Eid Day (October 27) and October 28, internet users
were down by 73%, similar to Bangla New Year, time spent online by those
individuals was greater. By Monday October 29th, internet activity was
back up to normal patterns.
The data presented in this article
should help businesses and marketers in particular as they plan on how
to engage online audiences during the upcoming holidays in December,
February and March and in the event of any political unrest.
All
data, analysis in this report is from G&R Ad Network internal
sources. Data points consist of Bangladesh local unique web users and
average. pageviews for 22-23,29-30 April (hartals), April 14 (Bangla New
Year) and various days in October (Durga Puja, Eid-ul-Azha).
Daniel Rahman is CEO, G&R Technologies, email: daniel@gandr.com.bd
Rezaur Rahman is CTO, G&R Technologies,
email: jitu@gandr.com.bd
Reuters, Washington
Iranian
warplanes fired at an unarmed US drone in international airspace last
week but did not hit the aircraft, the Pentagon said on Thursday,
disclosing details of an unprecedented incident that triggered a formal
warning to Tehran through diplomatic channels.
The November
1 intercept was the first time Tehran had fired at an unmanned American
aircraft, in a stark reminder of how tensions between the United States
and Iran could escalate quickly into violence.
If Iran had
hit the drone, as the Pentagon believes it was trying to do, it could
have forced American retaliation - with the potential consequences that
entails.
According to the timeline provided by the
Pentagon, two Iranian SU-25 "Frogfoot" aircraft intercepted the American
drone at about 4:50am EST (0850 GMT) as it conducted a routine, but
classified, surveillance mission over Gulf waters about 16 nautical
miles off the Iranian coast.
Pentagon spokesman George
Little said the aircraft fired multiple rounds at the Predator drone and
followed it for at least several miles as it moved farther away from
Iranian airspace.
"We believe that they fired at least twice and made at least two passes," he said.
International
airspace begins after 12 nautical miles and Little said the drone at no
point entered Iranian airspace. Last year, a crashed CIA drone was
recovered inside Iran.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was
quickly notified of the incident, as were members of Congress and the
White House, Little added. The United States also sent Iran a warning
through diplomatic channels, saying it would defend its military assets
and would keep sending aircraft on such surveillance operations.
"There
is absolutely no precedence for this," Little said. "This is the first
time that a (drone) has been fired upon to our knowledge by Iranian
aircraft."
Many questions about the incident remain,
including why Iranian warplanes could not manage - if they wanted - to
shoot down an unarmed drone, which lacks advanced capabilities to
outmaneuver them.
Asked whether the Iranian aircraft were
simply firing warning shots, Little said: "Our working assumption is
that they fired to take it down. You'll have to ask the Iranians why
they engaged in this action."
There was no immediate comment by Iranian officials.
SANCTIONS TIGHTENED
President
Barack Obama has resisted calls from inside the United States and
Israel for military action against Iran, focusing instead on crushing
rounds of sanctions, which were tightened again on Thursday.
The
United States imposed sanctions on Iran's communications minister and
the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance for jamming international
satellite broadcasts to Iran and censoring and closing newspapers and
detaining journalists.
The sanctions are part of broader
efforts to isolate Tehran, which denies US accusations that it seeks to
develop nuclear weapons under the cover of its civilian atomic program.
In
an effort to drive Iran to compromise, the United States and the
European Union have gone for the jugular - Iran's oil exports - over the
past year.
The United States and Israel, which regards a
nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to its existence, have also hinted at the
possibility of military strikes on Iran as a last resort.
Obama
has said the United States will "do what we must" to prevent Iran from
acquiring nuclear weapons and has repeatedly said that all options are
on the table - code for the possibility of using force.
Fresh from his election win, Barack Obama will this month become the first US president to visit Myanmar, the White House says.
He will meet President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
It is part of a three-leg tour from 17 to 20 November that will also take in Thailand and Cambodia.
The
government of Myanmar has begun implementing economic, political and
other reforms, a process the Obama administration sought to encourage.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was previously the most senior US official to go to Burma when she visited in December 2011.
'Democratic transition'
Obama's
Burma stop is part of a trip built around the summit of the Association
of South East Asian Nations in Cambodia, which leaders from China,
Japan and Russia will also attend.
In a statement, White
House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama intended to "speak to civil
society to encourage Burma's ongoing democratic transition".
The
BBC's David Bamford says the trip - Obama's first foreign initiative
since his re-election this week - reflects the importance that the US
has placed on normalising relations with Myanmar.
This
process has moved forward relatively swiftly, our correspondent adds,
and it represents an opportunity for the US to have a greater stake in
the region and so at least partly counter the dominant influence of
China.
Reforms have been taking place in Myanmar since
elections in November 2010 saw military rule replaced with a
military-backed nominally civilian government.
Since then many political prisoners have been freed and censorship relaxed.
The
party of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from
years of house arrest after the elections, has rejoined the political
process after boycotting the 2010 polls. It now has a small presence in
parliament after a landslide win in by-elections in April.
In
response, the US has appointed a full ambassador to Burma and suspended
sanctions. It is also set to ease its import ban on goods from Burma, a
key part of remaining US sanctions.
Human rights groups
are likely to criticise Obama's visit as premature, given that the
ruling government has failed to prevent outbreaks of communal violence
in the west of the country.
Clashes between Buddhists and
Muslims in Rakhine state have left more than 100,000 people - mostly
members of the stateless Muslim Rohingya minority - displaced.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said on Friday that it
is time to move forward to a better relationship between Pakistan and
Bangladesh forgetting the past.
In response to her
Bangladeshi counterpart Dipu Moni's advocacy for a formal apology from
Pakistan for the genocide and atrocities committed by Pak army during
the 1971 Liberation War, Hina the 35-year old charismatic emissary said
this on Friday.
"Since 1974, Pakistan in many occasions
have already regretted for the 1971. It's time to look forward for the
progress of the two nations", Foreign Secretary Mizarul Quayes told the
journalist quoting Hina who met Dipu Moni.
Dipu told Hina
that relation between Bangladesh and Pakistan will improve only after
resolving the outstanding issues which include formal apology from
Pakistan on 1971 genocide.
The Pakistan foreign minister
held the meeting with her Bangladeshi counterpart Dipu Moni at the
foreign ministry for twenty-minutes starting from 11:25am.
Earlier
around 10:15am, Hina arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal Airport by a special
flight to invite Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Islamabad to attend the
Developing-8 Summit on November 22.
Foreign Secretary Mizarul Quayes received her at the airport.
After
the meeting with Dipu Moni, Hina called on the Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina at her official residence Ganobhaban around noon and handed over
the invitation letter to her.
The Pakistan foreign minister later met BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan residence.
Before
leaving Dhaka, Hina told journalists that she had come to Bangladesh to
invite its Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to attend the D8 summit set.
“I
have been received with a lot of warm hospitality here and I hope we
will give very warm reception when Bangladeshi prime minister and
foreign minister will visit Pakistan,” she said.
“I just
want to say that I bring the message of a future between our relation
which is strong, which is guided by the strong words of religion of
cultural affinity that exists between the people and the two countries,
and we hope that future of the two countries will be even better than
the past, ” Hina further said.
Later, she left Dhaka completing her five-hour visit around 3:30pm.
Star Online Report
Investigation
officers quizzed Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quashem Ali at the ‘safe
house’ in Dhanmondi in connection with crimes against humanity committed
during the country’s Liberation War in 1971.
Investigation
officer Nurul Islam told The Daily Star that they started the
interrogation around 10:00am and continued till 5:00pm with an hour-long
lunch break.
Quashem’s counsel Tajul Islam said that his
client was taken to the ‘safe house’ for quizzing as per the permission
from the International Crimes Tribunal-1.
Earlier on September 15, the investigation officers had quizzed Quashem Ali on the same charges, he said.
The tribunal-1 on October 8 allowed the investigation officers to interrogate him one more day at the same house.
The
government has provided the War Crimes Tribunals a house, which is
called the ‘safe house’ in Dhanmondi to interrogate the accused.
Quashem
is currently an Islami Bank director, a member of Ibn Sina Trust, and
also a director of the non-government organisation Rabeta Alam Al
Islami.
Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir on Saturday said those who were
directly or indirectly involved in the killing of four national leaders
and those who obstructed the trial process in this regard would be
brought to justice.
"Obstructing the trial process is a
punishable offence and those who’re involved in obstructing the trial
process of the jail killing case will be brought to justice,” the home
minister said.
He made the remark while talking to
reporters after offering special prayers at the cell of Dhaka Central
Jail where the country’s four national leaders were killed on this day
in 1975.
Earlier, Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir,
Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Telecommunication Minister Shahara
Khatun, Jute Minister Abdul Latif Siddique, State Minister for Home
Advocate Shamsul Haque Tuku, Sayed Shafayet Islam, son of national
leader Syed Nazrul Islam, and Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor AAMS
Arefin Siddique placed wreaths at the portraits of the four national
leaders at the cell.
“The nation will get rid of the stigma
through ensuring punishment to the killers of the four national
leaders,” the home minister told the journalists.
“We’ll get united to resist the killers,” he said.
Meanwhile,
Matia Chowdhury said, “Those who showed their negligence in performing
their duties in the four national leaders killing case and destroyed the
evidence will be punished.”
Brig Gen (retd) Syed Safayet
Hossain, son of national leader Syed Nazrul Islam, said he hoped that
the Appellate Division will uphold the High Court verdict.
The
government on Thursday submitted a concise statement to the Supreme
Court for the hearing of appeal against the verdict of the High Court
division in the jail killing case, acquitting some key accused.
On
November 3 in 1975, the four national leaders and heroes of the
country’s Liberation War -- Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Capt
Mansoor Ali and AHM Kamruzzaman -- were killed inside the Dhaka Central
Jail.
On Oct 20 in 2004, the Metropolitan Sessions Court
Judge Matiur Rahman awarded death sentence to three former army
personnel -- Risaldar Moslem Uddin, Dafadar Marfat Ali Shah and Abul
Hashem Mridha -- and life imprisonment to 12 others in the jail killing
case.
The HC in 2008 upheld the death penalty of Risaldar
Moslem Uddin, but acquitted Dafadar Marfat Ali Shah and Abul Hashem
Mridha. It also acquitted four others who were awarded life
imprisonment.
Earlier, the ministers, including the home
minister, placed wreaths at the portrait of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.
