Brawl over fare, buses smashed in Farmgate

Dhaka, Jul 24 (bdnews24.com) — Students of Tejgaon College have vandalised four buses at Farmgate area on Tuesday and beat up driver of a bus following a brawl over fare.

Sub Inspector of Traffic Police Ruhul Amin said several students of the college exchanged heated arguments with the staffs of a Motijheel-Cantonment route bus around 9:30am while the bus was on its way to Farmgate from Shahbugh.

When the bus reached Farmgate, where the college is located, up to 25 students beat up the bus driver and smashed the bus, he said.

The Tejgaon College students vandalised three other buses and for this vehicular movements came to a halt for nearly half an hour in the area, the police officer said.

Assistant Sub Inspector of Tejgaon Police Station Munsi Abdul Lokman said traffic resumed around 10am at the intervention of the law enforcers.

The injured driver, 'Shafik', has been taken to hospital, the ASI said.

bdnews24.com/ah/zk/sk/1105h

Farm loan disbursement target Tk 141.3bn

Abdur Rahim Harmachi
Chief Economics Correspondent

Dhaka, July 23 (bdnews24.com) – The Bangladesh Bank has set agricultural loan disbursement target for local and foreign banks at Tk 141.3 billion for 2012-13 fiscal, says the chief of the central bank.

Governor Atiur Rahman said on Monday the central bank would formally announce the new agriculture and rural credit policy and programmes for the current financial year, divulging the disbursement target, higher than that of the previous fiscal, at a meeting with the chief executives of the state-owned, specialised, private and foreign commercial banks on Tuesday.

He told bdnews24.com: "The agriculture sector has kept our economy in a comfortable position. We didn't need import any rice over the last one year. It has been possible due to the bumper production in the past few seasons. And the disbursement of farm loans has played a vital role in this."

"In this backdrop, a target of disbursing Tk 141.3 billion in agricultural loan has been set for further boosting crop production and rural economy," he added.

State-owned, specialised, private and foreign commercial banks had a target to disburse Tk 138 billion in the 2011-12 fiscal.

Of them, the target was Tk 85.1 billion for the state-owned commercial banks – Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali – and the two specialised banks, Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank.

In the current fiscal, the target of annual loan disbursement in agriculture sector has been set at Tk 83 billion for the state-owned commercial banks and specialised banks and Tk 58.3 billion for the private and foreign banks.

According to the Bangladesh Bank data, all banks collectively disbursed Tk 114.53 billion in farm loans in the first 11 months of the just-concluded financial year while disbursement was Tk 121.84 billion in its previous fiscal.

Atiur said agricultural credit disbursement had increased due to the strict monitoring by the central bank.

"Our economy is based on agriculture. The state-owned and specialised banks used to disburse farm loans in the past, but now the private banks are also disbursing farm loans simultaneously. The banks having no branches at rural level are disbursing farm loans through NGOs."

The central bank chief said an obligation had been imposed on the banks to ensure that they disbursed at least 2 percent of their total loans in the agriculture sector. "We're monitoring it strictly."

Apart from the state-owned banks, agricultural credit disbursement was made compulsory for the private and foreign banks three years back.

He said measures were also taken for opening bank accounts for farmers with an initial deposit of only Tk 10 each.

bdnews24.com/arh/skb/ssr/nir/2317h

Abul Hossain's resignation proves graft: BNP

Dhaka, Jul 23 (bdnews24.com)—The BNP has said the resignation of Information and Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain as a minister, 10 months after allegations of corruption in the Padma bridge project surfaced, proves corruption in the project.

"It (the resignation) proves corruption in the Padma bridge project," party's Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told bdnews24.com in his instant reaction to resignation of the former Communications Minister.

He said the loan agreement would not have been cancelled had he (Syed Abul Hossain) quit as soon as the allegation of corruptions were raised.

Earlier in the day, the beleaguered minister, who was later given charge of the ICT ministry, tendered his resignation letter, highly placed sources told bdnews24.com.

Fakhrul alleged that 'many others' were involved in the corruption in the project.

"Please wait, many things will eventually surface," he added.

The World Bank (WB) cancelled its $ 1.2-billion fund for the $2.9-billion project on Jun 29. It claimed the government did not follow its suggestion to send high-ranking officials linked to the alleged corruption on leave until the investigations were complete.

Abul Hossain was the Communication Minister that time.

The minister, however, never admitted that he was involved in any corruption while leading the Communications Ministry until Sept last year.

But he was transferred from the Communications Ministry amid growing calls from inside the ruling coalition and the opposition.

"The government should launch a complete and neutral investigation into the alleged corruption in the Padma bridge project," he said.

He urged the government to ensure exemplary punishment to those involved in the graft.

"If this government does not investigate this (WB alleged corruption), the BNP will do it once it comes to power," the BNP spokesman said.

bdnews24.com/sm/shs/ssr/nir/2109h

Humayun`s janaza held at Nuhash Palli

Dhaka, Jul 24 (bdnews24.com) — Humayun Ahmed's third namaz-e-janaza, prayer before burial, took place at Nuhash Palli, his favourite retreat, in Gazipur on Tuesday.

He is to be laid to rest there after Zohr prayers.

Hundreds of people took part in the funeral prayer of the celebrated writer. The janaza was conducted by Mojibur Rahman, Imam of a local mosque.

Earlier on the day, an ambulance started for Nuhash Palli with Humayun's body around 9am from BIRDEM, Dhaka.

His second wife Meher Afroz Shaon and her two children, Nishad and Ninit, reached there around 12:05pm with the ambulance.

Minutes before Shaon reached there, Humayn's children from his first marriage – Nuhash, Sheela and Nova, and the writer's two brothers Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and Ahsan Habib and their two sisters have reached Nuhash Palli.

A Sculptor at Nuhash Palli, Asaduzzaman Khan, had earlier told bdnews24.com they were taking preparations for the burial from morning since Humayun's family members 'decided' his burial site in the wee hours Tuesday.

The writer built his favourite retreat and named it after his eldest son, Nuhash. He once wished to lay to rest under a Lychee tree, Khan said.

"He will then be buried under this Lychee tree," Khan had said.

Humayun's fans started thronging at Nuhash Palli from early morning.

Superintendent of Gazipur Police Abdul Baten told journalists, they have taken all preparations so that everything could be done in a disciplined way.

Gazipur's Additional Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Habibur Rahman said the district administration has all the preparations to conduct the ritual.

bdnews24.com/corr/zk/sk/1350h

Is the Universe finite or infinite?

How large is the Universe? How do we measure its size? How can we even think of measuring something that is believed to be boundless? The enormity of the Universe may be beyond our comprehension, but measuring its size is not. Our measuring sticks are the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) which is relic of the super hot Big Bang radiation cooled down to three Kelvin (-270 degrees Centigrade) with wavelength in the microwave region and cosmological red-shift, increase in the observed wavelength of electromagnetic waves from a receding source.
The size depends on the distinction between “visible” and “observable” Universe. Although there is no general consensus among astronomers about the actual size, one thing they agree on for sure is how far away we can see.
We can argue that if the age of the Universe is 13.7 billion years (see “Universe in age crisis!” TDS July 10, 2012) and since light travels with a finite speed, we can't see anything beyond 13.7 billion light years. (One light year is about six trillion miles.) In reality, we can see lights that were emitted only after the decoupling epoch, a time around 380,000 years after the Big Bang, when radiation broke free from matter and could travel through space unimpeded.
The maximum distance light can travel since the birth of the Universe defines the “cosmic horizon.” Astronomers use the distance to the horizon as the radius of the visible Universe with Earth at the center. It is also known as the Hubble Length and is 13.7 billion light years. But is it really the size of the Universe?
Calculating the size of the Universe is a little tricky. Let us start with the premise that Big Bang is the correct theory of the origin of the Universe. The theory posits that the Universe, born out of a tremendous explosion from an infinitesimally small volume, is undergoing expansion at a rapid rate. It was, however, an explosion of space; not an explosion into space. Consequently, the Universe does not have an "edge" where space just runs out. Hence the cosmic horizon is a boundary in time, not in space. It still lies at the beginning of time - the moment of Big Bang. It exists because we cannot see back to a time before the Universe was born.
As the Universe is expanding at high speed in all directions, the most distant objects we can see were once much closer to us. The recession speed of stellar objects, according to Edwin Hubble, is directly proportional to their distance from us. He also noted from cosmological red shift that farther a galaxy is from us, faster it is moving away from us.
Thus the cosmic horizon is continually expanding outward and the observable Universe is growing larger in radius with each passing second. This implies that since the birth of the Universe, distant stars and galaxies have been pushed away from us far beyond the distance of 13.7 billion light years. The observable Universe, therefore, is much bigger than the visible Universe. The radius of the observable Universe is also referred to as the “comoving distance” because it is increasing with time.
What then is the radius of the Universe today? The answer is given by our measuring sticks cum cosmic storytellers, red shift and CMBR. Without going into the nitty gritty of calculation, they tell us that because of accelerated expansion, it is 94 billion light years across putting the edge of the observable Universe 47 billion light years away from us. Whatever the size is, thanks to the inflationary Universe; it increased our observational power to the extent that we can see or have seen things that are now at least 47 billion light years away from us in all directions.
“Two things are infinite: the Universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the Universe.” Albert Einstein.

Abul resigns, at last Letter submitted to PM; govt not confirming yet

Information and Communication Technology Minister Syed Abul Hossain has finally tendered his resignation to the prime minister, paving the way for the government to revive the financial arrangements with the World Bank for the Padma bridge project.
However, there was no official announcement about his resignation.
It could not be confirmed whether Abul resigned from the cabinet or the post only. Several sources close to him said he wished to remain in the cabinet as a minister without portfolio.
Abul's resignation came a day after the finance minister on Sunday said the government had been considering accepting the WB's fourth condition to persuade the global lender to review the cancellation of the Padma bridge loan.
The WB's fourth condition was that the government send on leave the public officials and former communications minister Abul Hossain, who were allegedly involved in corruption in the project.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina received Abul's resignation letter and kept it with her, said sources in the ruling Awami League.
Abul skipped yesterday's scheduled cabinet meeting. He did not even inform the cabinet that he would not attend the meeting. His absence drew the attention of many ministers.
Talking to journalists of several media houses over the phone yesterday, Abul said probe had been going on into corruption allegations over the Padma bridge project. And he was unwilling to continue his duties under the circumstances. His well-wishers also advised him not to remain in the post of a minister while the investigation was on.
“So, I have made a decision … I won't stay in office,” he told Bangla daily Prothom Alo. He, however, did not give any details about his resignation.
Abul said he would come out clean from the probe, as he had not been “involved in the corruption”.
He claimed the Anti-Corruption Commission, the WB or the Canadian police would not find his involvement, saying he had maintained transparency all along.
Abul believed his resignation had apparently removed the main barrier to constructing the bridge with the global lender's funding.
Though the WB gave several conditions for funding the project, Abul's exit from the cabinet was the key.
His resignation is likely to end the 10-month impasse between the government and the WB following the global lender's corruption allegations in the $2.97 billion project. The WB in September last year suspended its promised $1.2 billion funding for the country's biggest infrastructure project.
Construction of the 6.15 kilometre bridge became uncertain when the WB last month cancelled its loan agreement on the grounds that not all its conditions were met.
“He [Abul] should have resigned much earlier. He finally stepped down but the country paid a high price for that,” a minister said on condition of anonymity after the cabinet meeting.
A security guard at Abul's Gulshan residence said Abul left home in the morning in a car without flag.
Later, he met the prime minister and turned in his resignation, said a source close to Abul.
It was the second time he resigned as a minister. He was forced to resign as state minister for the LGRD ministry in August 1997 over a controversy for using a private passport instead of a diplomatic book.
Though there has been a strong public opinion against him for the last few months, Abul has kept protesting his innocence and refuted allegations of any irregularities in the Padma bridge project. He accused a section of the media of resorting to propaganda against him, saying it misled the WB to cancel the project's funding.
The government also showed reluctance to take any action against him, other than transferring him to the ICT ministry.
Earlier, in an open letter published in several dailies on Saturday, Abul gave hints that he could resign for the sake of the country and proper probe into the corruption allegations.
The ex-communications minister first came under fire ahead of the last year's Eid-ul-Fitr for failing to repair and maintain roads and highways in many parts of the country.
He was removed from the communications ministry and given the charge of ICT ministry on December 5 last year after the WB brought corruption allegations against him and suspended its loan.
Apart from the WB, Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency and Islamic Development Bank are co-financiers in the project. ADB committed to provide $615 million, Jica $400 million and IDB $140 million.
After the WB cancelled its loan agreement, the government decided to construct the bridge with its own resources. The government, however, said it would welcome any foreign investment in the project.

Decoded Dolphin's math skills

Dolphins could teach humans a thing or two about finding Nemo. The aquatic mammals may pinpoint prey hidden in bubbles by using mental math.
By adjusting the volume of sonar clicks, then processing the incoming echoes, dolphins might have solved a problem that still stymies man-made sonar: how to peer through frothy water. Using clicks that mimic an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, scientists devised a system that weeds out sound clutter from underwater bubbles.
“It's really ingenious, actually,” says oceanographer Grant Deane of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. “I think it's very clever work, and there are a number of significant applications for it.”
Using something like a fireman's hose, researchers shot bubbles into a huge water tank set underground. The bubbles cloaked a submerged target: a steel ball slightly smaller than a baseball. Then, the researchers sent out short bursts of sound the faux dolphin clicks underwater, collected the echoes, and processed the data mathematically to figure out the steel ball's location.

Obese children's hearts in danger

Severely obese children are putting their heart at danger even while they are still in primary school, according to a Dutch study.
Heart disease is normally associated with middle age, but the early warning signs were detected in children between the ages of two and 12.
Two-thirds of the 307 children studied had a least one early symptom such as high blood pressure.
The findings were presented in Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Obesity is a growing problem around the world with more people becoming obese and at a younger age.
Two-year-olds with a Body Mass Index, a measure of obesity, greater than 20.5 are classed as severely obese. By the age of 18, a BMI of 35 is a sign of severe obesity.
Researchers at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam collected data from the Dutch Paediatric Surveillance Unit between 2005 and 2007.
They looked at warning signs of heart disease in the severely obese children.
"Remarkably, 62% of severely obese children under 12 years of age already had one or more cardiovascular risk factors," the study concluded.
More than half had high blood pressure, and there were also cases of low "good cholesterol" and high blood sugar, which can result in Type 2 diabetes.
The researchers said this "may lead to cardiovascular disease in young adulthood".
Doireann Maddock, a senior cardiac nurse with the British Heart Foundation, said: "Although it was a small study, the findings leave a bad taste in the mouth.
"It's a huge concern so many obese children were identified as already having at least one risk factor for heart disease, including high blood pressure, high blood glucose and problems with cholesterol levels.
"However, this is a problem that can be addressed by stopping young people becoming overweight and obese in the first place.
"Highlighting the importance of healthy eating and physical activity from an early age will help protect the heart health of future generations."

Sharper Look Solar Corona revealed

Source: Science Daily

These photos of the solar corona, or million-degree outer atmosphere, show the improvement in resolution offered by NASA's High Resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C (bottom), versus the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (top). Both images show a portion of the sun's surface roughly 85,000 by 50,000 miles in size. Hi-C launched on a sounding rocket on July 11, 2012 in a flight that lasted about 10 minutes. The representative-color images were made from observations of ultraviolet light at a wavelength of 19.3 nanometers (25 times shorter than the wavelength of visible light).

Guest Uavs! 'Invisible UFOs' fill skies

Why are all the good UFOs invisible?" one Gather.com user asked in response to the latest "invisible UFO" report posted to the site.
You might have thought a defining characteristic of a UFO would be visibility. But thanks to zealous alien hunters doggedly scanning the sky with night-vision cameras, a new class of flying objects that only emit infrared light has emerged from the darkness. Are they spies from the great beyond?
"Some people claim to see actual battles between UFOs up in the sky, using night-vision equipment," the ufologist Robert Sheaffer told Life's Little Mysteries. "Those devices magnify faint objects so much that the sky seems to be filled with invisible UFOs. In reality, of course, they are seeing owls, bats, moths, airplanes, satellites, etc." Night-vision optics trade low resolution for high sensitivity, he explained, so that points of light (such as distant satellites) spill out into circles that make the objects appear huge.
However, some of the invisible UFOs out there really are spies of a sort or whatever else you choose to call military drones. [7 Things Most Often Mistaken for UFOs]
Consider, for example, an invisible triangle UFO recently caught on camera by the Laredo Paranormal Research Society, a Texas group. In their footage, captured using an infrared-sensitive third-generation night-vision camera and posted to YouTube July 13, an object composed of three evenly spaced glowing orbs streaked southward across the field of view and disappeared behind the roof of a house.
According to LPRS founder Ismael Cuellar, the "infrared-cloaked" object could not be seen with the naked eye, and cruised silently. "[We] have ruled out birds, bugs, airplanes, helicopters, and even flying drones by comparing them side by side as a point of reference," Cuellar told Life's Little Mysteries. This seems to leave just one explanation: It's a cloaked alien spaceship.
Not so, according to Ben McGee, a geoscientist, aerospace consultant, UFO skeptic and lead field researcher on the National Geographic series "Chasing UFOs." In McGee's opinion, all the signs point to this object being a border patrol drone with infrared anti-collision or identification lights. Here's why he thinks so.