BFF refuses Oman, Qatar’s proposal
Staff Correspondent | Published: 23:18, Jan 13,2021 | Updated: 15:30, Jan 14,2021
Bangladesh Football Federation on Wednesday refused Oman and Qatar’s offers to play their next three FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup joint qualifiers return-leg matches at a central venue.
Bangladesh have three home games left in their Group E fixtures of the FIFA-AFC qualifiers against Afghanistan, India and Oman respectively on March 25, June 7 and 15 as per FIFA schedule.
Oman proposed Bangladesh to play all the three matches in Oman on March 24, 27 and 30 while Qatar supported Oman’s proposal and even agreed to host those matches if Oman fails in case.
Air pollution causes huge pregnancy loss
Air pollution has been associated with a significant proportion of pregnancy loss in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, according to a study published in the Lancet.
The study said that in Bangladesh India and Pakistan, air pollution might have contributed to 29 per cent of pregnancy losses.
Bangladesh was named the world’s most polluted country for PM2.5 exposure in the 2019 World Air Quality Report.
Fine particulate matter or PM2.5 of less than 12 micrograms per cubic metre is considered good although the World Health Organisation targets the countries that achieve PM2.5 less than 10 µg/m³.
Bangladesh’s average PM2.5 was 83.30 µg/m³ in 2019, according to the 2019 World Air Quality Report published in 2020.
Pulsirat to be staged today after one year
Cultural Correspondent | Published: 23:32, Jan 08,2021
A scene from Pulsirat.
Theatre troupe Prachyanat will stage its play Pulsirat after one year at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy today.
The play, a theatrical adaptation of Palestinian writer and political activist Ghassan Kanafani’s novel Men in the Sun, is the 35th production of the troupe.
Pulsirat, directed by Kazi Toufiqul Islam Imon and dramatised by Monirul Islam Rubel, has been translated into Bangla by Masumul Alam. It depicts the plight of illegal migrants.
‘We will be staging the play after one year at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. It was last staged at BSA in January 2020. We will stage the play following health directives,’ Saiful Journal, senior member of Prachyanat, told New Age.
Emran Hossain | Published: 00:07, Jan 02,2021 | Updated: 00:13, Jan 02,2021
A balance between the capacity to generate and the capability to use electricity remains a major challenge for Bangladesh as the generation capacity has been enhanced without developing commensurate transmission and distribution networks.
The country’s annual spending on the idle power plants has increased 300 per cent over the last decade with the highest amount of Tk 108 billion paid in 2019–20. Over the past decade the idle power plants have been paid nearly Tk 600 billion.
The price of power has seen a 98 per cent rise over the last decade as the government has tried to rein in the sector’s increasing deficit that is, experts predict, likely to go up further with the government continuing to increase the power generation capacity.