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The estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been murdered in Malaysia, a South Korean government source said on Tuesday, reports Reuters. Kim Jong Nam, the older half brother of the North Korean leader, was known to spend a significant amount of his time outside the country and had spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic control of the isolated state. He was confirmed dead by Malaysian police, and was believed to be in his mid-40s. Police official Fadzil Ahmat said that the cause of Kim's death had not been determined yet, but that a post mortem would be carried out on the body. "So far there are no suspects, but we have started investigations and are looking at a few possibilities to get leads," Fadzil told the Reuters. According to Fadzil, Kim had been planning to travel to Macau on Monday when he fell ill at the low-cost terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport. "The deceased... felt like someone grabbed or held his face from behind," Fadzil said. "He felt dizzy, so he asked for help at the... counter of KLIA." Kim was taken to an airport clinic where he still felt unwell, and it was decided to take him to hospital. He died in the ambulance on the way to Putrajaya Hospital, Fadzil added. South Korea's TV Chosun, a cable television network, reported that Kim had been poisoned with a needle by two women believed to be North Korean operatives who fled in a taxi and were at large, citing multiple South Korean government sources. Reuters could not confirm those details. The South Korean government source who spoke to the Reuters did not immediately provide further details. South Korea's foreign ministry said it could not confirm the reports, and the country's intelligence agency could not immediately be reached for comment. "We don't know if there was a cloth or needles; the receptionist said someone grabbed his face, he felt dizzy," police official Fadzil said, when asked about the nature of the reported attack. Malaysia is one of a dwindling number of countries that has close relations with North Korea, which is under tightening global sanctions over its nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches, the latest of which took place on Sunday. Malaysians and North Koreans can visit each other's country without visas. A phone call to the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur late on Tuesday went straight to answering machine. Secretive family Kim Jong Nam and Kim Jong Un are both sons of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who died in late 2011, but they had different mothers. Kim Jong Nam did not attend his father's funeral. The portly and easygoing Kim Jong Nam was believed to be close to his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who was North Korea's second most powerful man before being executed on Kim Jong Un's orders in 2013. In an embarrassing 2001 incident, Kim Jong Nam was caught at an airport in Japan traveling on a forged Dominican Republic passport, saying he had wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland. He was known to travel to Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland China. Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Dongguk University in Seoul, said that Kim Jong Nam had occasionally been the subject of speculation that he could replace his younger half-brother, the country's third-generation leader. "Loyalists may have wanted to get rid of him," he said. Kim Jong Nam said several times over the years that he had no interest in leading his country. "Personally I am against third-generation succession," he told Japan's Asahi TV in 2010. "I hope my younger brother will do his best for the sake of North Koreans' prosperous lives." His cousin, Lee Han-young, who defected to South Korea through Switzerland in 1982, was shot and killed by North Korean agents in Seoul in 1997, according to South Korea. Kim Jong Nam's mother was an actress named Song Hye Rim. "My father was keeping highly secret the fact that he was living with my mother who was married, a famous movie actress, so I couldn’t get out of the house or make friends," Kim Jong Nam was quoted as saying in a 2012 book by a Japanese journalist. "That solitude from childhood may have made me what I am now, preferring freedom."....

Published at: 2017-02-15 00:00:08

The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) witnessed positive trend in early hours of trading Wednesday amid slow trend as some investors remained active on sector-specific issues. After 30 minutes of trading, the key index of the country’s prime bourse advanced 6.89 points while the Selective Category Index of port city bourse rose 30.05 points when the report was filed at 11:00am. DSEX went up by 6.89 points or 0.12 per cent to stand at 5,605.61 when the report was filed at 11:00am. The DS30 index, comprising blue chips also advanced 0.21 points or 0.01 per cent to stand at 2,034.72. The DSE Shariah Index (DSES) also gained 1.17 points or 0.08 per cent to reach at 1,309.89 points. Turnover, the crucial indicator of the market, stands at Tk 1.63 billion on the DSE, till filing of the report riding on Fortune Shoes and Beximco. Fortune Shoes dominated the turnover chart with shares worth Tk 120 million changing hands till then, closely followed by Beximco Tk 92 million, ACI Formulations Tk 75 million, RAK Ceramics Tk 74 million and Titas Gas Tk 68 million. Of the issues traded till then, 136 advanced, 74 declined and 56 issues remained unchanged till 11:00am. The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), also saw upward trend with its Selective Category Index – CSCX – advancing 30.05 points to stand at 10,525.68, also at 11:00am. Of the issues traded till then, 69 gained, 24 declined and 19 remained unchanged with a turnover value of Tk 60 million. -bb/rmc//....

Published at: 2017-02-15 00:00:08

Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong is being questioned for a second time as a suspect in South Korea's biggest political corruption scandal, the BBC reports on Monday. Prosecutors are expected to decide based on the hearing whether they'll seek an arrest warrant for Lee. The firm is accused of giving donations to non-profit foundations run by a confidante of President Park Geun-hye in exchange for political favours. "I will once again tell the truth," Lee told reporters before the hearing. The Samsung chief had already been questioned with several other company executives in January but a subsequent court ruling decided there were insufficient grounds for an arrest. Yet during the past weeks investigators reviewed the case and decided there were new aspects that required further questioning. The claims against the company revolve around a merger between the electronics giant's construction arm, Samsung C&T, and an affiliate firm, Cheil Industries. The prosecution alleges that Samsung gave 2.8 million euros ($3.1 million) to a company co-owned by Park confidante Choi Soon-sil and her daughter, in return for political support for the deal. The scandal led to President Park being impeached last December. Lee Jae-yong, also known as Jay Y. Lee, first gave evidence in front of a parliamentary hearing in December last year. Since January he has been treated as an official suspect in the case. At the parliamentary hearing, Samsung admitted giving a total of 20.4 billion won ($17.46 million) to the two foundations, but denied seeking favours in return. And Lee also confirmed the firm gave a horse and money to help the equestrian career of Ms Choi's daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, something he said he now regretted. Lee is currently vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics. But since his father, Lee Kun-hee, suffered a heart attack in 2014, he is considered de facto boss of the entire Samsung Group conglomerate. Politicians voted on 9 December to impeach President Park over the scandal - a decision South Korea's constitutional court has six months to uphold or overturn. Until then she remains formally president but stripped of her powers, which are handed to the prime minister, a presidential appointee. Ms Choi is on trial for charges including corruption and coercion. Ms Park's position began to unravel in October last year when details of her friendship with Ms Choi began to emerge. They included revelations that the president had allowed her old friend - who holds no government role - to edit political speeches. Since then, hundreds of thousands of protestors have gathered every weekend in Seoul to demand Ms Park stands down. Ms Park denies wrongdoing but has apologised for the way she managed her relationship with Ms Choi, who also denies committing criminal offences.....

Published at: 2017-02-13 00:00:04

Bangladesh's biggest flower market in Jhikargachha, Jessore, is witnessing significant changes that will see it gain a modern market infrastructure with help from the US Army. Specifically, the world-renowned US Army Engineering Corps, not combatants. For the growers who have turned a stretch of land off the Jessore-Benapole highway into a piece of Holland in Bangladesh, the initiative led by the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED)  couldn't come soon enough. The growth of the industry they built from scratch has recently outpaced the rest of the economy, and looks set to continue.  It was here in  the villages of Godkhali union that commercial floriculture is said to have taken roots in Bangladesh, on a 30-decimal plot back in 1983. While Godkhali remains the biggest, and is set to usher in the first modern market of its kind in the country, Jessore today is just one of 22 districts - out of 64 - where flowers are grown for commercial purposes, on nearly 1,000 acres of land. Over a five-year period from 2010 to 2015, the industry's revenues more than trebled from $31 million to a cool $100 million, according to the Bangladesh Flower Society. After Godkhali gets its first modern market, complete with cold storage and 12 collection centres serving 12 villages in the union with modern markets, the industry's growth momentum can be expected to receive another fillip.    Starting from the pioneers who laid the seeds for an industry providing livelihoods today for 150,000 people to the female farmers who form its core, in the wholesome nature of their produce, and the relentless quest for growth, Godkhali represents a triumph of enterprise. So it was just a matter of time really, before they caught the eye of USAID, whose ideal projects involve fostering entrepreneurship within host populations. Godkhali's flower market was thus quickly included in USAID's Bangladesh Agriculture Infrastructure Development Program (BAIDP), for which the LGED is the executing agency. As part of the project, the LGED will also build some 100-kms of roads to ease the transport of flowers and vegetables - both highly perishable items - from the markets to the centre and back. During a recent workshop held at the LGED's Jessore training centre, the USAID Project Manager Mitchell Nelson said the total cost of the infrastructure will be $50 million. Jashim Uddin, the project director from LGED, said construction work started in 2015 and will end by 2019. The first components to be completed were eight roads that the LGED built in Jessore with the help of the US Army Engineers Corps, a premier engineering agency that most recently came into the limelight for its position on the $3.7 billion Dakota Access pipeline it is contracted to build. In Jessore, the new roads they helped build are much humbler in scale and ambition, But they have improved market access for rural farmers, helping to increase their incomes, according to Mitchell Nelson.   According to a filing on the Corps' website, their role in the process is to assist LGED - the executing agency -  with developing, reviewing and accepting the design standards and cost estimates for the projects, as well as to oversee LGED's quality assurance program, and inspect and accept the completed work. The same filing tells us Cheryl Peyton, an environmental engineer with the Corps, helped develop an environmental mitigation plan for the projects, which includes erosion control, waste management procedures, and potable water and sanitation standards. The Corps' tie-up with the LGED is the first time they have worked on a 'government-to-government' or G-2-G basis. Highly impressed with the results so far, regional project manager Rob Leach, who was also at the workshop, said he would like to see the government-to-government concept expand in the future for the delivery of other forms of aid. It would seem the US Army Engineering Corps and our own LGED have enjoyed a very good working relationship. Once their work is fully complete, no prizes for guessing where the congratulatory bouquets will be coming from.     ....

Published at: 2017-02-13 00:00:04

North Korea has declared that it "successfully" fired a ballistic missile on Sunday in a test supervised by leader Kim Jong-un, the BBC reports. The device was described as a "surface-to-surface medium-to-long-range ballistic missile", the Korean state news agency KCNA reported. South Korea's defence ministry called it an armed provocation to test the response of US President Donald Trump. North Korea's latest ballistic missile test has been widely condemned. The US, Japan, and South Korea have requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the incident. KCNA reported that the test of the Pukguksong-2 missile, a new type of strategic weapon said to be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, was overseen by leader Kim Jong-un. It added that the missile was fired at a high angle in consideration of neighbouring countries. The rocket used a solid-fuel engine, the report said, which gives ballistic rockets greater power and range. South Korea military experts said the rocket had been launched by a "cold-eject" system, which uses compressed gas for its initial thrust, a system employed for submarine-launched missiles. The report also said that Kim Jong-un "expressed great satisfaction" over the test launch, which it said "adds to the tremendous might of the country". South Korea and US officials said the missile flew east towards the Sea of Japan for about 500km (300 miles). The missile reached an altitude of about 550km (350 miles), the South Korean military said. Experts suggest the tests are programmed for shorter distances to avoid a missile landing on Japan. This was the latest in a series of tests in the past year, including North Korea's fifth of a nuclear device. The launch took place at 07:55 local time Sunday (22:55 GMT Saturday) from the Panghyon air base in North Pyongan province on the west side of the Korean peninsula. United Nations resolutions forbid North Korea from carrying out ballistic missile tests - part of wider efforts to prevent it becoming a fully nuclear-armed power. South Korea's foreign ministry said that "North Korea's repeated provocations show the Kim Jong-un regime's nature of irrationality, maniacally obsessed in its nuclear and missile development". 'Hostility' NATO also condemned the missile test, with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urging North Korea "not to raise tensions further and to re-engage in a credible and meaningful dialogue with the international community". The European Union joined the criticism, declaring in a statement that North Korea's "repeated disregard of its international obligations is provocative and unacceptable". Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, standing next to Trump on a visit to the United States, said the test was "absolutely intolerable". As for the US, Trump said on Saturday: "America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100%." China, North Korea's closest ally, has yet to comment. Beijing has joined in international efforts to press Kim Jong-un to rein in his nuclear ambitions. In January, Kim Jong-un warned that his military was close to testing long-range missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads to the United States mainland, but experts doubt the technology has progressed that far. At the time, Trump derided the claim in a tweet, saying: "It won't happen." On a visit to South Korea last week, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said that any use of nuclear weapons by North Korea would be met with an "effective and overwhelming" response. He also reconfirmed plans to deploy a US missile defence system in South Korea later this year.....

Published at: 2017-02-13 00:00:04