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US President Donald Trump, who is fighting off allegations of ties between his election campaign and Moscow, said he would invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House but added that now was not the right time for that. The Republican president drew criticism last week from Democrats who accused him of not pressing Putin hard enough at a meeting they held in Germany over Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential campaign. Accusations that Moscow meddled in the election and colluded with the Trump campaign have dominated Trump's first months in office. Russia denies meddling, and Trump says there was no collusion. Trump's comments came as he defended his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, who met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign after he was told she might have damaging information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump told Reuters on Wednesday that he did not know about his son's meeting until recently. But in a conversation with reporters later that day, Trump said that "in fact maybe it (the meeting) was mentioned at some point," adding he was not told it was about Clinton. Trump has said he wants to work with Moscow on issues like Syria, and told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One to Paris that he was open to the idea of inviting Putin to the White House at some point. "I don’t think this is the right time, but the answer is yes, I would," when asked if he would extend such an invitation to the Russian leader. The comments were released by the White House on Thursday. 'Did You Do It?' US intelligence agencies said earlier this year that Russia sought to help Trump win the election by hacking private emails from Democratic Party officials and disseminating false information online. Trump said in the Reuters interview on Wednesday that he had asked Putin last week if he was involved in Russian interference in the campaign, spending the first 20 or 25 minutes on that issue during a meeting that lasted more than two hours. "I said, 'Did you do it?' And he said, 'No, I did not. Absolutely not.' I then asked him a second time in a totally different way. He said absolutely not," Trump said. Washington this week has been fixated on emails disclosed by Donald Trump Jr, showing him eagerly meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June last year - the most tangible evidence of a connection between Trump's campaign and Russia, a subject that has also prompted an investigation by a federal special counsel. Trump Jr was told by an intermediary that the lawyer had information that was part of Moscow's official support for his father's campaign. Trump said in Paris on Thursday that nothing of substance came of the meeting. "My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer but a Russian lawyer. It was a short meeting. It was a meeting that went very, very quickly, very fast," he said at a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron. Trump said it was normal in US politics for campaign teams to look into allegations about their opponents, as his son agreed to do before the meeting in June 2016. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, a Republican, planned to send a letter on Thursday to the younger Trump to ask him to appear before his committee in a public session, CNN reported. US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the top-ranking Republican in Congress, urged Trump's son to testify. "I think any witness who's been asked to testify in Congress should do that," Ryan said. Watchdog groups filed a complaint against Donald Trump Jr, Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former campaign chief Paul Manafort on Thursday with the Federal Election Commission, which oversees elections, arguing the three violated the law by meeting with the Russian.   ....

Published at: 2017-07-14 00:00:04

Two people were killed and five others injured in a road accident on Dhaka-Sylhet highway at Khalapara in Shibpur upazila early Friday. The deceased have been identified as Malek, 32, and Alauddin, 40, driver of the microbus. The accident took place around 3:30am when a Sylhet-bound microbus from Dhaka, carrying seven people, dashed a stationary truck from behind, killing the two on the spot and injuring five others, said in-charge of Itakhola highway police camp Hafizur Rahman. The injured were taken to Narsingdi General Hospital while the bodies were sent to Sadar Hospital for autopsy; according to UNB.....

Published at: 2017-07-14 00:00:04

The US State Department will require all nations to provide extensive data to help it vet visa applicants and determine whether a traveller poses a terrorist threat, according to a cable obtained by Reuters. Countries that fail to comply with the new protocols or take steps to do so within 50 days could face travel sanctions. The cable, sent to all US diplomatic posts on Wednesday, is a summary of a worldwide review of vetting procedures that was required under US President Donald Trump’s revised March 6 executive order that temporarily banned US travel by most citizens from six predominantly Muslim countries. The memo lays out a series of standards the United States will require of other countries, including that they issue, or have active plans to issue, electronic passports and regularly report lost and stolen passports to INTERPOL. It also directs nations to provide "any other identity information" requested by Washington for US visa applicants, including biometric or biographic details.  The cable sets out requirements for countries to provide data on individuals it knows or has grounds to believe are terrorists as well as criminal record information. Further, countries are asked not to block the transfer of information about US-bound travellers to the US government and not to designate people for travel watchlists based solely on their political or religious beliefs. "This is the first time that the US Government is setting standards for the information that is required from all countries specifically in support of immigration and traveller vetting," the cable said. The new requirements are the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration says it is taking to better protect the United States from terrorist attack. However, former officials said much of the information sought is routinely shared between countries, including examples of passports and additional details about particular travellers that may present security concerns. Some US allies may worry about privacy protections if Washington is seen as seeking information beyond what is already shared, said John Sandweg, a former senior Homeland Security Department official now with the firm Frontier Solutions. "I don’t think you can ignore the political aspects of the unpopularity of the current administration. That puts political pressure to stand up to the administration," he said. The cable lays out risk factors the US government will consider when evaluating a country. Some of these are controversial and could be difficult for countries to prove to US satisfaction, including ensuring "that they are not and do not have the potential to become a terrorist safe haven." Countries are also expected to agree to take back citizens ordered removed from the United States. If they do not provide the information requested, or come up with an adequate plan to, countries could end up on a list to be submitted to Trump for possible sanction, including barring "categories" of their citizens from entering the United States. The real worries for countries may not come until the results of this review are known, said Leon Rodriguez, the former director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services. "Once they start making decisions I think that is where there is going to be a lot of anxiety," he said, saying delays in visa processing for nations that do not pose much of a threat could start to hurt "ordinary business and personal travel." The most controversial of Trump's immigration-related moves are two executive orders, challenged in federal court, which impose a temporary ban on travel to the United States for most citizens from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. While the orders were initially blocked from being enforced, the Supreme Court on June 26 allowed the ban to go into effect for people from the six nations with no strong ties to the United States. The cable requires countries to act quickly, but stressed that the United States would work with foreign nations to assess if they meet the standards and, if not, to come up with a plan to help them do so. The cable asks that US diplomats "underscore that while it is not our goal to impose a ban on immigration benefits, including visas, for citizens of any country, these standards are designed to mitigate risk, and failure to make progress could lead to security measures by the USG, including a presidential proclamation that would prohibit the entry of certain categories of foreign nationals of non-compliant countries." The cable says the US government has made a preliminary determination that some countries do not meet the new standards and that others are "at risk" of not meeting them. It does not name these, listing them in a separate, classified cable. The State Department declined comment on the cable, saying it would not discuss internal communications. "The US government’s national security screening and vetting procedures for visitors are constantly reviewed and refined to improve security and more effectively identify individuals who could pose a threat to the United States," said a US State Department official on condition of anonymity.   ....

Published at: 2017-07-14 00:00:04

Fisheries and livestock will count for the first time in Bangladesh's agriculture census for which the government has approved a comprehensive project. An army of 150,000 enumerators and over 24,000 supervisors will be outsourced for the census that will use a latest technology. They will come from among the unemployed educated youths. They may get Tk 12,000 each for 20 days' survey work. The temporary census staffs will make digital maps by going door to door to collect data. Intelligent character recognition (ICR), an advanced system in data capturing, will be used in the modern-day census. Earlier, there was no census on fisheries and livestock in the country and the figures available pertaining to it were usually based on relevant surveys. The national statistical organisation--Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS)--will conduct the census under the statistical act 2013 which stipulated that agricultural census must incorporate the two key vital areas of agriculture. The ECNEC approved Tuesday a Tk 3.38 billion census project styled agriculture (crops, fisheries and livestock) census 2018. Around 70 per cent of the allocation will be spent on data collection. A senior official familiar with the developments told the FE Wednesday that the BBS has set May 2018 as the tentative time to begin formally country's fifth agricultural census. The preliminary results would be published three months after the census in which ICR technology will be used for speedy calculation. He said the 20-day census would begin simultaneously across the country to collect data on the vital economic area that contributes more than 14 per cent to the national economy. There were four census conducted by the BBS earlier but those were mainly concentrated on crops and their acreage. This time around, the survey will bring detailed picture of fisheries and livestock. The cultivable lands, area of fisheries, the number of livestock and their respective households will be highlighted in it. The census will count people and institutions involved with the three key segments of agriculture. Agricultural affairs like irrigation, machinery, insecticides and fertiliser being used by the farmers will also be included in the questionnaires to get a comprehensive picture of agriculture in the country. Another official at the BBS said the census will follow the latest methodology prepared by Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) although the UN agency has yet to get involved with the project. During the previously conducted agricultural census held in 2008, the FAO provided technical assistance for improving the quality of data. "We expect the FAO will provide the same assistance," he said. The BBS conducted the first agriculture census in 1977, second in 1983, third in 1996 and the fourth in 2008. However, the census on land conducted in the then Pakistan period in 1958 was believed first agricultural census in the subcontinent, people at the BBS told the FE. jasimharoon@yahoo.com....

Published at: 2017-07-13 00:00:04

The inflow of foreign direct investment or FDI into Bangladesh, particularly in energy, telecom and stock market has increased, reports bdnews24.com. Bangladesh received $2.65 billion in the form of gross FDI inflow during the period of July-May of the fiscal year 2016-17 against $2.33 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year. The net inflow of FDI jumped 27.75 per cent to $1.62 billion in the July-May period, according to data released by the Bangladesh Bank on its website. Portfolio investment in the stock market jumped about six times to $324 million. Finance Minister AMA Muhith has mentioned "political stability" as a factor behind the growth. In his closing speech on budget in the parliament on Jun 28, while discussing FDI, he said: "A stable political situation has created a positive impact." Trade deficit widened to $9.2 billion in the 11 months to May from $6.45 billion a year ago. Bangladesh imported goods worth $40.25 billion during the July-May period of the last fiscal year. It was about 11 per cent higher than that in the corresponding period of the fiscal 2015-16.....

Published at: 2017-07-13 00:00:04