Rabada takes five as South Africa seal victory

Paceman Kagiso Rabada took 5-92 as South Africa completed an emphatic 177-run victory over Australia in the first Test at the WACA on Monday after dismissing the hosts for 361 just before tea on the final day.

The tourists claimed a third successive victory at the WACA after 2008 and 2012 triumphs and a 1-0 lead in the series, which continues in Hobart on Saturday and concludes with a day-nighter at Adelaide Oval.

Australia's batsmen were unable to cope with Rabada's pace and swing as the 21-year-old took his fourth five-wicket haul in his ninth Test, making light of the absence of South Africa's injured pace spearhead Dale Steyn.

South Africa declared on 540-8 after lunch on Sunday, leaving Australia with an imposing 539-run victory target or more realistically almost five sessions to bat out for a draw.

The hosts had looked in a strong position on day two when, having dismissed South Africa for 242, they were 158 without loss before collapsing to 244 all out.

Australia had resumed 169-4 and Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Marsh and Mitchell Starc were dismissed before lunch with Peter Siddle following after the break.

Peter Nevill, who finished on 60 not out, and Josh Hazlewood stalled the march to victory with a dogged partnership of 65 before Australia's number 10 batsman was caught at short cover for 29 to give Temba Bavuma his maiden Test wicket.

Nathan Lyon extended the tail further with a 21-ball eight before he was trapped in front by debutant spinner Keshav Maharaj to conclude the match.

Khawaja had provided the most spirited resistance for much of the innings and after he fell lbw to JP Duminy's part-time spin three runs shy of his fifth Test century, Australia's already tough task looked all but impossible.

Rabada accounted for Mitchell Marsh (26) and Starc (13), both lbw, to take his match tally to seven wickets.

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Bavuma, whose brilliant run out accounted for opener David Warner on Sunday, almost claimed another key victim with his first delivery in Test cricket.

Khawaja, on 84, was plumb lbw after the ball hit a crack and thudded into his front pad but the 26-year-old had overstepped the mark and umpire Nigel Llong called a no-ball.

Lefthander Khawaja had started the morning on 58 and continued to display the same grit and determination that got him through to the close on day four, hitting 11 fours and three sixes in his 182-ball knock.

Duminy's first delivery skidded into Khawaja's back pad, however, and the 29-year-old became the second Australian batsman to perish on 97 after Warner in the first innings, the wicket that triggered the collapse.

source:Reuters

Bangladesh among Asian countries with less forest area

Bangladesh is among the countries with least forest whereas Laos with 92.1 percentage of forest area is on the top of all in Asia. 

Bangladesh having 11.2 percent of forest areas of the total area of the country is among India, Mongolia and Pakistan with the least forest, according to the data of Asian Development Bank, 2016.

Bhutan (81.5), Brunei (79.7) and South Korea (63.7) are also among those Asian countries which have a leading forest area. Malaysia and Indonesia have also a good share of forest land.

India’s forest cover is only 24.1 percent of the total land area, even though in terms of total forest area that’s significantly higher than many other Asian countries.

Pakistan, on the other hand, fares poorly in terms of total forest area. The country has merely 1.9 percent of its land area under forest cover.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the country lost 840,000 hectare of forest cover between 1990 and 2010 and the rate of loss of forests is 42,000 ha per year.

In terms of numbers, China, Indonesia, and Malaysia make up more than half of the forested lands in Asia, as per the Asian Development Bank 2016 data. China’s forest cover remains 24.8 percent of the country’s land area, Indonesia’s is 62.7 percent and Malaysia has 67.6 percent.

While China is a major exporter of wood products, ranking first globally in wood-based panel production, Indonesia and Malaysia are top producers of tropical timbers.

Globally, forests cover 30 percent of the total land area, according to the latest report from Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005, led by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

However, the world is still losing an area of forest equivalent to the total area of Bhutan, Fiji and Brunei Darussalam combined each year -- or 200 km sq per day, as per the report.

Overall, Asia and the Pacific have lost around 10 million hectares of forest between 1990 and 2005 or 1.1 percent over 15 years, as per the latest data available.

Source: Dataleads

SC upset for not finalising rules for judicial officers

The Supreme Court today expressed dissatisfaction on the government as it did not finalise rules determining disciplines for lower court judges as per the apex court’s guideline.

The judiciary has been held captive as it cannot take any step if any judicial officer commits any anomaly, the apex court told Attorney General Mahbubey Alam.

A nine-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha said this while hearing the Masdar Hossain case, popularly known as judiciary separation case.

During the hearing, the attorney general submitted a petition seeking time for finalising the rules determining the disciplines for judicial officers.

Earlier the government framed the rules according to the SC order. Later the apex court corrected the rules in line with its guideline in the Masdar Hossain case verdict.

On August 28, the appellate division ordered the government to finalise the rules and issue a gazette notification to the effect by November 6.

Today, the SC told Attorney General Alam that the law ministry took over the president’s power of controlling the lower court judges through the rules of dismissal.

The judiciary has been going beyond Supreme Court’s control, the SC said.

The apex court asked: “How did an additional district judge dare to send a letter to the president for impeachment of the chief justice?”

The apex court later ordered the government to finalise the rules and issue the gazette notification by November 24.

source:Daily star

Comilla UP chairman, 1 other shot dead

The Union Parishad chairman of Ziarkandi in Comilla’s Titash upazila and his accomplice were shot dead under broad daylight this morning.

Miscreants attacked Ziarkandi Chairman Monir Hossain Sarkar, 37, when he was en route to appear before court in a case, a local stringer reports.

His brother in-law Mohiuddin, two accomplices Sumon Mia and Ismail were also along with him when the incident took place on Gouripur-Homna road around 8:00am.

Daudkandi Upazila Health Complex’s Resident Medical Officer Habibur Rahman said Monir Hossain sustained multiple shots on his chest. Others also sustained stabs.

Monir and his brother in-law Mohiuddin were declared dead when taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Bachchu Mia, a sub-inspector of the hospital’s police outpost, said.

Daudkandi Model Police Station Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Abu Salam Mia said additional law enforcers were deployed at spot to avert any further untoward incident.

Charges against ABT chief, 9 others accepted

A Dhaka Court today accepted charges against banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) chief Jasimuddin Rahmani and nine others in a case filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

After scrutinising the case diary and other relevant documents, Judge Kamrul Hossain Mollah of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court took the charges into cognisanc

The case was filed with Mohammadpur Police station on August 24, 2013 for holding a secret meeting at a house in Katashur area with an intension to create anarchy and damaged sovereignty of the state.

source:Daily star

Joy opines in NYT asking US to extradite Mujib killer

In an opinion write-up in The New York Times, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, grandson of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, opined that his grandfather’s killer should be extradited from the US.

Joy in his opinion piece published in one of the leading US newspapers on November 7, 2016 expressed doubt over the refugee status of one of Bangabandhu’s killers Rashed Chowdhury.

“To the best of our knowledge, Chowdhury has not been granted refugee status; therefore, he is not immune from extradition proceedings. There are no grounds for further delay in extraditing him. The United States should respond to Bangladesh’s repeated pleas to conclude the matter, so that justice may be done,” he wrote in an opinion piece in one of the leading US newspapers, The New York Times.

On August 15, 1975, the democratically elected government of Bangladesh was overthrown by a military coup. Soldiers stormed the Dhaka residence of the president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, shot and killed him, along with 18 other members of his family including his wife and three sons.

Sheikh Hasina, the current prime minister of Bangladesh, and her sister were spared only because they were in Germany.

Donkey, Elephants: Mystery of US election symbols solved!

Have you ever wondered about the symbols of two of the major parties fighting in the US presidential elections? It is one of the most frequently asked questions that anyone observing US elections has.

According to a CNN report the arrival of elephants and donkeys to depict the republicans and democrats respectively were first seen in the mainstream media back in 1874, when cartoonist Thomas Nast used an elephant to depict the Republican vote in his drawing "The Third-Term Panic."

In the drawing, an "ass" -- depicting the New York Herald -- scares away other animals in a forest as the elephant -- or the Republican vote -- looks like it's about to stumble into a pit.

The cartoon was published in Harper's Weekly after the owner of the New York Herald reportedly criticized the notion of Republican President Ulysses S Grant running for a third term.

Grant did not end up running in the next election.

However, that cartoon isn't where the Democratic donkey originally came from.

In 1828, Democrat Andrew Jackson's critics called him a "jackass" because of his populist views and his slogan, "Let the people rule." Jackson decided to run with it -- even using images of a donkey in his campaign ads.

Later, in keeping with this line of thought, Nast also used a donkey to depict the Democratic Party in that cartoon, according to a report in CNN.

And, from then on the party and the popular media both took on the use of these two symbols. But with time the impressions associated with the symbols have evolved.