Thailand does not recognise the status of any refugees or recognise the Rohingya as legitimate migrant workers.

Thailand faced mounting calls on Thursday to stop pushing migrants back out to sea amid fears an exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar could spark a new wave of boatpeople.

Fighting in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state has forced about half a million Rohingya to seek refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh since August, prompting concerns they could be targeted by people smugglers and human traffickers.

Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, have been fleeing strife for decades.

Neighbouring Thailand was a popular transit route by boat and land until a 2015 Thai police crackdown led to ships full of migrants being abandoned at sea.

‘Thailand urgently needs to set a regional example by adopting humane refugee policies,’ said Audrey Gaughran from Amnesty International as the group released a report accusing Thai authorities of failing to protect refugees.

‘Instead of callously repelling people fleeing unimaginable horrors, the Thai government should ensure safe passage for those seeking international protection in Thailand,’ said the global issues director.

Campaigners say the Rohingya are likely to start travelling after the monsoon in late November when the water is calmer.

Thai prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said last month his government is ‘preparing to receive’ people fleeing Myanmar and send them back ‘when they are ready’.

But the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), a military unit dealing with national security, recently told local media it would continue to prevent refugees from entering Thailand. The ISOC did not reply to a request for comment.

In an open letter this week, campaign group Fortify Rights urged Thailand to abandon its ‘push back’ policy.

‘Thailand’s leaders should be doing all they can to stem the violence in Myanmar and prepare to provide protection to refugees fleeing the attacks,’ executive director Amy Smith said.

Thailand does not recognise the status of any refugees or recognise the Rohingya as legitimate migrant workers.

‘The government should also officially condemn Myanmar for perpetrating genocide in Rakhine,’ said Fakhrul

The United Nations Security Council failed to play its role to protect Rohingyas against persecution resolving the crisis as its members prioritised business interests over humanity, observed politicians from different parties in Bangladesh on Friday.
The observations came following the UN Security Council meeting that ended without a resolution to solving the Rohingya crisis with Russia and China taking stance against pressurising Myanmar to stop violence that had forced over 500,000 Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh since August 25.
‘Many countries in the UNSC are prioritising their economic and geopolitical interests over finding a resolution to save persecuted Rohingyas,’ said Communist Party of Bangladesh president Mujahidul Islam Selim. 
‘The result of this failure is that the Rohingyas will be seeking shelter in Bangladesh for an indefinite period, making it even harder for Bangladesh to deal with the Rohingya crisis,’ said Selim.
He was surprised that no announcement came from any country in the world for sharing the burden of Rohingya influx with Bangladesh.
Main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that prime minister Sheikh Hasina should immediately visit India, Russia and China highlighting the crisis Bangladesh was facing in short and long term while managing the pressure of fleeing Rohingyas.
‘The government should also officially condemn Myanmar for perpetrating genocide in Rakhine,’ said Fakhrul.
Bangladesh Workers Party, a component of the Awami League-led ruling alliance, general secretary Fazle Hossain Badsha said that Bangladesh was pained to have seen its ‘trusted friends like Russia and China’ failing to realise the situation Bangladesh was pushed into in the wake of the Rohingya crisis.
‘We expect the countries to play a positive role in solving the problem,’ said Badsha.
It is a matter of regret that countries like India, Russia and China are siding with genocide-perpetrating Myanmar government for the sake of staying in the competition for establishment of global dominance, said Ganasanghati Andolan chief coordinator Zonayed Saki. 
‘Everybody is more than ready to sacrifice Rohingyas for their gains,’ said Saki.
He said that Bangladesh should not lose hope rather work with a strong determination and find friends who would be happy to stand by the side of an ethnic population facing state-sponsored genocide.
Jatiya Party secretary general Ruhul Amin Howlader believed that the persecution of Rohingyas would not have been started in the first place had India, Russia and China not wished for establishing economic zone in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, the home of Rohingyas. 
‘Myanmar has been operating with the blessings of these countries. They have always been behind the scene,’ said Ruhul.
The influence of these countries made it possible for Myanmar to continue its persecution of Rohingyas and show the least possible interest in repatriating the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people who said they fled a genocide unfolding in their country, Ruhul said.
The politicians emphasised on Bangladesh sending diplomatic teams to these countries to being their opinions in its favour.

'no’ to Hindi in Bengaluru.says to Kannadigas

THE # NammaMetroHindiBeda [We don’t want Hindi in our Metro] movement against Hindi imposition in the Bengaluru Metro in the Kannadiga’s own capital city has gathered significant political support. Decades of forced imposition of Hindi and marginalisation of Kannada in the Karnataka capital Bengaluru under the hubris-laden smokescreen called ‘cosmopolitanism’ is coming home to roost. The aggressive Hindi imposition initiatives by the present BJP-led union government provided the spark for the powderkeg of discontent that has been brewing for sometime now.

Let us be clear about certain basic notions, first. The Indian Union is not an entity formed on the basis of any language. In short, there is no language that ‘binds’ it. That is how it is. However, most non-Hindi states of the Indian Union were, in fact, formed explicitly on the basis of language. That is, in almost every state, there is a binding language on whose basis the state was formed. Thus, states broadly correspond to the core homeland of certain ethno-linguistic nationalities. Hindi is not the national language of the Indian Union. The Indian Union does not have a national language. It is an unheard-of concept in the constitution of India. If this sounds new to you and if you have heard textbooks, media, Delhi-headquartered party politicians and others telling you that Hindi is the national language of the Indian Union, it is because they are lying and they want you to believe in that lie such that it almost becomes a ‘natural truth’ by shameless repetition.

Hindi is the mother tongue of about 26 per cent of the citizens of the Indian Union and the language is not understood by a majority of the citizens of the Indian Union. Still, Hindi is one of the two official languages of the Union government — a restrictive system in a multi-lingual union of linguistic states that casts a majority of the citizenry into second-class citizenship. The ambit of use of the official language is limited to official functions of the union government. Announcements in train stations, trains, airports or planes are not official functions of the union government. They are customer service and safety functions of the travel sector. The concept at the centre of all travel-related service is not ‘national unity’, not Hindi promotion, not showing who paid for the infrastructure and other such unrelated things. At the centre is the welfare of the traveller. 

The Bengaluru Metro called Namma Metro (Namma meaning ‘our’ in Kannada) is a joint venture between the Karnataka government and the union government, implemented through an agency called the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited. When it started in 2011, it had three languages for all signs and announcements — Kannada, English and Hindi. The inclusion of Hindi for a public service in a city of Karnataka where Hindi does not even figure in the top five mother tongues of Karnataka or Bengaluru makes no sense in terms of giving service to the public. But wherever the union government is involved, Hindi imposition in areas where it is irrelevant and unwanted has been a long-pursued Delhi policy. Due to huge opposition to this initial inclusion of Hindi, two things happened. RTI activists made BMRCL admit that although there was no specific direction for the inclusion of Hindi from the union or Karnataka government, it had followed guidelines issued by the union ministry of road ransport and highways which specifies a three-language formula, including Hindi, in non-Hindi states for the convenience of Hindi people and a two-language formula of Hindi and English in Hindi states, again to the convenience of Hindi people only.

The metro falls under none of these categories of road transport or highways, neither is it obliged to follow such union ministry guidelines. That was the fishy bit. On further RTI inquiry related pressure from Kannadigas, the BMRCL stated that it was the decision of the BMRCL board. It stated that ‘As mentioned BMRCL being a new mass rapid transit system for Bangalore and that Bangalore being a cosmopolitan city, BMRCL has thus adopted a language policy whereby the display boards should be understood by most of the commuters.’ That is all good, except that census figures show that there are more Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Urdu mother-tongue people in the area than Hindi. So to keep the international character and intelligibility, why English is there is understandable. Also many Dravidians are conversant in that language and do not share the ‘English is foreign’ logic of Hindi people. 

In fact, the Gujarat High Court has clearly stated that for non-Hindi states, Hindi is also a foreign language. So, that takes care of English. If the idea of BMRCL was that ‘the display boards should be understood by most of the commuters’, then Kannada and English should have been there, alongwith other languages in the order of number of mother tongue people of a language in the area. If a three-language formula was to be instituted, the candidate for the third language, based on the BMRCL principle of reach, would have been either Telugu, Tamil or Urdu as each of them outstrips Hindi in the area. So why is a small minority language of Karantaka called Hindi accorded this vaunted status using backdoor reasons? Clearly it is not understandability but the age-old Delhi disease of Hindi imposition. No wonder, the BMRCL management is packed with Hindi people, in the form of IAS cadres sent by New Delhi. This initial public opposition forced the BMRCL to take a step back and remove Hindi announcements and Hindi direction boards inside the metro stations. Thus, the Hindi imposition plot had been foiled due to citizen’s activism and awareness.

Now, the BMRCL has again started pushing Hindi widely inside the Namma metro. What prompted this change even after a sane understanding had been reached? Here, it is relevant to mention that the union ministry involved as a stakeholder in the BMRCL is the urban development ministry. The minister in charge is one M Venkaiah Naidu, who regularly lies to the public, stating that Hindi is the national language and who, in spite of winning multiple Rajya Sabha terms from Karnataka, never cared to pick up the language of the Kannadigas he supposedly represented. These are the sort of people and mentalities one is dealing with here. In fact, when M Venkaiah Naidu wanted yet another Rajya Sabha term, a justified uproar went up in Karnataka — so much so that this time M Venkaiah Naidu was not given a nomination from Karnataka. This person lacks the power to get elected from his home state of Andhra Pradesh. His power and stature depends completely on wishes of the Hind-dominated Delhi headquarters of the BJP. Thus, after he had taken over, the BMRCL started getting Hindi imposition directives from the union urban development ministry.

Such things are always best done by non-Hindi politicians without a significant native base. M Venkaiah Naidu fits in there perfectly. It is useful to remember that the urban development ministry has no such constitutional mandate to impose Hindi on the BMRCL. After the Delhi had dictated Hindi re-introduction in Namma Mtero, Hindi font size was also increased. Let me remind you once more that the BMRCL is not a union government organisation. And even if it were, the Hindi imposition ideology of the union government is what is being protested at. This whole notion that the union government necessarily equals Hindi is imperialistic and chauvinistic and has no place in a federal democracy. Union government is the government of all linguistic nationalities of the Indian Union, not that of Hindi people alone.

This latest round of Hindi imposition in the Namme metro evoked unprecedented resistance from Kannada activists. This has now spread to large sections of Karnataka’s civil society as well as non-Kannada groups. It started out as a social media campaign with the hashtag #NammeMetroHindiBeda that trended all over India with many non-Kannadiga people joining in, who are similar victims of Hindi imposition in various ways. The protests took to the streets and demonstrations happened in front of the town hall. The Delhi media sat up and took notice — with its usual Delhi/North/Hindi bias in the narrative. The intensity of this movement has now isolated the BJP in the Karnataka political scene on this issue. It is on the back foot on this issue and has not successfully fought off the charge that is levelled against the party in most non-Hindi states that it is a Trojan horse for the expansion of cow belt type of Hindi-Hindu ideology. HD Deve Gowda’s JD(S) has come out strongly against Hindi in Namma Metro. Certain senior ministers of the Congressite state government of Karnataka have also opposed Hindi in Namma Metro. Even the chief minister Siddaramaiah has made a public statement about his resolve to oppose Hindi imposition by the centre around the same time. Thus the protests are hardly ‘fringe’. They represent the Kannadiga mainstream. In the wake of rising protests, Hindi signs in some metro stations have been covered. This has been used by the wildly popular social media meme page Troll Haiku to mark this as the reliving of the feeling of independence for this present generation of Kannadigas, akin to 1947.

This rise of linguistic nationalism in non-Hindi states is not unrelated to the Hindi imposition drive from the union government party that is completely dominated by representatives of Hindi states. Just in the past three years, Kerala and West Bengal have made their state languages compulsory as a subject in schools, the Odisha chief minister has protested at the wanton imposition of Hindi by replacing Odia in Delhi-controlled NHAI’s signposts in Odisha, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has flagged the issue of differential fertility rates between the cow belt and the rest and DMK leader MK Stalin calling for a second independence struggle against Hindi imposition. While Hindi chauvinists charge that the insistence of non-Hindi languages divide people, the reality is the opposite. It has been uniting diverse peoples. Even the fractious Tamil-Kannadiga relationship has been put aside as the Karnataka unit of the DMK has come out in open support of a Kannada-English two-language policy for Namma Metro. As #NammaMetroHindiBeda trended, Marathis started their own social media campaign with the hashtag #AapliMetroHindiNako that trended in Mumbai, Pune and in Bengaluru, thus, marking a great example of disregarding their border dispute disagreement for a bigger cause. Thus, for some years now, the Hindi imposition issue has become much more than a Tamil issue as Delhi likes to portray it to minimise its relevance, reach and scope.

Enthused by their success and aware of the need for unity and solidarity, Kannada groups are planning a conclave on the Hindi imposition issue and plan to invite stakeholders from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. While Hindi is imposed everywhere for the benefit of Hindi people in the name of three-language formula, Hindi states themselves provide no such benefit flor non-Hindi people among their midst who are expected to learn the local language, that is, Hindi. So, Delhi Metro has Hindi but no Bangla for its Bengali commuters while the union government forces Kolkata Metro to have Hindi for the benefit of Hindi commuters. Even basic things like local train tickets, tourist helplines, air tickets and in-flight safety announcements are always made in Hindi and never in any non-Hindi state language, even when the train or plane plies between to two non-Hindi places or even within a non-Hindi state. 

Equality and dignity are a pre-condition for unity. This issue goes beyond just Hindi sign boards but to a tussle between the reality of a diverse, multi-lingual, multi-national federal democratic union and the homogenising ideology of Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan. It is not only an issue of language but also of state rights and federalism, of preserving identity in the face of obliteration and homogenisation. That was the promise of decolonisation. That has been delivered to the Hindi belt, ironically using the funding of revenue rich non-Hindi states. While the Hindi establishment want themselves imposed and represented everywhere, it denies reciprocal rights for non-Hindi people. Such a unilateral approach is a model for division and not unity, as the ultimate result of Pakistan’s Urdu imposition was made apparent in 1971. The powers that be should heed these signs and roll back all Hindi compulsory type of directives and initiatives in non-Hindi states. That is the way to peace and unity.

Garga Chatterjee, an Indian brain scientist at MIT, writes columns from Kolkata for newspapers in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh

their article without proper citation.

Two Dhaka University teacher allegedly copied from eminent French philosopher Michel Foucault’s writings and used in their article without proper citation.
The editor of the Chicago Journal in a recent letter to the university authorities alleged that associate professor of mass communication and journalism department Samia Rahman and lecturer of criminology department Syed Mahfujul Haque Marjan copied from the journal’s articles.
Both the teachers in a recent article they co-authored in Dhaka University Social Science Journal titled ‘A new dimension of colonialism and pop culture: a case study of the cultural imperialism’ had copied without proper citations from French philosopher Michel Foucault’s article titled “The Subject and Power”.
The 19-page article by Foucault was published in University of Chicago Press’s journal Critical Inquiry’s Volume 8, Number 4, in 1982.
Samia and Mahfujul, however, denied the allegation and blamed each other for the publication. They refused to say anything more since probe bodies were formed over the matter.
Allegations of plagiarism were also brought against three assistant professors Bodruzzaman Bhuiyan, Nusrat Jahan and her husband Ruhul Amin of tourism and hospitality management department. 
Meanwhile, Dhaka University authorities formed two committees to probe into allegations of plagiarism brought against the teachers.
The committee was made at a meeting of the university’s syndicate headed by the university VC, Akhtaruzzaman, on Wednesday.

politician Abul Mansur Ahmad fought hard against social prejudices and religious bigotry throughout his life

Writer and politician Abul Mansur Ahmad fought hard against social prejudices and religious bigotry throughout his life and he will be considered one of the unforgettable entities of the history of the Language Movement, noted a group of writers and researchers at a discussion on Friday. 
In the early forties, when the demand for Pakistan was gaining support Abul Mansur foresaw the issue and wrote that the lingua franca of East Pakistan must be Bangla, and no other language, they added.
They came up with the observations while addressing a discussion titled ‘Language Movement and Thoughts of Abul Mansur Ahmed’ organised by Abul Mansur Ahmed Memorial Committee at the Abdul Karim Sahityabisharad Auditorium at Bangla Academy in Dhaka.
Emeritus professor Anisuzzaman said Abul Mansur was vocal against oppression, backwardness of society and he was secular.
Mansur had significant contribution to the rise of political and cultural consciousness of Bengali Muslims. In his youth, he participated in different social and cultural movements and in his later years, he blossomed as a writer, a journalist, a politician and most importantly as a social worker, he added.
Professor Mansur Musa said Abul Mansur’s satires like Aina, and Food Conference in the field of literature and two autobiographical writings — Atma Katha and Amar Dekha Rajnitir Panchash Bachhar in the field of history, are important and should get highest level of appreciation. 
Dhaka University teacher Mohammad Azam said Abul Mansur was anti-imperialist from his childhood and he began his political carrier opposing the British occupation of his motherland.

horrors of sexual violence with Many Rohingya women

Many Rohingya women entering Bangladesh to flee violence in Rakhine state are still haunted by horrors of sexual violence against them committed allegedly by Myanmar military.

Many of the victims turned white in horrors as they recounted how soldiers broke into their home in Rakhine and gang-raped them, in many cases in front of their children or relatives –– a story heard over and over in Rohingya camps and makeshift shelters in Cox’s Bazar.
They alleged that Myanmar troops along with some local Buddhists began to rape them with the eruption of the ongoing violence, what the United Nations termed a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, on August 25.
Two UN agencies expressed concern that gender-based violence, including rape and sexual assault, was a key concern that emerged from the ongoing humanitarian crisis. 
UN migration agency International Organisation for Migration said that its doctors had treated dozens of women, who experienced violent sexual assault.
UN population fund UNFPA said that hundreds of Rohingya women and girls had received services for prevention and management of gender-based violence and more than half of the incidents of such violence reported so far in Bangladesh were sexual assault, an exceptionally high proportion. 
‘This speaks to a very worrying trend,’ said a statement of the UN agency issued on Thursday. 
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres while addressing the UN Security Council on Thursday, early Friday Bangladesh time, said, ‘We have received bone-chilling accounts from those who fled –– mainly women, children and the elderly.’
He said, ‘These testimonials point to excessive violence and serious violations of human rights, including indiscriminate firing of weapons, the use of landmines against civilians and sexual violence.’
Cox’s Bazar civil surgeon Abdus Salam said that medical facilities, especially those run by international aid agencies in the Rohingya camps, received a good number of patients experiencing gender-based violence. ‘We got some serious rape patients,’ he added.
New Age correspondent in Cox’s Bazar reported that five more bodies of Rohingyas were recovered in Inani beach area under Ukhia upazila early Friday, said Ukhia police station offier-in-charge (investigation) Mohammad Kai Kislu.
With the recovery, the death toll from the boat capsize took place on Thursday rose to 20 –– 14 children and six women.
The police officer said that several others were still missing as Rohingyas said that the boat was carrying about 100 fleeing Rohingyas and 27 of them were rescued alive.
International Organisation for Migration in a statement on Friday, however, said that their local field team, having checked with police and a grocery shopkeeper close to where the incident occurred, reported the total confirmed death toll was 23. 
Six bodies were recovered where the boat capsized and two bodies washed up in front of the Sea Pearl Hotel a small distance down the shore.
The incident took to 133 the number of Rohingyas, mostly women and children, drowned in the bay and the River Naf since August 25.
Local people said that Rohingyas continued entering Bangladesh through different points, including Shah Parir Dwip, on Friday.
UN agencies on Thursday estimated that 5,01,800 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and elderly people, had so far fled to Bangladesh to save life since August 25.
A 17-year-old Rohingya woman found at Tumbro Konapara area said that she could not sleep at night due to nightmare. 
While she was fleeing from Bali Bazar area of Maungdow in Rakhine state, she said, ‘Some military men picked me up, they violated me and left in a nearby jungle assuming that I was dead.’ She said that she crossed into Bangladesh with the help of others and still did not know anything about her family.
Another 20-year-old woman of the same area of Myanmar found at Tubmro said that at least three people raped her on August 25. She became conscious and when she recovered, she saw some fellow Rohingya men beside her.
UNFPA in a statement on Thursday said that when a 36-year-old Rohingya at its Women Friendly Space in Cox’s Bazar, she was exhausted and traumatised. She needed urgent medical services for the sexual violence she had suffered. Emotional scars from seeing her husband and baby girl killed in front of her would be tougher to heal.
The UN agency also said that when a 30-year-old woman came to its Women Friendly Space, she initially refused to speak, but after several visits she shared her story with the case workers she had come to trust. ‘My sister was killed after gang-rape in front of me, and they threw hot water on my body. I cannot sleep, my life is a nightmare,’ she said.
UNFPA said that gender-based violence, including rape, was a key concern that emerged from the ongoing humanitarian crisis. 
It has already provided a range of services to more than 7,000 women in five Women Friendly Spaces, community watch groups and medical camps, where health personnel offered medical assistance and psychosocial counselling assistance amid incredibly challenging circumstances. 
Myanmar security forces are committing crimes against humanity against the Rohingya population in Rakhine state, New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. ‘The military has committed forced deportation, murder, rape, and persecution against Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine State, resulting in countless deaths and mass displacement,’ it said.
The rights group cited an example that one woman told HRW that she and four other women were taken to a hut, slashed with knives, and sexually assaulted. The soldiers then set the hut on fire. She was the only one to escape alive. Another woman who was raped still had injuries from the machete attack and beatings that accompanied the rape, and said she also barely managed to escape from a burning house.
One man told HRW that he witnessed an army soldier to rape three women at Maung Nu village. Two other woman from the same village told the rights group that soldiers stripped them and several other women, who were hiding from the military, naked and that they were ‘touched everywhere.’
A physician treating rape patients at a hospital in a Rohingya camp run by UN migration agency said that Rohingya women had ‘genital cut injuries, a laceration injury and bite mark.’
Acting UNFPA executive director Natalia Kanem said that health and safety of women and girls must be protected and they must be protected from all forms of violence, including sexual assault.
IOM director general William Lacy Swing in a statement on Thursday said that sexual and gender-based violence was a severe, life-threatening public health and human rights abuse and he was ‘deeply shocked and concerned’ by reports of such events.
United Nations high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi at a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday after visiting Bangladesh said, ‘I have spoken to several women who have been raped, or have been wounded because of their resistance to rape. I spoke to many children, shockingly absent of emotion, because they were so traumatised. They told me how they had seen their parents or relatives or friends killed in front of their eyes.’
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and IOM in separate statements called for increase in safe water, sanitation, hygiene and medical assistance to prevent any outbreak of diseases.
‘We are on the cusp of a serious health outbreak,’ Bangladesh Red Crescent Society secretary-general Mozharul Huq said.
IOM said aid agencies were struggling to provide clean water and sanitation for an estimated half a million Rohingya people. 
UNICEF at a statement on Thursday said that it announced that it was planning to establish more than 1,300 new learning centres for Rohingya children who fled to Bangladesh.

Price resigns as health secretary over private plane uproar,Under pressure from Trump

US health and human services secretary Tom Price resigned under pressure from president Donald Trump on Friday in an uproar over Price's use of costly private charter planes for government business.

His abrupt departure was announced an hour after Trump told reporters he was disappointed in Price's use of private aircraft and did not like the way it reflected on his administration.

‘Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas Price offered his resignation earlier today and the president accepted,’ the White House said in a statement.

Trump named Don Wright to serve as acting secretary. Wright is currently the deputy assistant secretary for health and director of the office of disease prevention and health promotion.

‘I'm not happy. OK? I'm not happy,’ Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn.

Candidates to succeed Price included Seema Verma, who is administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and who is close to vice-president Mike Pence, and Scott Gottlieb, a physician who serves as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, according to industry analysts.

Several sources saw Gottlieb as a clear front runner. They said he got along well with the White House and is viewed favourably there.

Price's resignation leaves Trump with a second cabinet position to fill. He has yet to pick a secretary for homeland security after hiring former secretary John Kelly as his White House chief of staff.

It was the latest blow to the Trump White House, which has struggled to get major legislative achievements passed by Congress and has been embroiled in one controversy after another since Trump took office in January.

Price, a former congressman, was instrumental in the Trump administration's policies aimed at undercutting Obamacare, as well as working with governors across the country to slowly begin unravelling parts of the law.

In a resignation letter, Price offered little in the way of contrition. He said he had been working to reform the US healthcare system and reduce regulatory burdens, among other goals.

‘I have spent forty years both as a doctor and public servant putting people first. I regret that the recent events have created a distraction from these important objectives,’ he said.

Trump, currently trying to sell his tax cut plan and oversee the federal response to devastation wreaked by three hurricanes, saw the Price drama as an unnecessary distraction and behind the scenes was telling aides ‘what was he thinking?,’ a source close to the president said.

Price promised on Thursday to repay the nearly $52,000 cost of his seats on private charter flights. ‘The taxpayers won’t pay a dime for my seat on those planes,’ Price said.

But that was not enough to satisfy Trump.

Trump told reporters that the ‘optics’ of Price's travel were not good, since, as president he was trying to renegotiate US contracts to get a better deal for taxpayers.

‘Look, I think he's a very fine person. I certainly don't like the optics,’ Trump said.

Price had also been seen in the White House as having been ineffective in getting Congress to pass healthcare reform legislation, an effort that has fizzled on Capitol Hill.

Price was one of a handful of senior officials in Trump’s administration put on the defensive over reports about their use of charter flights and government aircraft, sometimes for personal travel, when they could have flown commercial for less money.

The White House issued an order late on Friday saying use of private planes required approval from White House chief of staff John Kelly and that the commercial air system was appropriate even for very senior officials with few exceptions.

The Washington Post on Friday reported that veterans affairs secretary David Shulkin attended a Wimbledon tennis match, toured Westminster Abbey and took a cruise on the Thames this summer during a 10-day trip to discuss veterans' health issues in Britain and Denmark.

Shulkin, who travelled on a commercial airline, was accompanied on the trip by his wife, whose airfare was paid for by the government and who received a per diem for meals, the Post said, noting that the Department of Veterans Affairs said she was travelling on ‘approved invitational orders.’

His six-person travelling party included an acting undersecretary of health and her husband as well as two aides. They were accompanied by a security detail of as many as six people, the Post said.

Washington news media outlet Politico has reported that Price had taken at least two dozen private charter flights since May at a cost to US taxpayers of more than $400,000. Politico also reported he took approved military flights to Africa and Europe costing $500,000.

Senior US government officials travel frequently, but are generally expected to keep costs down by taking commercial flights or the train when possible.

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt and treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin have also been in the spotlight for their travel habits.

The first span of the Padma Bridge is going to be placed on pillars today

The first span of the Padma Bridge is scheduled to be placed on pillars on Saturday. -bdnews24

The first span of the Padma Bridge is going to be placed on pillars today.      The project's Executive Engineer (Resettlement) Tofazzel Hossain said Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader will witness the work at Zajira end of the bridge in Shariatpur in the morning.    

The 150 metres long superstructure weighing around 32 tonnes will be put on the pillars no. 37 and 38. The shuttering of the pillars have been removed. "We are putting the finishing touches. The  span will be placed at 11:00am," Tofazzel said on Friday.

The 6.15 kilometres bridge will have 42 pillars, including two on the river banks. Officials and engineers said four more spans would be placed in October. "We are very much proud to be involved with this project. The engineers are also delighted as their ceaseless work is going to be visible," said Project Director Shafiqul Islam.

A floating crane has already carried the span to Zajira from Mawa, engineers said. Now the 'bearing work' was under way, which would help the span tolerate vibration and maintain balance, they said. The span will be placed when the pillars achieve the ability to bear 50 megapascal pressure. The construction of the bridge's main infrastructure started in 2015. Until now, around 47 percent of the around Tk 288 billion project is complete. The government expects to finish the project by December next year.

The spirit of unity Mahanavami 2017

A devotee offering puja on the night of Mahanavami at Narinda Shahebbari Temple yesterday. -Mostafizur Rahman

Mahanavami was celebrated with great gusto across the country on the third day of Durga Puja yesterday. In particular, the capital Dhaka was taken a sparkling look on this occasion.  Though it is a festival of Hindu community, people of all religions gathered at different puja mandaps with merriment and joy in the festive vibe, gorging on delicious snacks and participating in cultural  events which will consolidate the cultural and religious bondage in the country. According to the Hindu scripture, Navratri festivities  continue for nine days and Mahanavami is the last day of Navratri. It is also the third day of Durga Puja.

Navami is believed to be the last day of Goddess Durga's fight with the buffalo demon Mahishasura. The battle that continued for days, ended on the tenth day, which is celebrated as Vijay Dashmi, on which Goddess Durga defeated Mahishasura. 

The rituals for Navami start with a holy bath followed with a special Shodhasopachar of the deity.  This year Goddess Durga has come to Her devotees boarding a boat with the auspicious message with a view to establishing fraternity, equality and justice for them who are used to leading their life with Almighty Goddess's messages, and annihilating the evil forces deviated from the right course of the human society. Goddess Durga's arrival by boat to the devotees means good omen, and it reveals the prosperity and development of society, according Hindu scholars. 

It was the first time the United States called for punishment of military leaders behind the repression, but stopped short of threatening to reimpose US sanctions which were suspended under the Obama administration.

"We cannot be afraid to call the actions of the Burmese authorities what they appear to be - a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority," Haley told the UN Security Council, the first time Washington has echoed the UN's accusation that the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in Rakhine State was ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing.

"The Burmese military must respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. Those who have been accused of committing abuses should be removed from command responsibilities immediately and prosecuted for wrongdoing," Haley said.

"And any country that is currently providing weapons to the Burmese military should suspend these activities until sufficient accountability measures are in place," Haley said.

Meanwhile, international aid groups in Myanmar have urged the government to allow free access to Rakhine State, where an army offensive has sent more than 500,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh, but hundreds of thousands remain cut off from food, shelter and medical care.

Refugees are still leaving Myanmar, more than a month after Rohingya Muslim insurgents attacked security posts near the border, triggering fierce Myanmar military retaliation.

Aid groups said on Thursday the total number of refugees in Bangladesh was now 502,000 while the United Nations said at least 15 refugees, including nine children, drowned when their boat capsized off the coast in bad weather.

The Myanmar government has stopped international aid groups and UN agencies from carrying out most of their work in the north of Rakhine state, citing insecurity since the Aug. 25 insurgent attacks.

Aid groups said in a joint statement they were: "increasingly concerned about severe restrictions on humanitarian access and impediments to the delivery of critically needed humanitarian assistance throughout Rakhine State."

"We urge the government and authorities of Myanmar to ensure that all people in need in Rakhine Sate have full, free and unimpeded access to life-saving humanitarian assistance."

The government has put the Myanmar Red Cross in charge of aid to the state, with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross. But the groups said they feared insufficient aid was getting through.

Relations between the government and aid agencies had been difficult for months, with some officials accusing the groups of helping the insurgents.

Aid groups dismissed the accusations, which they said had inflamed anger towards them among Buddhists in the communally divided state, and called for an end to "misinformation and unfounded accusations".

'Unacceptable tragedy'

Rights groups have accused the army of trying to push Rohingya Muslims out of Myanmar, and of committing crimes against humanity. They have called for sanctions, in particular an arms embargo.

The British Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific, Mark Field, described the situation as "an unacceptable tragedy" after visiting Myanmar and meeting leaders including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has faced scathing criticism and calls for her Nobel prize to be withdrawn.

She denounced rights abuses in an address last week and expressed concern about the suffering. She also said any refugees verified as coming from Myanmar would be allowed to return.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday that the violence against Rohingya Muslims in the northern part of Rakhine state could spread to central Rakhine, where 250,000 more people were at risk of displacement.

Guterres told the UN Security Council during its first public meeting on Myanmar in eight years, that the violence had spiraled into the "world's fastest developing refugee emergency, a humanitarian and human rights nightmare."

A group of Republican and Democratic senators urged the Trump administration on Thursday to use the "full weight" of its influence to help resolve the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh. A letter seen by Reuters and signed by four Republican and 17 Democratic members of the 100-seat Senate also calls on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US Agency for International Development Administrator Mark Green to provide more humanitarian aid.

'No justice'

Police in Bangladesh said they recovered the bodies of 14 refugees, including nine children, after their boat went down. A Reuters photographer said he saw several babies among the victims.

Police officer Afrajul Hoque Tutu said three boats had capsized in heavy seas.

The UN International Organization for Migration later put the toll at 15, and said there had been about 100 people on the boat when it capsized as the captain tried to anchor it close to the shore, but lost control in rough seas.

Myanmar was getting ready to "verify" refugees who want to return, the government minister charged with putting into effect recommendations to solve problems in Rakhine said.

Myanmar would conduct a "national verification process" at two points on its border with Bangladesh under terms agreed during a repatriation effort in 1993, state media quoted Win Myat Aye, the minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, as saying.

It is unclear how many refugees would be willing to return, or have the documents they will likely need to qualify.

Myanmar authorities do not recognise Rohingya as an indigenous ethnic group, instead regarding them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

"The government hates us," said refugee Zafar Alam, 55, sheltering from rain near a refugee settlement in Bangladesh, referring to the Myanmar government.

"I don't think I'd be safe there. There's no justice."

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has broken

He was speaking at a discussion in Dhaka on Friday, a day after his visit to the refugee camp in Cox's Bazar.

"They are in unimaginable misery. They have no roof overhead; a mother is trying to save her five to 10 days old child from rain with only a plastic sheet...such cruelty...," Fakhrul started weeping at this point of his speech.

He then pulled himself together and said, "I am sorry! I become emotional sometimes; maybe because I have not become a politician fully."

Mirza Fakhrul had wept during his speech earlier while describing the condition of BNP leaders and activists in two programmes - one in his home district Thakurgaon in July and another in Dhaka in August last year.

At Friday's programme at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh in Dhaka, he renewed the allegation that the government is not speaking strongly against Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis.

He criticised China, Russia and India for supporting Myanmar and urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to tour the three countries in an attempt to convince them to take a stand against Myanmar.