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Australia Bushfires
Military reservists called up as people flee
Afp, Batemans Bay
Up to 3,000 military reservists were called up to tackle Australia’s relentless bushfire crisis yesterday, as tens of thousands of residents fled their homes amid catastrophic conditions.
Temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and gale-force winds fanned hundreds of fires, many of which are already burning out of control across the country.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the largest military call-up in living memory to assist thousands of volunteer firefighters who have been battling blazes for months on end.
“Today’s decision puts more boots on the ground, puts more planes in the sky, puts more ships at sea,” said Morrison, who made the announcement after being pilloried for his response to the deadly disaster.
A state of emergency has been declared across much of Australia’s heavily populated southeast and more than 100,000 people have been told to leave their homes across three states.
Thousands heeded that call Friday, abandoning summer holidays and piling into cars that clogged the highways linking southeastern coastal towns with the relative safety of Sydney or larger towns.
“In relation to the (worst-case scenario) projections we had this morning, unfortunately they are coming to fruition,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.
New South Wales Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons added that “strong winds and hot temperatures” were
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photo: AFP

BCL leader sent to jail for rape
Our Correspondent, Tangail
A Tangail court yesterday sent a Chhatra League leader to jail for allegedly raping a college student.
Police arrested Asifuzzaman Mondol alias Hridoy, 25, president of Ibrahim Khan Government College BCL unit, on Friday night in Matikata area of Bhuapur upazila.
According to case statement, Hridoy allegedly raped a student of the college on several occasions and threatened to kill her husband.
Police arrested him after the victim filed a case with Bhuapur Police Station on Friday night, said Officer-in-Charge Rashidul Islam of the station.
The girl was sent to Tangail General Hospital for medical tests yesterday, he said, adding that she was traumatised.
Police said the arrested was also accused in two other cases -- one for
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BIWTA salvage

wing needs

salvaging

With only 4 low-capacity ships, it struggles to recover sunken vessels
M Jahirul Islam Jewel and MD Foisal Ahmed
MV Dudu Mia-1, a clinker-loaded cargo vessel, sank in the Kirtonkhola river in Barishal on December 14 after a head-on collision with a passenger launch. It has not been salvaged yet.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), armed with four rescue ships, including two older ones, desperately tried to pull the 2,000-tonne cargo vessel close to shore. The combined capacity of its four rescue ships is far less than the weight of the sunken vessel.
The BIWTA’s rescue ships Hamza and Rustam, commissioned back in 1964 and 1983 respectively, have gradually lost their efficiency. Both have a lifting capacity of 60 tonnes each.
Bought from South Korea in 2013, the two new ships -- Nirbhik and Pratyay -- have a lifting capacity of 250 tonnes each, according to BIWTA officials.
“We tried to pull the cargo near the shore so that navigability along that route wasn’t disturbed. But the cargo was too heavy to be moved,” Md Rafiqul Islam, BIWTA joint director of rescue, told The Daily Star on December 26.
He also admitted that the BIWTA doesn’t have the capacity to rescue a sunken vessel over 500 tonnes.
“Besides, it is not possible for us to take all four rescue vessels to the rescue site for various reasons. For example, when there is a narrow
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