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Judwaa 2 (2016) Full Hindi Dubbed Movie | Ravi Teja, Kalyani, Brahmanandam, M.S. Narayana, Sunil

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Baahubali 2 South Hindi Dubbed Movies 2016 | Ram Charan, Kajal Aggarwal, Srihari, Dev Gill

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Celebrity wardrobe malfunctions

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BACKLASH? WHAT BACKLASH? Five clues Beyonce's next album is dropping any minute now

If the polls are accurate, New Hampshire voters on Tuesday will rally behind Democratic and Republican candidates who are wildly different yet weirdly similar tribunes of populist rage.

Bernie Sanders, the Democratic socialist showing up Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump, the wealthy marketing genius who is pummeling the Republican field, unite in railing that the rich and powerful have rigged the U.S. economy against everyone else.

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How the false prophets rose: Republican and Democratic voters are embracing Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders to punish the two major parties' failures

If the polls are accurate, New Hampshire voters on Tuesday will rally behind Democratic and Republican candidates who are wildly different yet weirdly similar tribunes of populist rage.

Bernie Sanders, the Democratic socialist showing up Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump, the wealthy marketing genius who is pummeling the Republican field, unite in railing that the rich and powerful have rigged the U.S. economy against everyone else.

BILL CLINTON JABS AT BERNIE SANDERS OVER GOLDMAN SACHS VIEWS

False prophets both, Sanders and Trump are masters at amplifying long-building national frustrations and anger over, first and foremost, declining standards of living. They are now speaking the exact same language.

Here is Sanders in last week’s Democratic debate:

“Millions of Americans are giving up on the political process. And they’re giving up on the political process because they understand the economy is rigged.

“They are working longer hours for low wages. They’re worried about the future of their kids, and yet almost all new income and wealth is going to the top 1 percent . .

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Richard Dreyfuss doesn't think Bernie Madoff cared when his sons died

Starring in ABC's “Madoff”helped Richard Dreyfuss form a very concise opinion on Bernie Madoff.

“He was amoral,” Dreyfus told Confidenti@l at the Skirball Center premiere. "Most people don't realize that there's moral, immoral and amoral. He was not only amoral, he was a sociopath, which means that ultimately, if you scratch the surface, he didn't give a hoot in hell about anybody including his family. Nothing. Nothing penetrated him. And I think when his sonsOh, well.’”

In a letter obtained by NBC News one year ago, Madoff denied that was the case.

“As difficult as it is for me to live with the pain I have inflicted on so many, there is nothing to compare with the degree of pain I endure with the loss of my son's (sic) Mark and Andy,” he wrote in January 2015.

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No obstacle to transfer Sicille to National Hospital

Submitting a medical report regarding former Ceylinco Chairman Lalith Kotelawala’s wife Sicille who is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Colombo, the CID yesterday informed Court that the private hospital has no objection to transfer the suspect to the Colombo National Hospital.

Meanwhile, the medical report submitted by the hospital stated that Kotelawala is currently undergoing treatment at cardiac care unit of the hospital and she is required to receive further medical treatment in this regard.

Meanwhile, the CID submitted to Court that they were unable to record a statement from the suspect owing to her illness. The CID further said they would seek Attorney General’s advice regarding the future investigation into the incident.

Accordingly, Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya ordered that Kotelawala, wanted on an arrest warrant over an alleged fraud at F&G Property Developers (Private) Limited, be kept under CID custody until February 11.

Kotelawala had been absconding Courts since 2008. Several courts including the Colombo High Court had issued warrants and red notices for Kotelawala’s arrest in connection with defrauding the depositors of Golden Key Credit ard Company, F&G Property Developers (Private) Limited, Ceylinco Shriram Capital Management Services and several other cases affiliated to Ceylico Company.

Kotelawala who was evading arrest, is a former deputy chairperson of the Ceylinco Group and is held responsible for the fraud at Golden Key Credit Card Company, an affiliated company of the group.

She is the third suspect in the magisterial inquiry in connection with the alleged misappropriation of Rs. 26 billion of the Golden Key Credit Card Company.

Kotelawela fled the country when courts issued an open warrant for her arrest in 2009. Police later requested Interpol assistance to arrest Kotelawela, a director of the collapsed Golden Key Credit Card Company.

Ceylinco Group former chairman Lalith Kotelawala who was earlier remanded over the case is out on bail.

Senior Counsel Saliya Peiris with Counsel Rukshan Nanayakkara appeared for Sicille Kotelawala. 

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Smart agriculture with smart technology

Shifat Ara

The effect of urbanisation is two-fold. On one hand, it boosts development indicators such as economic growth, productivity and human development indexes and on the other hand, the intensifying of the tertiary industry results in more people shifting from the agriculture sector. This might result into a big threat for an agri-dependent country like Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, where agriculture is still a major source of income for 14 million farming households, lack of access to information, along with various other factors demand immediate attention. One cannot stress enough on the need for information regarding agriculture which is vital for farmers to make informed decisions.

The last ten years have been a decade of tremendous growth in information communication technology (ICT) in Bangladesh. Currently, the telecom network covers all 64 districts of Bangladesh and almost 84 percent of rural households carry mobile phones. This can be partially attributed to the availability of cheap mobile handsets and the oligopolistic nature telecommunication industry that allows mobile phone users to enjoy affordable call tariffs and internet packages. Other than the telecommunications sector, growth is significantly realised through the availability of private sector owned ICT based services, union digital centres and internet cafés at the country's union level. In the context of service availability, what started with agriculture helplines by telecom operators, have expanded to SMS based services and government developed software that provides accurate agriculture information. Private sector agriculture input companies have also established ICT based services aimed at providing product specific and general agriculture information to farmers. The agriculture input sector has effective networks of farmers across Bangladesh, and the ICT can enable these companies to reach out to them faster and more economically. This scenario is already evident as leading seed, aqua-chemicals and fish feed companies are adopting various ICT based mechanisms to reach out to farmers in order to ensure proper usage of their products. This has a two-fold benefit; firstly, this allows companies to present themselves in an empathetic light to their farmers, and secondly, accurate and timely information enables farmers to enjoy higher yields and enables companies to retain their customers. These services are concerned with providing customer care solutions for farmers and is considered part of marketing initiatives in order to reach out to a wider scale of farmers; however, the input sector is only at a nascent stage of utilising ICT. Strong linkages between software developers and input companies with sufficient knowledge of information seeking behaviour of farmers is required to design appropriate farmer-friendly ICT services - none of which currently exist fully in the industry.

Designing the right kind of services is one of the most critical elements to ensure its usage at the farmer level. Unlike many other sub-continental countries, one of the major limitations in designing ICT based services for the rural farmers in Bangladesh is the low literacy and technology adverseness. This confines the type of services that can be designed for the said demographic. While farmers in Africa can benefit from smart text messaging giving them vital information on farming, farmers in Bangladesh are unable to enjoy that luxury. SMSs and other pull-based ICT services that require farmers to register/subscribe also do not work because of their complexity and because farmers are not in the habit of utilising their mobile phones for any other purposes than making or receiving phone calls. ICT services that involve engaging “call-centre” agents are therefore the way to go. There are currently plenty of services using this approach to give information to farmers, for example, agriculture helplines that benefit farmers by solving their queries on disease prevention, general agriculture practices, etc. Solutions provided for critical problems by these services are seen to have direct impact on farmers' incomes. 

Although various ICT services exist, their usage is limited due to lack of awareness. Carefully designing promotional activities for the usage of these services is therefore highly essential. It is a component that demands careful attention, but is more than often not prioritised. Unless these services are properly presented to farmers, they will continue to utilise existing and traditional sources of information in times of crisis, and reach out to ICT only when the need for information is dire and traditional sources of information have not sufficed. Traditional promotional tools such as hype creation through music and drama, SMS alerts and recorded voice calls lead to short-term increase in the usage of ICT services but fail to bring about a lasting effect. Bringing about behaviour change at the farmer level will require campaigns targeted towards changing farmers' perception of technology. The goal should be to position ICT as a comprehensive and reliable source of agriculture information. This again is time consuming and highly expensive.

The growth of ICT in the context of Bangladesh is promising. For ICT to benefit the nation's 14 million farming households through agriculture information, it is essential to design ICT solutions that are user friendly and cost effective.  Young farmers who will constitute the farming population in the future will be able to make use of a variety of ICT services due to their tech-savviness and better literacy than their preceding generations. The future of ICT for agriculture also includes telecom operators, agriculture content providers, software developers and various other market actors designing new services targeting farmers. Leading agriculture input companies who are currently utilising ICT to expedite services can also expedite the expansion of ICT by showcasing the industry the benefits of it and share their experiences for other companies to build on. Lastly and importantly, the continuity of favourable government policies and regulations (on internet and call tariffs) will be a pre-requisite on a broad level for the rapid expansion and utilisation of ICT in all aspects of development. 

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Ershad-led group firm on quitting

Rashidul Hasan

In a meeting boycotted by Raushan Ershad and those loyal to her, Jatiya Party presidium members yesterday decided to withdraw the party leaders from the Sheikh Hasina-led cabinet, according to meeting sources.

The meeting, chaired by JP Chairman HM Ershad at his Banani office around 11:30am, also decided to hold the party's national council on April 16.

However, pro-Raushan presidium members termed the meeting "illegal" and refused to accept the decision on quitting the cabinet.

“The meeting was illegal as it was convened by the illegally appointed secretary general [Ruhul Amin Hawlader] of the Jatiya Party," said JP Presidium Member Anisul Islam Mahmud, also water resources minister.

"The party chief appointed him [Hawlader] violating the party's charter. The legal secretary general of the party was not present at the meeting,” he told The Daily Star yesterday evening.

Anisul is one of the three JP members in Hasina's council of ministers. The other two are State Minister for Labour Mujibul Haque Chunnu and State Minister for LGRD Moshiur Rahman Ranga.

Opposition Chief Whip Tajul Islam Chowdhury, another member of the party's apex policy and decision-making forum, said, “We do not agree with them on quitting the cabinet. We didn't attend the meeting. Who are they to take the decision?"

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Raushan, leader in of the opposition in parliament and JP presidium member, said she would come up with her reaction after properly going through the meeting's decision.

After the two-hour presidium meeting, newly appointed JP Co-chairman GM Quader at a media briefing said all the members of the forum agreed that it was necessary for the party to quit the cabinet.

“Most of the presidium members felt that Jatiya Party's position is not clear in people's mind. Therefore, almost all the policymakers expressed the view that the three ministers from the party should quit the cabinet. This is part of the primary steps to restore the party's image among people,” he said.

Ershad on January 17 "unilaterally" appointed his younger brother Quader as JP co-chairman, a post that does not exist in the party's constitution.

The JP presidium meeting, however, left it to Ershad to make the final decision on when and how the ministers would quit the cabinet.

Twenty-two members of the 37-strong forum were present at the meeting, according to party sources.

Those who boycotted the meeting included Raushan, Anisul, Chunnu, Ranga, Tajul, Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu and Kazi Firoz Rashid.

Asked about the absence of these leaders, Quader said Raushan could not attend the meeting because of her official programmes.

“Some other members could not join the meeting for various reasons. But it doesn't indicate any rift in the party. There's no division among us. We're united,” he claimed.

At the briefing, new JP Secretary General Ruhul Amin Howlader said the April 16 council of the party would be held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital, and district-based monitoring cells would be formed for the upcoming union parishad elections to help the JP-backed candidates.

Rifts in the JP leadership surfaced after Quader was made the party's co-chairman.

On January 18, the then secretary general Bablu and some other pro-Raushan leaders declared her as acting chairman of the JP.

At a press conference next day, Ershad replaced Bablu with Howlader as JP secretary general, further widening the rift.

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