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The 20th session of the 11th Jatiya Sangsad will begin at 4.30pm tomorrow.

Earlier, President Md Abdul Hamid convened the session exercising the power bestowed upon him as per the Clause (1) of Article 72 of the Constitution.

The nineteenth session of 11th parliament was prorogued on September 1 after five sittings.

A total of 228 treasury and opposition bench lawmakers delivered their addresses during the session. A total of three bills were passed in the session.

Along with the legal procedure, a total of 37 important notices under section 71 of the rules of procedure were received.

A total of 37 questions were available for the prime minister’s question and answer session where only 15 questions were answered by the prime minister during the session.

Two proposals were accepted and adopted after they were widely discussed under section 147 of the rules of procedure.

WASHINGTON – US and North Korean officials met Sunday at a border truce village as preparations resumed for a high-stakes, high-drama summit that President Donald Trump suggests could help the North realize its “brilliant potential.

“I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day,” Trump said on Twitter.

“Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!,” the president said, confirming that a US team “has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the summit” between himself and North Korean leader Kim.

His upbeat language contrasted sharply to that of only three days earlier, when Trump canceled the planned summit, citing “open hostility” from the North. An extraordinary flurry of diplomacy since then — much of it led by South Korea — appears to have put the meeting back on track.

Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Saturday at the Panmunjom border truce village, in a surprise bid to salvage the June 12 summit planned for Singapore.

Announcing the lower-level talks held Sunday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, “We continue to prepare for a meeting between the President and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.”

The Washington Post reported that the US delegation to the Panmunjom meeting — in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea — was led by Sung Kim, a former US ambassador to South Korea and former nuclear negotiator with the North. It said the Americans met with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui.

Tokyo stocks opened higher Monday on the news, although trading was thin.

“Excessive worries receded as efforts resumed for a summit between the US and North Korea,” Okasan Online Securities strategist Yoshihiro Ito said in a commentary, which added that uncertainty remains.

The United States currently has no ambassador to South Korea, even as it takes up one of the most delicate diplomatic challenges in years.

It remains far from clear how Trump and Kim might be able to bridge what appear to be vast differences in their expectations for what would be a historic meeting. But analysts on Sunday expressed increasing confidence that it will take place.

– Days of brinkmanship –

The apparent progress in the on-again-off-again talks followed a tense and turbulent few days of diplomatic brinkmanship.

Within 24 hours of cancelling the summit Trump reversed course, saying it could still go ahead after productive talks were held with North Korean officials.

“It’s moving along very nicely,” Trump said at the White House on Saturday. “We’re looking at June 12 in Singapore. That hasn’t changed.”

His abrupt decision to pull out of the meeting had blindsided South Korea and Moon, who had been brokering a remarkable detente between Washington and Pyongyang in a bid to avoid a devastating conflict.

But Trump accompanied the cancellation with a letter to Kim that mixed tough language with an almost beseeching plea to get things back on track. Some critics mocked the letter’s tone, but it may have achieved the desired result.

– Kim ‘met his match’ –

James Clapper, director of US national intelligence under former president Barack Obama, told CNN: “I support the letter that President Trump sent… In some ways, Kim Jong Un may have met his match here with our very unconventional president.”

Victor Cha, who was President George W. Bush’s top advisor on North Korea and was briefly expected to get Trump’s nod as ambassador to South Korea, said Sunday he was now confident the summit will take place.

The Moon and Trump administrations very much want the meeting, he said, “and Kim says he wants a summit, so it’s going to happen.”

There are still stark differences between what the two sides hope to achieve.

Washington wants North Korea to quickly give up all its nuclear weapons in a verifiable way in return for sanctions and economic relief.

Pyongyang has a different view of denuclearization and remains deeply worried that abandoning its deterrent would leave the country — and its leader — vulnerable, especially while the United States maintains a robust military presence in South Korea.

Kim “has almost an emotional attachment and a personal psychological attachment to these nuclear weapons,” US Senator Marco Rubio said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “They make him feel prestigious, they make him feel powerful.”

If Trump is unable to negotiate those weapons away and unwilling to live in a world where North Korea poses a nuclear threat, then “you’re going to have to do something to go after them at some point,” the senator said.

NEW DELHI  — At least 21 people were killed and around a dozen others injured due to thunderstorms that hit twin Indian states of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, officials said Friday.

According to officials the thunderstorms hit the several districts in both the states during night.

“Thunderstorm and lightening hit several parts parts of Bihar last night, killing 14 people and injuring nine others,” an official said. “Four deaths have been reported from Motihari, while as remaining 10 casualties were recorded in Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Samastipur, Kaimur and Gaya.”

Likewise in Andhra Pradesh, the overnight thunderstorms killed at least seven people and injured three others.

“Causalities were reported from Narasaraopeta, Sattenapalli, Phirangipuram, Muppalla and Mandal in Guntur district,” disaster management officials said. The storms uprooted trees and electricity poles in the affected districts, thereby disrupting rail and road services in Bihar.

The thunderstorms have also affected mango, litchi, maize and banana crops.

Meteorological department officials in Bihar have forecast more thunderstorm in the next 24 hours in several parts of the state.

Last month dust storms and thunderstorms accompanied by rains killed over 250 people and injured more than 400 in five states.

President Joe Biden has “no plans” to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at a November G20 summit in Indonesia, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday.

Biden “has no plans to meet with the crown prince at the G20 summit,” Sullivan told CNN, speaking as already stormy US-Saudi relations have been
further strained by Riyadh’s support for oil production cuts.

The planned cuts have infuriated Washington, with Biden warning on Tuesday of unspecified “consequences.”

The move last week by OPEC+ — composed of the Riyadh-led OPEC cartel and an additional group of 10 exporters headed by Russia — would reduce global output by up to two million barrels per day from November.

It could send energy prices soaring amid an energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, and as inflation-weary American voters prepare to cast
ballots in midterm elections.

The White House has charged that OPEC+ was “aligning with Russia,” saying the cuts would boost Moscow’s revenue and undermine sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.

Saudi officials have defended the move as motivated purely by economics, not politics.

Australia has arrested a former US Marine Corps fighter pilot following a request from Washington, officials in Canberra said Tuesday, as Western governments scrambled to investigate reports that China has been poaching retired military personnel.

Daniel Edmund Duggan appeared in court in New South Wales on Friday, judicial records show.

“An individual was arrested on 21 October 2022 pursuant to a request from the United States of America for their provisional arrest,” the Australian attorney general’s department said in a statement.

“As the matter is before the courts, it would not be appropriate to comment further.”

Duggan is scheduled to appear in court again in November.

Under a treaty with Australia, the United States has 60 days following the arrest to apply for Duggan’s extradition.

Duggan ran a business called Top Gun Australia, which billed itself as the country’s “premier adventure flight company”.

On the company’s web page, Duggan described himself as a “former US Marine Corps officer of over 12 years”.

“As a highly trained fighter pilot, he flew harrier jump jets off of aircraft carriers tactically around the globe,” the website read.

Duggan has also worked in China.

Australia launched an investigation last week into what its defence minister called disturbing reports that China has been hiring retired Western air force pilots to train its military.

The British government has said it will take “decisive steps” to stop Beijing from headhunting former pilots after local media reported more than 30 had accepted offers worth upwards of o240,000 ($273,750) to train China’s air force.

Qatari authorities have evicted hundreds of migrant workers from buildings in central Doha, casting a new shadow over the countdown to the World Cup, residents and workers said Saturday.

Municipal workers and security guards moved into about 12 buildings late on Wednesday to clear and lock them, according to local residents, ahead of the tournament that kicks off on November 20.

The government said the buildings were “uninhabitable”, proper notice was given, and that alternative “safe and appropriate accommodation” had been found for all evictees.

The affected area, largely around Al-Mansoura, has been massively redeveloped in recent years and some World Cup fans will stay in apartments in the district, where dozens of mechanical diggers are parked in the streets.

In the early hours of Saturday, Yunus, a Bangladeshi driver, slept on the back of his flat-bed truck on a street in Al Mansoura, three nights after being forced out of one block.

“The first night it was chaos and there was not enough room for everyone to go to other places,” he said.

In any case, “this truck is my life and I will not leave it until I have somewhere where I can park it” near the new accommodation, he added.

Yunus said it was the third time he had been forced to move in three years.

Migrants — dominated by an influx from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, the Philippines and African nations including Kenya and Uganda — make up more than 80 percent of Qatar’s 2.8 million population.

Qatar has faced intense scrutiny over the treatment of foreign labourers who built most of the shiny new stadiums and transport infrastructure for the World Cup.

The energy-rich state has been criticised over deaths, injuries and unpaid wages.

International unions say there has been a drastic improvement in conditions in recent years and Qatar has highlighted its reforms, but rights groups say more must be done.

– ‘Timing all wrong’ –

The South Asian manager of a 24-hour store in Al Mansoura, who told AFP he saw evictions from two buildings, said most of the workers paid no rent and had no leases.

“They are basically squatters,” he said, on condition of anonymity. “They stay a few months in one building and then are forced to find another.

“They were good clients. I had brought in extra rice because they buy so much, now I am left with it,” the manager added.

“In this case, it is the timing so close to the World Cup that is all wrong.”

Qatar’s World Cup organisers, who have reserved some apartment buildings, referred queries to the government.

Qatar’s government said authorities acted under a 2010 law against “informal and unplanned housing arrangements”.

“Residents found to be living in uninhabitable accommodations with no formal contracts are given the opportunity to move elsewhere in a reasonable timeframe,” a Qatari government official told AFP.

“Officials always ensure individuals are rehoused in safe and appropriate accommodation.”

Residents said most of the evicted men would move to Doha’s huge industrial zone or towns further from the capital.

Most of those evicted do not work for the major companies that provide accommodation and food for labourers.

Many work for a daily rate or for small companies. “They live in these blocks to avoid paying rent. The wages are low so every cent counts,” said one migrant living next to a building that was emptied.

Six dengue patients died while 869 patients were admitted to different hospitals across the country during the past 24 hours (till 8am today).

“As many as 481 dengue patients were hospitalized in Dhaka city and 388 patients were admitted to hospitals outside Dhaka during the past 24 hours,” a press release of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.

“A total of 134 people died from dengue disease between January 1 and October 29. The first death from dengue was reported on June 21, this year,” the daily statement of the DGHS said.

With the new cases, the total number of dengue patients this year rose to 36,131 while some 32,400 patients were released from the hospitals.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne illness that occurs in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Outbreak of the disease is usually seasonal, peaking during and after rainy seasons.

The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies dengue as one of the top 10 threats to public health.