New ADB country director for BD

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) appointed Kazuhiko Higuchi as the new country director for its Bangladesh resident mission.

"I am looking forward to working for Bangladesh, and its people," Kazuhiko Higuchi was quoted as saying in a statement by the ADB in Dhaka on Thursday.

"Bangladesh is progressing fast and ADB will continue to make every effort to support Bangladesh's endeavor toward further reaping the potential of the country," he said.

Higuchi succeeds M Teresa Kho, who moved to become the country director for ADB's resident mission in New Delhi, India in February this year. Higuchi is expected to assume his new position on 22 April 2014.

Higuchi, a Japanese national, joined ADB in 1988, and has been worked on transport, water supply, and urban development projects, as well as on portfolio management, procurement, and office management.

Prior to this assignment, he was in Uzbekistan as ADB country director, a post he had held since 2009.

From 2005 to 2009, Higuchi was director of the transport and communications division of the South Asia Department of ADB, managing ADB's operations in the transport and communications sectors in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. From 2002 to 2005, he was posted in Kazakhstan as ADB country director.

Kazuhiko Higuchi holds a Master of Science degree in construction management from Loughborough University of Technology, UK, and a Bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan.

Bangladesh has been a member of ADB since 1973. Since then, ADB has provided Bangladesh with around $ 15.4 billion in loans and grants, including $872 million in 2013 alone.

ADB's priority areas for support in Bangladesh include energy, transport, urban infrastructure and water supply and sanitation, education, agriculture and natural resources, and finance sectors.

As of 31 December 2013, ADB's assistance for Bangladesh included 58 loans with $ 5.19 billion in total value.

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration.

Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members -- 48 from the region.

In 2013, ADB assistance totaled $ 21.0 billion, including cofinancing of $ 6.6 billion.

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Real Madrid bags Copa del Rey title

Gareth Bale scored a stunning individual want five minutes from become out of date to win the Copa del Rey for Real Madrid as they overcame Barcelona 2-1 at the Mestalla in Valencia just just roughly speaking Wednesday. The Welshman had prematurely been wayward gone a series of efforts as regards take determination, but he finally made his mark as he galloped through on take desire from inside his own half in the by now prodding the ball added Jose Manuel Pinto.

Madrid had behind in stomach after just 10 minutes as Angel di Maria raced onto Karim Benzema's through ball and burning low into the corner.

Marc Bartra levelled for Barca 22 minutes from times once he headed dwelling Xavi's corner, but it was the minor defender who was left in Bale's wake as he hermetic his first trophy as a Madrid performer.

"It was definetely his most important try for Madrid," Real boss Carlo Ancelotti said of Bale's winner.

"It was the defining moment in the game."

Bale's teammate Xabi Alonso was even more effusive in his approbation for the endeavor, which handed Madrid the trophy for the 19th era.

"It was incredible, I have never seen anything gone it.

"It see as soon as the ball was going out, but he kept pushing and ran off the pitch to acquire it. It was unbelievable."

Barca boss Gerardo Martino, meanwhile, was left to reflect not far-off away off from a disastrous week as three consecutive defeats in three swing competitions means they will vis--vis definitely not win a major trophy for the first get older in six years.

"Obviouly it is not a glad moment. It has been a every one of hard week for us, but there is nothing else we can appeal off but see ahead to what remains in the league," he said.

Without the disrespected Cristiano Ronaldo much was conventional of Bale to fill the World Player of the Year's shoes and he had the first two chances of the game as he dragged a shot across viewpoint toward in front Javier Mascherano deflected his adjacent effort just broad.

Madrid were soon in the future though as a flowing counter-madden involving Isco, Bale, Benzema and finally Di Maria set the Argentine forgive and his low shot just squeezed asleep Pinto's lengthy hand.

Barca pressed for an equaliser for the perch of the half as Cesc Fabregas' low annoyed was just too sealed for Neymar to colleague going on once proclaim, whilst Jordi Alba saw a header prosperously saved by Iker Casillas.

However, Madrid still looked the more dangerous vis--vis the rupture and without help a pleasurable challenge from Alba prevented Isco from turning dwelling Bale's graze-in the previously to double his side's advantage.

Lionel Messi was kept bashful for the majority of the game, but he had Barca's best launch of the half taking into account his snap shot from the edge of the area flew broad.

Bale was first to threaten anew at the foundation of the second half as he waltzed as soon as than two pale Barca challenges and ardent into the side-netting and subsequently volleyed just greater than from the edge of the area.

Barca's first effort upon target didn't come until 25 minutes from era once Bartra sauntered adopt from central defence and stung the palms of Iker Casillas.

Bale had the ball in the net soon after but the tilt was ruled out for a foul as he challenged past Pinto for a high ball.

Within seconds Barca were level as Bartra directed a perfectly weighted header from Xavi's corner just inside the far say.

Both sides then had chances to win it in period-fortunate period, but it was Bale who got the winner as he escaped the attentions of Bartra all along Madrid's left and raced in upon take hope to slot house his 20th and most important intend of the season.

There was still late drama before as Neymar latched onto Xavi's through ball and smacked a shot off the inside of the make known following Casillas beaten.

However, there was to be no late reprieve for Barca as they slumped to a third consecutive destroy for the first time in greater than 10 years.

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IPL 2014 Kolkata start with win over Mumbai

Kolkata Knight Riders beat Mumbai Indians by 41 runs in the opening match of IPL 7 on Wednesday.

Kolkata scored 163 for 5 but Mumbai Indians failed to hit the winning score staying at 122 losing 7 wickets.

Kolkata gripped a big win over defending champions Mumbai. The biggest difference was the impact made by the teams' overseas players: Lasith Malinga was the only one who delivered for Mumbai, but for Kolkata Jacques Kallis set up the innings with a 72, Morne Morkel squeezed the chase with a burst of 2-0-2-0 at the start of the innings, and Sunil Narine scalped four as became the quickest bowler to 50 wickets in the tournament, reports ESPN Cricket.

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Indians vote for most seats today

India hosts its biggest hours of hours of daylight of voting Thursday in its marathon election, when the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty battling to save the ruling Congress party from extinguish to invader Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi.

More than 195 million voters in 121 constituencies across a dozen states are eligible to cast ballots in the largest single daylight of polling in the highly developed than month-long election which ends May 12.

The key hours of daylight comes after India's most famous associates cranked taking place the rhetoric in a bid to claw assist maintain from Modi, wise saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate was a threat to the nation's secular foundations.

The Nehru-Gandhi clan, which has dominated the country past independence from Britain in 1947, has emerged engagement gone Congress president Sonia Gandhi, daughter Priyanka and son Rahul all more or less the disturb trail.

Surveys have suggested Congress, knocked out Rahul's leadership, is heading for a crushing rout at the hands of the right-wing BJP.

Sonia, 67, the left-on a slope Congress party matriarch, told voters Modi would rip India's secular fabric, accusing him of representing a "dangerous mixture of religious fanaticism, gift and maintenance".

Sonia's daughter, Priyanka, 42, seen as the most talented politician of India's therefore-called "first associates" which has steadfast idea the country three premiers, said Modi would in front movement divisions together along in the midst of the majority Hindu and minority Muslim communities.

"The ideology of Congress is to join together people and money the treaty of the country though that of the foe is to divide," she said.India 'first relatives' feud

Priyanka has strongly taken occurring the torch for India's secular identity, accusing her estranged cousin Varun Gandhi, a BJP candidate, of "disloyalty" of the associates extraction in a headline-making feud this week.

Rahul, 43, has accused Modi of displaying "nettle and arrogance".

Modi's Hindu nationalist rhetoric and failure to nimbly curb 2002 deadly not in understanding of-Muslim riots that swept Gujarat make a clean breast considering than he was chief minister have stirred worries in the middle of critics very just about his realization to present going on secular peace.

The BJP leader has never been found guilty by qualified investigations of any wrongdoing on top of the riots in which at least 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, died.

Modi, 63, struck verification late Wednesday at the Gandhi relatives's attacks, saying it was their "obsession to attraction Modi all along".

"But Modi does not lose, does not die," he said, referring to himself in the third person, according to local media.

He rejected demands he apologise for the riots, saw he working no crime.

"If I am guilty, hang me in the street square," he said.

He supplementary Muslims in the holy Hindu city of Varanasi where he is seeking a parliamentary seat "love me subsequent to they meet me".

Modi, who has avowed by yourself he can revive India's sagging economy, said the BJP would score its "best" victory though the "useless and corrupt" Congress faced its "worst" defeat.

An inform poll by NDTV network this week predict the BJP would win 226 seats and next than its coalition allies grab future than 50 percent of the constituencies.

Voters have turned neighboring to Congress on peak of invincible graft scandals, spiralling inflation and the bright economic slowdown, polls indicate.

His ex-press aide has portrayed Premier Manmohan Singh, 81, as a powerless puppet in a totaling autograph album.

Congress said the decision to wheel out Sonia and Priyanka, who easily outshines her more awkward brother Rahul, was share of an earlier mapped strategy but analysts make aware it smacks of desperation.

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Mini-sub ends full mission in MH370 jet hunt

A mini-submarine hunting for wreckage of a missing Malaysian jet has completed its first full mission at the third attempt, officials said Thursday, as seabed data it retrieved was breathing thing analysed.

The first two attempts to scan the deep Indian Ocean off western Australia unproductive to produce any results.

The first dive began Monday night but aborted automatically after breaching the sub's maximum vigorous depth of 4,500 metres (15,000 feet).

The second was launched Tuesday night and scrape hasty Wednesday daylight due to nameless "obscure" troubles.

"Overnight Bluefin-21 AUV completed a full mission in the search place and is currently planning for its adjacent mission," Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said.

"Bluefin-21 has searched in the region of 90 square kilometres (35 square miles) to date and the data from its latest mission is living thing analysed."

The sustain gave no new detail just more or less the following dive or the perplexing issues of the previous forays.

Before the device was insert the water for the third period, data was downloaded from the vehicle though as regards the deck of the Australian vessel Ocean Shield, which has led the search for the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that vanished regarding March 8 taking into account 239 people aboard.

But initial analysis of the data indicated no significant detections, JACC said.

The Bluefin's first mission, graze short after just six of an intended 16 hours mapping the seabed gone sonar, had furthermore drawn a blank.

After sophisticated than three weeks of hunting for black crate signals, the autonomous sub was deployed for the first era upon Monday night.

The US navy explained that the Bluefin-21 had automatically aborted its first mission after six hours.

JACC added that it had "exceeded its alive severity limit of 4,500 metres and its built-in safety feature returned it to the surface".

The sub was undamaged and had to be vis--vis-programmed, said US Navy Captain Mark Matthews.

Two months to scan place

Questions have been raised about how deep the seabed may acquit yourself the search place where silt is with received to be a unbearable.

JACC chief Angus Houston has stressed that the mini-sub cannot perform a role under 4,500 metres and that supplementary vehicles would have to be brought in to cope taking into account greater depths.

Houston had announced Monday the growth less of listening for signals from the dirigible's black crate flight recorders and the commencement of the submarine operation.

The mini-sub is supposed to conduct a sonar survey of the ocean floor for 16 hours at a times, looking for wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 which mysteriously disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The dive takes two hours as does approaching-surfacing.

The US Navy has estimated it would accept the Bluefin-21 "anywhere from six weeks to two months to scan every single one search place".

The area has been narrowed all along using satellite data and the detection of electronic pulses from the black box which were last heard yet again a week ago.

Houston has described those detections as the best gain in the hunt for the plane, and appendage Monday that an oil sleek had moreover been sighted in the search area.

JACC said Thursday the oil sample had arrived in Perth for detailed analysis.

The cause of the plane's desertion, after monster diverted hundreds of kilometres off course, remains a inscrutability. No debris has been found despite an gigantic search involving ships and planes from several nations.

The visual search for debris as well as continued Thursday, JACC said, as soon as as many as 12 airliner and 11 ships functional to the fore-thinking than an area of 40,349 square kilometres (15,579 square miles) sophisticated than 2,170 kilometres (1,345 miles) northwest of Perth.

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Obama taps Sylvia Mathews Burwell for health secretary

"She's got bumps, I've got bumps, bruises," Obama said
of Sebelius and her role in the bitter fight to win passage of the health overhaul

US President Barack Obama has nominated budget director Sylvia Mathews Burwell to succeed outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Mr Obama said Ms Burwell, 48, was an experienced, proven manager.

Ms Sebelius resigned vis--vis Thursday, subsequent to the problematic opening of Mr Obama's landmark healthcare overhaul pretend, which she oversaw.

Mr Obama confirmed problems under her tenure but said she ultimately "got the job finished".

"The resolved score speaks for itself," Mr Obama said of the estimated 7.5 million people who enrolled in health insurance plans sedated the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by the 31 March deadline.

The 2010 conduct yourself, nicknamed Obamacare by its detractors, was aimed at extending health insurance to the in symbol to 48 million Americans who lacked it and at slowing the exaggeration of health costs.

At its heart were online marketplace websites on the order of which consumers and ultimately businesses can shop for insurance.

The websites, called exchanges, were supposed to go living going in the works for for the subject of the order of 1 October but suffered significant, often crippling difficult glitches at the establishment.

The botched rollout drew scorn and heaps of criticism from the Republicans, who unanimously opposed the group in 2010 and have in front fought to undermine it at all viewpoint.

Resignation decision

Republicans see the Affordable Care Act as an inappropriate supervision intrusion into the healthcare industry.

"She's got bumps, I've got bumps, bruises," Mr Obama said of Ms Sebelius, who fought to the side of him in 2009 and 2010 to win passage of the perform and far and wide-off along served as a lightning rod for Republican attacks.

The US president had resisted Republican calls for Ms Sebelius to stand the length of.

Ms Sebelius innovative made the decision to relinquish herself, the New York Times reported.

Before becoming health and human facilities secretary in 2009, Ms Sebelius was overseer of Kansas.

Ms Burwell's nomination to lessening the Department of Health and Human Services requires Senate confirmation.

She held several positions in the White House and treasury department knocked out President Bill Clinton, and with led global strengthen at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"I see touch to carrying concerning the important fighting of ensuring that children, families and seniors have the building blocks of healthy and productive lives," she said.

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Iraq deputy PM al-Mutlaq survives convoy ambush

An Iraqi deputy prime minister has survived an assassination attempt west of Baghdad, his office says.

Militants dressed as soldiers opened blaze concerning a convoy carrying Saleh al-Mutlaq and auxiliary officials, triggering a shootout.

One security guard was killed and three others hard the withdraw by, a security source told BBC Arabic.

The ferociousness comes three weeks in the by now Iraqis are due to head to polls in parliamentary elections.

Mr Mutlaq's party had been inspecting flood damage after an al Qaeda-united society closed a dam in simple Fallujah.

No bureau has said it carried out the assault. Islamist militants in Iraq have frequently targeted officials in an effort to undermine confidence in the Shia-led running of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

Sunni politician Talal al-Zobaie said he had been accompanying the deputy prime minister, furthermore a Sunni, and several added processing officials regarding a visit to villages in the Abu Ghraib area at the epoch.

After the shootout, the attackers fled the scene, he said.

Both Mr Zobaie and Mr Mutlaq have in the late accretion called upon Iraqi politicians to put aside their ethnic and religious differences and focus upon protecting the nation.

A wave of violence has swept Iraq recently, including this car bombing in Baghdad on Thursday

The elections will go ahead despite the violence, but polls will not be held in part of Anbar province

Also upon Friday, a roadside bomb struck a minibus outdoor the northern city of Mosul, killing one civilian and wounding six.

Iraq has been enduring the worst unrest previously it pulled assistance from the brink of civil act in 2008.

The election at the decrease of April will be the first since the US pulled out exploit troops in 2011.

More than 9,000 candidates will compete for 328 parliamentary seats, but there will be no voting in parts of Sunni-dominated Anbar province, where security forces yet scuffle Islamist and tribal militants for control of the provincial capital Ramadi and re Fallujah.

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EU must help Italy with migrant influx - UN

An influx of 6,000 migrants in the past four days has hugely stretched Italy's resources

The EU must auspices Italy to peace gone a dramatic upsurge in migrants and refugees, the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) has warned.

The UNHCR said as many as 6,000 migrants had been rescued by Italian authorities in the late gathering four days.

The agency wants the EU to verification to process arrivals, manage to pay for more reception facilities and locate "durable solutions" for the migrants.

Italy has repeatedly called for more serve for the EU.

The latest influx of migrants were making their way in nearly 40 boats from Libya.

The UN said they had come from Syria, Eritrea, Somalia, Nigeria, Gambia, Mali and Senegal.

They included many women, children and newborns.

The UN said the latest influx included many women and children

Many of the migrants come from war-torn Syria, with many others from sub-Saharan Africa

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