Labour unrest in Bangladesh's apparel industry persisted throughout Dhaka and Savar for three straight days with clashes and police action being reported from multiple locations. In Savar, at least 20 people were hurt in clashes during demonstrations at Hemayetpur on Tuesday morning (January 8). The clash ensued when police fired several tear gas canisters and charged batons to disperse demonstrators from taking possession of a main road in the area.

At least 10 to 12 policemen were also injured as the agitating workers hurled brick chunks, Sana Shaminur Rahman, superintendent of Dhaka industrial police, said. Meanwhile in Ashulia, hundreds of the workers clashed with police when they were barred to block a road there around 8:00am, industrial police source said.

Saudi Arabia deported at least 13 Rohingya, held indefinitely by the kingdom, from a Jeddah detention centre early today. Abdur Rahman, additional superintendent of police of the Armed Police Battalion at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, said the Rohingyas arrived in Dhaka around 2:00am on January 8.

"They have admitted that they are Rohingyas but they have Bangladeshi passports," he said. Upon interrogation, they have been detained by the immigration police. A London-based news portal covering events in the Middle East earlier reported that Saudi Arabia was going to deport to Bangladesh scores of Rohingyas.

Officials of Forest Department recovered 30 kilograms of venison from a boat in Pashur River at Chila in Mongla upazila. Being tipped-off, a team of Forest Department conducted a drive in the area at night and challenged a boat, said Md Mahmudul Hasan, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Sundarbans East Zone. Sensing danger, a four-member poaching gang fled the scene leaving the boat.

Later, the team recovered the venison hidden inside the boat. The team has identified the poachers as residents of different villages in the upazila, said the official adding that necessary action would be taken against them.

Bangladesh has been ranked 41st among the world's largest economies in 2019, moving up two notches from last year's. The country has become the second biggest economy in South Asia, according to an analysis by a London-based think-tank.

Among the other South Asian countries, India is ranked 5th, Pakistan 44th, Sri Lanka 66th, Nepal 101st, Afghanistan 115th, the Maldives 156th, and Bhutan 166th, in the World Economic League Table, published annually by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). The United States tops the table, followed by China, Japan, Germany and India. The report which forecasts the fortunes of 193 countries to 2033 says China is likely to overtake the US as the world's number one economy in 2032, two years later than previously expected, due to a more lax monetary policy and lower exchange rate.

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