Reaz Ahmad

In the last five years, as many as 2,733 people have been rescued from the clutches of human traffickers in Cox's Bazar. And 242 cases were filed against some 1,355 people over the incidents. However, not a single one has been disposed of.

As two successive attempts to import rice from Thailand and India have apparently fallen through for high prices, the government is now seeking to buy the staple from Cambodia.

A globally banned toxic pesticide caused an outbreak of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), killing 13 children in Dinajpur in 2012, says a study published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene on Monday.

Before landing at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Zhu Ruo lin saw Dhaka from a bird's eye view and also took some photographs.

Over the last five years, more women got married at a younger age while men's average age of marriage kept going up. Last year, women's average age of marriage was 18.8 years, dropping from 19.3 in 2012. During the period, that for men rose to 26.3 from 24.7.

Governance failings and appointment of politically linked people to the boards of public banks have been contributing to default on large loans, frequent scams and poor recovery of stolen money.

This year's unusual hike in rice prices caught Food Minister Qamrul Islam napping. Both Qamrul and the ministry he leads seemed ill prepared all along, but the minister has his own logic for that. “I'm no astrologer,” he told The Daily Star, "How could I possibly anticipate that there would be such a devastating flood?"

Bangladesh is now trying to buy rice from Thailand and India under the government-to-government arrangement, weeks after striking a G2G deal to import the staple from Vietnam.

It is indeed a fiesta of foliages and plants. A riot of colours; colours of flowers - that come in all shades and hues.

It was mainly the pressure from big businesses that led to the government's backtracking on its decision to implement the new VAT law. Appeasing the people in general was not much of a reason, which the government has been touting. The late u-turn of the government last month has left the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in a spot of bother, as it now has to fill a gaping hole in its revenue collection target.

There are about 10 million out-of-school children, adolescents and youths in Bangladesh, says a new Unesco policy paper.

Bangladesh has emerged as a leading wheat importer in the world with its import volume hitting a record high in the current fiscal year, mainly due to a shift in consumers' diet preference and flourishing baked food market.

A minister was telling me the other day that if people don't mind spending Tk. 300 on a cheese burger, why can't they afford a little more for rice?

Rice import by the private sector has dropped to a four-year low at a time when its prices have shot up in the domestic market. Traders imported only 1.2 lakh tonnes of rice till mid-June in the current fiscal year against 2.56 lakh tonnes in the previous fiscal year.

The government yesterday sanctioned 2.5 lakh tonnes of rice import from Vietnam at prices much higher than that of another one lakh tonnes it approved for import two weeks ago.

Considering the fast approaching general election in Bangladesh and a likely post-Brexit economic slowdown in Europe, the International Monetary Fund has identified seven risk areas where Dhaka needs to take policy measures.

When the price of garlic in China is plummeting with a huge harvest in the country's north, Bangladesh is seeing price hike of imported garlic.

The government will keep aside almost three-fourths of the proposed increase in the social safety net allocation for giving retirement benefits to public employees in the next fiscal year.

It's a life-saving drug often prescribed by doctors for patients with serious kidney and liver problems and also for newborns with a blood-related disease. But to get this already pricey drug called albumin, patients will have to pay more, thanks to the imposition of 15 percent value added tax (VAT) on it on top of a 4 percent advance income tax (AIT) and 5 percent advance trade VAT (ATV).

Among the essential commodities, coarse rice price registered the highest rise in the last one year, according to the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) which keeps track of prices of daily necessities.