Newspaper owners yesterday urged the government to bring down the taxes in the next national budget as the sector looks to stage a comeback after being battered by the pandemic.

Genocide Watch, a US-based organisation, has formally recognised the crimes committed by the Pakistani military forces against the people of Bangladesh in 1971 as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

A one-litre bottle of soybean oil will now cost Tk 168, as the commerce ministry yesterday agreed to the refiners’ proposal of hiking the prices of edible oils.

Rab yesterday arrested five members of a robbery gang and seized arms and ammunition following a “gunfight” in the Jangal Salimpur area of Chattogram city.

China and the World Health Organization have discussed the need for “stronger collaboration” on tracing the origins of Covid-19, amid tensions over the WHO’s plans to further investigate the theory that the virus could have leaked from a Wuhan lab.

A five-year-old boy died after falling from the rooftop of a building in Dhaka’s Uttar Jatrabari area yesterday afternoon.

Police arrested a woman and seized 10,000 pieces of yaba pills from her in the capital’s Kurmitola area yesterday.

US Congressman Gregory W Meeks yesterday said he believes sanctions can be most useful when they are targeted but wholesale sanctions on Bangladesh are currently not warranted.

The new Paxovir will be a game changer in treating Covid-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms as it reduces the need for hospitalisation and risk of death by almost 89 percent, said speakers at a scientific seminar yesterday.

A Rab team arrested a 55-year-old man yesterday for raping a minor in Joypurhat’s Khetlal upazila.

Environmentalists caught a wildlife trafficker and handed him to Rab in Sylhet city’s Shahi Eidgah area.

Criminals yesterday attacked a school, where locals were being trained on voting with electronic voting machines (EVMs) ahead of the seventh phase of the union parisha polls tomorrow.

Terminating the candidature of Zayed Khan, an appellate department yesterday declared Nipun Akter the new general sectary of Bangladesh Film Actors’ Association.

The Covid-19 pandemic started to ease around the world this week after a three-and-a-half-month rampage of ever-increasing infections, AFP data published yesterday showed.

SM Rezaul Karim, minister for fisheries and livestock, yesterday said the foreign animals in Bangladeshi safari parks and zoos are dying from infectious diseases.

The daily death toll from Covid-19 rose again yesterday as the health directorate reported 36 deaths in 24 hours till 8:00am, up from 30 the previous day.

The Department of Environment has failed to comply with a High Court directive that asked it to stop the use of single-use plastic in hotels, motels, and restaurants of coastal areas in two years.

Around 11:30am, (on February 21, 1952) police fired tear gas as students started coming out of the university in groups. Initially, we kept a list of those who were coming out as well as those who were arrested. But it was no longer possible after a while as students rushed out in large numbers.

Journalist Peer Habibur Rahman died while undergoing treatment at the Intensive Care Unit of LabAid Hospital in the capital yesterday.

Multiple regions of the country have been facing light to moderate rain since yesterday morning, triggering chilly weather conditions.