The people of the country’s southern districts are elated over the inauguration of the Padma Bridge today.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was taken home from Evercare Hospital yesterday as doctors feared she might get Covid amid rising cases in the country.

The number of coronavirus cases rose to 1,685 yesterday, the highest in the last four months.

A man allegedly hacked his wife, her mother and uncle to death in Sherpur’s Sreebordi upazila on Thursday night.

There is a “real risk” of multiple famines this year, UN chief Antonio Guterres said yesterday and urged ministers meeting on food security to take practical steps to stabilise food markets and reduce commodity price volatility.

Record floods were expected in parts of southern China yesterday as heavy rains pushed water levels in the Pearl River delta to their highest in almost a century.

The government has slashed import duty on rice until October 31 to help increase the supply of the staple and stabilise the domestic market, according to a notification issued yesterday.

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday said it is reviewing the “white paper” that named 116 religious leaders and Islamic speakers for their “involvement in laundering money, funding militancy and spreading communal hatred”. 

Organised rescue efforts are struggling to reach the site of an earthquake in Afghanistan that has killed more than 1,000 people, as survivors dig through the rubble by hand to find those still missing. 

Criminals shot dead a so-called Arsa member at a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar’ Ukhiya upazila on Wednesday evening, said police.

At least 1,319 new Covid-19 cases were recorded, against the 9,214 samples tested, in the 24 hours till 8:00am yesterday, while one death was reported during the period.

European leaders formally accepted Ukraine as a candidate to join the EU yesterday, a bold geopolitical move triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but a reminder that the 27-nation bloc will need a major overhaul as it looks to enlarge again.

Police yesterday arrested a man for his alleged involvement in the rape of his co-worker at a restaurant in Narsingdi.

A BNP leader was hacked to death in Narsingdi’s Kath Bazar area on Wednesday night.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics has extended the time of the ongoing population and housing census by seven days for four flood-hit districts.

Vikram Kumar Doraiswami, Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh, said the Padma Bridge will contribute to greater connectivity between Bangladesh and India and in the sub-region supporting the BBIN initiative.

Bangladesh’s first education act, which will be sent to the cabinet division next week for approval, orders a ban on printing, publishing and marketing notebooks and guidebooks -- a menace to the country’s education system.

“Massive” Russian bombardment of the strategic eastern city of Lysychansk and key city Severodonetsk has been “hell” for soldiers there, Kyiv said, while insisting that defenders would hold “as long as necessary”.

The High Court yesterday granted six weeks’ anticipatory bail to BNP Joint Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal in a case filed under the Digital Security Act for making derogatory comments about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

A total of 15,708 candidates have passed the 44th Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) preliminary exams.