Schools for more than 168 million children globally have been completely closed for almost an entire year due to Covid-19 lockdowns, according to new data released by Unicef yesterday.

A total of 26,695 rape cases have been filed across the country in the past five years, said a short report submitted by the office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to the High Court yesterday.

By-elections to the Laxmipur-2 constituency will be held on April 11 as Kazi Papul’s position got vacated on the grounds of moral turpitude after his conviction in Kuwait for bribery.

To replenish the country’s fast-depleting food stock, the government has approved a proposal to lessen the time of bidding process by over a month for ensuring a faster import of rice.

In a statement issued on March 4, 1971, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman asked government and non-government offices where employees had not yet been paid their salaries, to function between 2:30 pm and 4:30pm for the purposes of disbursing salaries during the next two days of hartal.

South Korean Hyundai Rotem Company has supplied 10 locomotives to Bangladesh Railway deviating from some clauses of the contract, a probe committee has found.

Managing Director of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah has been appointed chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Three people, including the wife and son of a newly-elected municipality mayor, were killed as a microbus and a bus collided head-on on the Dhaka-Khulna highway in Faridpur’s Nagarkanda upazila last night.

A Dhaka court has exempted BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia from personal appearance in the Niko graft case.

Noted singer Jane Alam passed away yesterday at the Bangaban-dhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital around 10:00pm.

The High Court yesterday expressed utmost dissatisfaction and disappointment with the Anti-Corruption Commission for the long delay in completing investigations in the cases over BASIC Bank loan scams.

Children around the world have lost more than a third of the standard global 190-day school year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Save the Children said yesterday.

Police yesterday beefed up security in Rajshahi division centering a rally of the BNP, causing interruption in road communication and immense sufferings to people.

A thana-level leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League was hacked to death in Singair upazila of Manikganj early yesterday.

One of the main suspects in the murder in Libya of 30 mostly Bangladeshi migrants last year was arrested on Monday, authorities in Tripoli said.

At a meeting organised at Paltan Maidan, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman urged the authorities to withdraw forces from the city and hand over power to the elected representatives of the people. He also called for launching a no-tax campaign.

The High Court yesterday directed the Department of Environment (DoE) to take appropriate legal action against 30 washing plants in Keraniganj for polluting the Buriganga.

The government is going to relocate around 3,800 more Rohingyas to Bhasan Char by tomorrow from different refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.

A painting of Marrakesh by Britain’s famed wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, owned by Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, smashed expectations to sell for £7 million ($9.75 million) at auction in London on Monday.

Myanmar’s neighbours yesterday pressed its ruling military to release ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and cease what Singapore called the disastrous use of lethal force against opponents of their February 1 coup and work out a solution to the crisis.