Silencing critics, journalists, students, and activists did not subside in Bangladesh last year, rather the landslide victory of Awami League in December 2018 elections seemed only to have emboldened authorities in their crackdown, the Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

Police officials, from now on, will also be posted at the Border Guard Bangladesh, mainly with the responsibility to make flawless seizure lists and prepare cases.

The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) is going to conduct a survey for assessing necessary infrastructure that would be required to start collecting tolls on the four-lane highways across the country.

People’s rights to freedom of speech is at stake now, BNP lawmaker Rumeen Farhana told parliament yesterday.

An Australian student arrested for spying and expelled from North Korea last year said he was forced to write a false confession while held incommunicado.

A new virus from the same family as the deadly SARS pathogen could have been spread between family members in the Chinese city of Wuhan, local authorities said yesterday.

Russia’s government resigned in a shock announcement yesterday after President Vladimir Putin proposed a shake-up of the constitution.

The Islamic State group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for an attack on an army base in western Niger on January 9 that killed scores of soldiers, the monitoring group SITE said.

The United States warned Sudan Tuesday that payment of reparations for victims of terrorism is a priority for Washington as it considers removing Khartoum from a US blacklist.

Hopes of containing Australia’s months-long bushfire crisis rose yesterday with heavy rain forecast, but toxic smoke in Melbourne disrupted warm-up events for the year’s first tennis Grand Slam.

An American citizen whose case was raised by top US leaders died Monday after more than six years in custody in Egypt, his representatives said, drawing criticism by Washington of its authoritarian ally.

Deepening engagement in information and cultural exchange, Bangladesh and India yesterday jointly launched radio programmes to be aired by Bangladesh Betar and All India Radio.

Faced with rampant drug violence and homicides at record highs, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s government is preparing far-reaching reforms of Mexico’s justice system to combat insecurity and a culture of impunity, officials said on Monday.

Amid huge criticism, the government yesterday withdrew the circular banning publication of any public hospital’s information without the consent from the authorities concerned.

At least 59 people were killed and many more were missing after avalanches in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir over the last 24 hours, senior government officials said yesterday.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has expressed his disappointment with India’s new Citizenship Amendment Act and expressed his desire that Bangladeshi immigrants would help create the next unicorn in India or become the CEO of Infosys.

The Mainamati-Lalmai hillocks on the campus premises of Comilla University are at risk.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the Bangladeshi envoys to strengthen the country’s relations with the Muslim countries.

The BNP lawmakers walked out of parliament last night following an argument with two senior Awami League MPs over holding the upcoming Dhaka city polls in a free and fair manner.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, today begins her final mission, which will last till January 23.