Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque yesterday compared the breeding capacity of Aedes mosquitos with that of the Rohingyas and claimed the rapid spread of mosquito population is the reason behind the increased number of dengue patients.

Australian universities are being investigated over their contracts with Chinese-state run Confucius Institutes, officials said yesterday, amid fresh revelations over the scope of Beijing’s control of teaching in the centres.

A Supreme Court lawyer yesterday filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking its directive on the government to transfer Barguna’s Rifat Sharif murder case to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) or the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) for proper investigation.

A daredevil French inventor yesterday failed in his attempt to fly across the Channel from France to Britain standing on a jet-powered “flyboard”, having to be rescued after falling into the sea, his team said.

Four-year-old Tahsin Tuba plays with a doll that her mother had given her just two weeks ago. Minutes later, she puts the doll away and starts watching cartoons.

World temperatures rose faster in the late 20th century than at any other time in the last 2,000 years, according to research released Wednesday which experts said undermines climate deniers’ questioning of mankind’s role in global warming.

The wife of Pirojpur Sadar upazila assistant commissioner (land) was stabbed again in Pirojpur town yesterday. Aditi Boral, 27, is the wife of Ramananda Pal. She is also the daughter of Awami League leader Kalidas Boral of Chitalmari upazila, who was killed in Bagerhat town in 2000.

Cambodia yesterday rubbished reports of a deal allowing China to use a naval base as “ill-intended” and aimed at inciting unrest in a country whose public is increasingly uneasy about Beijing’s growing influence.

Police yesterday detained five men in connection with the death of a 10-year-old madrasa student at Alamdanga upazila in Chuadanga yesterday.

Expecting to see the commencement of Rohingya repatriation before September, Bangladesh has urged the UN to work more in Rakhine State of Myanmar to help create a conducive environment so that the Rohingyas can return to their place of origin.

“They work for me night and day,” smiles Antonio Zamora, standing in his greenhouse. His minuscule employees are bugs that feed on the parasites threatening his peppers.

An Awami League leader was hacked to death in Bandarban’s Lama upazila last night, just around 34 hours into the murder of another AL leader in the district.

Boris Johnson took over as Britain’s new prime minister yesterday vowing to prove the “gloomsters” wrong and get a new deal to leave the European Union on October 31 -- or exit without one.

The Prime Minister’s Office yesterday issued a set of directives asking government agencies to launch a social awareness campaign against rumours behind the recent mob attacks.

Flood situation has started worsening again in some northern districts as rivers are swelling due to heavy downpour and onrush of water from across the border.

Chattogram Customs House seized a huge consignment of alcohol, imported as capital machinery for a power plant, from three barges in the Karnaphuli river on Tuesday night. The consignment was offloaded on to the barges from a mother vessel from China.

River communications across the country came to a near halt yesterday as water transport workers and owners enforced strike and counter-strike that caused huge public sufferings.

Two suspected drug peddlers including a Rohingya man were killed in a “gunfight” with Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday night.

The impasse over financing of the expansion of 214-kilometre Dhaka-Sylhet Highway into four lanes is likely to end soon, as Asian Develop-ment Bank has given “consent” to fund the project, officials said.

A crackdown on unregistered migrants in Istanbul has seen 6,000 arrests including Syrians in the past two weeks, the interior minister said yesterday.