Businesses yesterday welcomed the budget as the government proposed some new initiatives which would aid growth, give rise to new entrepreneurs and enable more people to enjoy benefits of social safety net programmes.

The government has resorted to deficit financing, largely through bank borrowing and sale of high-cost savings certificates, increasing the interest payment burden on its shoulders and fuelling inflation.

Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) has prepared a report claiming that it has removed most of the 52 substandard food items from the market across the country and filed 52 cases against the companies concerned as per the High Court directives.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday proposed doubling the subsidy for the gas sector to Tk 9,600 crore for 2019-20, from Tk 4,500 crore in the previous year.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has expressed deep concern over the delay in forcefully displaced Rohingyas repatriation from Bangladesh to Myanmar.

More than a year ago, when Mohammad Zayed graduated from a university college in the capital, his family started expecting that he would soon take over the financial responsibility.

A rescue boat carrying around 75 migrants, most of them from Bangladesh, has been stuck off Tunisia for 12 days after authorities refused to let them disembark, the Red Crescent said on Tuesday.

BNP lawmakers have been directed by the party’s acting Chairman Tarique Rahman to be vocal during today’s budget session in parliament, said party insiders.

The Rapid Action Battlion (Rab) arrested a man on charges of raping and killing a woman in Narsingdi’s Shibpur.

With celebratory speeches, a new statue and a visit from former US president Bill Clinton, Kosovo yesterday marked 20 years since the Nato intervention that ended its war with Serbia and cleared a path for independence.

US President Donald Trump accidentally revealed Tuesday that Mexico agreed to take stronger legal action to halt Central American migrants if its initial efforts to stem the flow don’t show results in 45 days.

More than 50 people including opposition leader Alexei Navalny were detained yesterday as police sought to break up a peaceful Moscow rally against the alleged impunity of law enforcement agencies.

People worldwide could be ingesting five grammes of microscopic plastic particles every week, equivalent in weight to a credit card, researchers said yesterday.

A total 25,526 people got killed while 19,763 suffered injuries in road accidents over the past decade, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said yesterday.

Hong Kong was yesterday rocked by the worst political unrest since its handover to China, as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who tried to storm parliament and blocked roads in the financial hub.

A businessman was shot dead in broad daylight allegedly by a group of unidentified criminals in Bijoypur area of Natore’s Lalpur upazila yesterday.

The Islamic extremists behind Sri Lanka’s deadly Easter bombings received funding from state intelligence services, a top Muslim leader told a parliamentary investigation.

Myanmar has not kept its pledge of creating conditions conducive to Rohingya repatriation, and is spreading lies about Bangladesh, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said yesterday.

Bangladesh ranked among the least peaceful countries in the world in the Global Peace Index 2019, slipping down eight notches from last year.

Nine people, including five children, were injured after a part of the ceiling broke off and fell on them in the children’s ward of Noakhali General Hospital yesterday morning.