Patuakhali town in summer's blazing heat is more than usually parched. A drop in the water level in tube well pipes to around 32 feet below the surface, caused by a corresponding dip in subterranean water tables, has left around half of the town's 1,150 wells inoperable. In the midst of a serious water crisis, town-dwellers are worried.

Argentina has asked Russia to arrest former Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati for extradition in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

Three alleged drug peddlers, including an elder brother of suspended Sramik League leader Tufan Sarkar, were killed in “gunfights” in Bogra, Tangail and Jessore yesterday.

Brazil has taken a stand against the explosion of "fake news" stories swamping the internet by making media analysis studies compulsory for schoolchildren.

Police arrested five youths in the city's Chawkbazar and Bahaddarhat areas overnight Thursday over raping a college student four days ago.

The UN yesterday voiced alarm at accounts of "barbaric violence" in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, warning conditions for the 150,000 people returning to the area after fleeing the intercommunal strife are "grim".

The mother of Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, who has refused food for 60 days, has appealed to President Vladimir Putin to free her son as hopes faded that the Kremlin critic would get out of a Russian prison alive.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday met with survivors of devastating rains that killed at least 204 people in flash flooding and landslides, as the government pledged more aid.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi yesterday went to Basra hoping to restore calm in the southern city, which has been gripped by protests over unemployment, his office said.

The UN Security Council yesterday imposed an arms embargo on South Sudan and sanctions on two military officials, ratcheting up pressure after the latest diplomatic efforts failed to end nearly five years of war.

Miscreants have beaten up an upazila parishad chairman after failing to kidnap him from Court area of the district.

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Dhaka yesterday on a three-day visit to discuss expanding cooperation, strengthening ties and exploring ways to boost the India-Bangladesh joint anti-terror mechanism.

The construction of the second reactor unit of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant starts today.

New Zealand scientists have performed the first-ever 3-D, colour X-ray on a human, using a technique that promises to improve the field of medical diagnostics, said Europe's CERN physics lab which contributed imaging technology.

Unidentified criminals hacked and shot dead an activist of United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) in Khagrachhari town yesterday.

Inspector Mamun Islam Khan was killed by a gang of blackmailers, detectives said yesterday.

Bangladesh has handed over a list of drug dealers to Myanmar who fled to the neighbouring country amid the ongoing nationwide anti-narcotics drive.

On July 6, a nine-year-old boy was stopped at Damdamia check post in Cox's Bazar by the BGB, upon receiving information that Rohingya women and children were being used as drug mules.

The High Court yesterday extended till July 19 its earlier order that granted bail to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrives in Dhaka this evening on a three-day official tour of Bangladesh to facilitate a comprehensive review of current bilateral relations and sign deals for further liberalising the existing visa regime and cooperation between the two countries' police forces.