Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain yesterday said Bangladesh, as a responsible neighbour and an active member of the UN and other international bodies, advocates a rules-based international order and collective action in addressing global economic challenges.

A supporter of a BNP rebel candidate from Mymensingh-1 was stabbed to death in the district’s Dhobaura upazila on Friday evening.

The Ministry of Land has finally resolved the longstanding dispute over the administrative jurisdiction of Bhasan Char, deciding that the island’s six mouzas belong to Sandwip upazila of Chattogram and not Hatiya of Noakhali.

The Fire Service and Civil Defence has formed a five-member committee to investigate the fire at a six-storey building in the capital’s Uttara that claimed six lives on Friday.

Prime accused Mim Begum has given a confessional statement in a case over the killings of a teenage girl and her mother in Keraniganj upazila of Dhaka.

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) yesterday deployed 56 long-term observers (LTOs) to all 64 administrative districts of Bangladesh.

The National Citizen Party spokesperson Asif Mahmud yesterday warned that NCP would take action if the Election Commission allows loan defaulters or dual citizens to contest the elections.

The Election Commission yesterday announced that candidates’ names will be added alongside their electoral symbols on in-country postal voting (ICPV) ballots for the 13th national election scheduled for February 12.

Bangladesh may be shifting from the “state fascism” of the previous regime to “popular fascism”, where social media mobs influence justice, and people remain silent out of fear, warned speakers at a discussion yesterday.

The Election Commission reinstated the candidacy of July uprising frontliner Hasnat Abdullah, along with 44 others, after the eighth day of hearings, which was punctuated by heated altercations.

A worrying rise in retaliatory killings of fishing cats across Bangladesh, driven largely by conflict with local communities who blame the animal for losses to poultry and pond fish, is gradually pushing the species to the brink.

Excavation work on a local canal for its expansion and renovation has caused waterlogging in the Katalganj and Panchlaish areas of Chattogram city, adding to the suffering of residents and commuters.

A readymade garment (RMG) worker was allegedly gang-raped by two local youths after her fiance was beaten and tied up on the Meghna river embankment in Manpura upazila of Bhola district early Friday.

Four people were killed and 18 others injured in road accidents in three districts yesterday, according to reports from our correspondents.

A businessman was beaten to death in Kaliganj upazila of Gazipur yesterday.

He added that any democratic government has an obligation and responsibility towards the victims and their families.

Journalists yesterday slammed the government for failing to protect media houses and workers from mob violence, saying stalled reforms and bureaucratic inertia have left the press more vulnerable than ever.

As major political parties prepare to roll out their election manifestos, health experts say that ensuring quality primary healthcare for all and reducing high out-of-pocket expenditure should be their top priority.

Islami Andolan Bangladesh’s withdrawal from the Jamaat-led 11-party alliance, which aimed at mobilising Islamist votes, is set to have a negative effect on the alliance’s “one-box policy”.

After weeks of drama, the Jamaat-e-Islami-led electoral alliance is now set to redistribute seats following the exit of Islami Andolan Bangladesh, ahead of the start of campaigning for the 13th parliamentary election.