The incessant rain, induced by a depression, made people suffer for the third consecutive day yesterday in the capital and elsewhere. Many thoroughfares, roads and alleys in Dhaka city went under knee-to-waist-deep water, throwing life out of gear. Dhaka dwellers waded through knee-to-waist-deep water on streets as the scanty and clogged storm drainage system continued […]

Rohingya children are exposed to alarming risks of trafficking, sexual abuse and child labour due to lack of schooling and widespread desperation of people in the overcrowded makeshift settlements in Cox’s Bazar, international aid group Save the Children has warned. “There are huge child protection concerns in the camps. A lot of desperate, hungry children […]

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia departs after a special court gave her bail in two graft cases in Dhaka on Thursday. — Indrajit Ghosh Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia on Thursday obtained bail in Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Orphanage Trust and Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Charitable Trust graft cases after her surrender to the Dhaka […]

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs has viewed dozens of burned and destroyed villages in northern Rakhine during his recent tour by air, and called on Myanmar to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by security forces. It was the first visit by a top UN official from its New York headquarters since the latest […]

Former Indian president Pranab Mukherjee has said he urged the then Bangladesh army chief Moeen U Ahmed to release political prisoners during the 2007-08 caretaker government. “In February 2008, Bangladesh army chief Moeen Ahmed came to India on a six-day visit. He called on me too. During the informal interaction, I impressed upon him the […]

Awami league leaders sit in a pre-poll dialogue with the Election Commission in the commission office in Dhaka on Wednesday. — Ali Hossain Mintu The ruling Awami League at its pre-polls talks with the Election Commission on Wednesday demanded electronic voting from the next general election due on January 28, 2019 at the latest. Electronic […]

Rohingya refugee Khalida, a mother of three children, wade across a canal near the no man’s land area between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the Palongkhali area next to Ukhia on Wednesday. — AFP photo The government believes that Rohingya crisis is unlikely to be resolved soon as the exodus of the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals […]

Thousands of leaders and activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its front and associate organisations on Wednesday welcomed their leader Khaleda Zia on her return after three months from London on Wednesday. BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia reached Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 5:00pm in a regular flight of Emirates Airlines, the party leaders said. Leaders […]

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali today said the international community is much closer to Bangladesh than ever before over the Rohingya issue which, he thinks, is an outcome of its diplomacy. “We’re working and the results are visible,” he told a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka. Minister Ali said there is no […]

Bangladesh’s telecoms regulators say it will implement a court order for shutting down night-time mobile internet packages over concerns for online suicide game Blue Whale after “identifying ones that cause harm”. “We will check to find the ones that are harmful. We’ll close it if it’s harmful,” said Shahjahan Mahmood, Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory […]

Bangladesh’s local government elections held in 2016 with opposition participation were “tainted by violence and electoral irregularities”, the Council of European Union has observed, expressing concern at the restrictive actions against the opposition. In its review of Bangladesh’s rights situation, the council mentioned that opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is out of parliament, has “practically […]

Amid fresh waves of Rohingya influx, the UN has urged the international community to come together to support the October 23 pledging conference to meet the life-saving needs of the displaced Myanmar nationals and to promote their safe return home. Three UN-led aid bodies have appealed for $434 million over six months (Sept 2017 to […]