Facebook faced an angry backlash yesterday after blocking news feeds in Australia in a surprise escalation of a dispute with the government which could be a test for the future of online publishing worldwide.

Ferry services between Shimulia and Banglabazar were suspended for over two hours yesterday morning when a motorcade of the BNP was supposed to go across the Padma river.

Leaders of road transport associations yesterday demanded the government increase bus fares and give them financial benefits as their businesses were “hit hard by the pandemic”.

Luna Shamsuddoha, a leading software entrepreneur in the country, passed away at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore yesterday.

As road safety authority failed to achieve the target to halve the number of road accident fatalities by last year, it is now going to extend the deadline by another 10 years.

Sixty-six million years ago, a huge celestial object struck off the coast of what is now Mexico, triggering a catastrophic “impact winter” that eventually wiped out three-quarters of life on Earth, including the dinosaurs.

Twenty public universities have decided to hold uniform admission tests, likely in June-July.

Turkish border guards have detained five Russians, including a woman suspected of being a member the Islamic State group, and a Libyan who were attempting to cross from Syria, officials said yesterday.

A court in Narail issued arrest warrants for BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and party standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy yesterday.

Article 19 yesterday sent a statement welcoming the judgement of the Bangladesh court against those involved in the atrocious 2015 murders of blogger Avijit Roy and Faisal Arefin Dipan, but pointed out that a new type of silencing is underway.

A Noakhali court yesterday framed charges against two accused in a case filed for raping a woman in Begumganj upazila.

The minimum age for Covid-19 vaccination will remain 40 for now, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said yesterday.

Several private dorms for Barishal University students in the city’s Rupatli area were attacked early yesterday, leaving at least 25 students injured.

Expatriates Welfare Minister Imran Ahmad has said Malaysia’s labour market for Bangladeshi workers will reopen only after the Covid-19 situation becomes normal there.

A strong earthquake struck Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila yesterday, with eyewitnesses reporting violent shaking and the US Geological Survey measuring a shallow 6.2-magnitude quake just off the South Pacific island’s coast.

The Taliban yesterday urged the US to honour a landmark withdrawal deal under which all foreign troops would exit Afghanistan in the coming months, even as violence continues to rage in the war-ravaged nation.

Myanmar’s military junta guaranteed yesterday that it would hold an election and hand over power, denied its ouster of an elected government was a coup or that its leaders were detained, and accused protesters of violence and intimidation.

The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) is now on the search for physical evidence related to the death of former Hefazat chief Shah Ahmad Shafi.

The daily novel coronavirus infection rate in Bangladesh fell to 2.68 percent yesterday after the health authorities reported 396 new cases in 24 hours till the morning.

A court in Kurigram yesterday handed death penalty to six people for killing four members of a family, including two children, in Diadanga village of the district’s Bhurungamari upazila in 2014.