The French government and labour unions were set to face off yesterday over a pensions overhaul, 14 days into a crippling transport strike that is hurting businesses, wearing out commuters and casting a shadow over holiday plans.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair yesterday urged his Labour party to abandon “quasi-revolutionary socialism” as it seeks a new leader after its worst election defeat since the 1930s.

Facebook can determine where users are even if they opt out of having their whereabouts tracked, the company revealed in a letter sent to US senators.

In a rejoinder to a report published on Wednesday in The Daily Star headlined “2 jailed over rape attempt on Aussie tourist”, Mermaid Beach Resort yesterday said it was wrongly mentioned as the scene of the crime.

A Habiganj court yesterday sent a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver to jail in a case filed in connection with raping a female spinning mill worker.

The Minimum Wage Board has submitted a draft report to the government, proposing a 62 percent hike in the minimum wages of staffers and workers of the private road transport sector.

Radio Pakistan broadcasts the resignation announcement of Pakistan President Yahya Khan. He will resign handing over the power. Pakistan People’s Party leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is on his way home from New York. He might be the next head of government.

India’s Supreme Court yesterday declined to stay the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) but agreed to examine its constitutional validity.

Winter is here. The whole country began to feel the chill as temperatures began falling since yesterday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said she was still looking for an answer as to where all Awami League leaders had been when Bangabandhu was assassinated and why none of them came forward to play a courageous role against the killing.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday he wants to reduce the number of US troops in Afghanistan “with or without” a peace agreement in order to give higher priority to strategic competition with China.

People in several districts of the country protested the inclusion of freedom fighters’ names in the controversial list of Razakars published by the Liberation War affairs ministry.

An alleged robber was killed in a “gunfight” with law enforcers in Jhenidah’s Maheshpur upazila early yesterday.

The government yesterday gave around Tk 100 crore to the owner of the then Moon Cinema Hall at Waiz Ghat area in Old Dhaka in line with a Supreme Court directive.

Myanmar detained 173 Rohingyas on a boat off the southern coast, authorities said yesterday, amid signs that more members of the minority group are making perilous sea voyages to escape persecution.

Bangladesh Chhatra League, the pro-Awami League student organisation, last night relieved 21 members of its central executive committee of their posts.

A Moroccan coastguard vessel on Monday retrieved seven bodies and rescued 70 migrants whose boat got into difficulty in the Mediterranean, a military source said.

Muslim-majority Indonesia will deploy nearly 200,000 security personnel nationwide ahead of Christmas to guard against potential terror attacks, police said yesterday.

“Please give me a pillow, I want to sleep with my parents,” 12-year-old Arafat moaned in pain when police rescued him from a sugarcane field in Pabna’s Ishwardi upazila early Monday. He had been lying there with a severe head injury for about 12 hours.

At least 15 people, including Ducsu Vice-President Nurul Haque Nur, were injured in a clash between the activists of Muktijuddho Moncho and Bangladesh Sadharan Chhatra Adhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad on Dhaka University campus yesterday.