Bangladesh needs to invest an estimated extra $7.8 billion over the next decade to halve its road crash fatalities, says a new World Bank (WB) report.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bangladesh yesterday launched the UN Bangla font and Bangla version of the Human Development Report 2019.

The government is working to register Bangla as one of the official languages of the United Nations (UN), said Information Minister Hasan Mahmud yesterday.

As scores of people placed floral wreaths on the pedestal of Central Shaheed Minar yesterday, they also thronged the nearby month-long Ekushey book fair, which commemorates the sacrifice made in 1952 through literature.

Watching bathing birds is an unexpected but sublime delight. Depending on the bird, you can see them frolic in abandon, splash water around, puff up their chest before dipping, dive and pop out in a stream of water, create sprays of water by shaking their wings and make all kinds of faces while doing it.

A seven-day book fair began at Hemayetpur in Savar on Thursday.

“Did you know, like me Abul Barkat was a graduate of Dhaka University?”

Commemorating cultural personality Hemchandra Bhattacharya, a souvenir book was launched at a programme in Sylhet on Thursday.

The Embassy of Bangladesh in Washington, DC has rejected the remarks on Bangladesh made by US Senator Chuck Grassley saying that they were farthest from the truth.

To discuss the upcoming Bangladesh visit of Indian PM Narendra Modi, Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Muhammad Imran met Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar at his office in New Delhi yesterday.

Rasulpur Char. A char on the bank of Kirtonkhola that emerged two decades ago. If one visits the area around this time in February, they will be surprised to see it blanketed with Shaheed Minars.

The fervour of International Mother Language Day spreads beyond borders. To mark the day, Bangladesh missions in a number of countries hosted programmes on the theme of the Language Movement, attended by various luminaries and important state figures.

Bangladeshi and Indian nationals yesterday observed International Mother Language Day jointly by holding programmes at zero line along the border of Benapole.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says in the global village one needs to learn other languages but the mother tongue must never be neglected.

A Dhaka court yesterday transferred the graft case filed against former chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and 10 others to the Special Judge’s Court-4 of Dhaka for its trial.

The government yesterday announced the names of nine persons and an institution for the Independence Award for their outstanding contributions to the nation in various fields.

While progress has been made in various areas including food security, the government needs to focus on ensuring nutrition for the disadvantaged and malnourished, speakers said at a roundtable yesterday.

At least seven people were killed and eight injured in road accidents yesterday, report our correspondents and a news agency.

Prof Dr Perween Hasan, vice chancellor of Central Women’s University, has been elected chairperson of the trustee board of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).

Exactly one year after the tragic blaze at Wahed Mansion in Chawk Bazar, police have neither arrested a single accused, nor made any headway in investigation.