Sri Lanka said yesterday it was invoking emergency powers in the aftermath of devastating bomb attacks on hotels and churches, blamed on militants with foreign links, in which 290 people were killed and nearly 500 wounded.

The grandson of Awami League Presidium Member Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim was killed in the series blasts that tore through churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

A number of mango growers are spraying toxic pesticides on their orchards in Rajshahi region, despite a High Court order to deploy police in the areas to prevent the harmful practice.

The holy Shab-e-Barat, the night of fortune and forgiveness, will be observed in the country tonight with due religious fervour.

Police yesterday arrested another accused in the Nusrat murder case.

Dhaka Wasa managing director yesterday boasted that Wasa water “is 100 percent pure” while also admitting that sometimes he himself boils the water at his home.

A suspected drug peddler was killed in a “gunfight” with police in Sirajganj, and another one in what police claimed was an encounter between two groups of drug peddlers in Cox’s Bazar, while, In Chapainawabganj, a body was recovered by police early yesterday.

Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Sayeed Khokon said Dhaka could soon use the “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (RRR)” method for managing the city’s waste.

The two landfills in the capital have almost reached their limit with no immediate remedy in sight. Mountains of garbage are being formed in the landfills at Matuail and Aminbazar and there are fears that the waste will spill over into adjacent areas.

The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) yesterday directed all school and college authorities to set up an anti-sexual harassment committee in line with a 2009 High Court order.

With the arrival of summer, the number of diarrhoea patients in and around the capital has gone up steeply this month compared to last month.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said her ruling Awami League had taken initiatives to reconstitute the party from the grassroots, aiming to enhance its organisational strength.

A big portion of the wild elephant population in southern Cox’s Bazar is at risk of being wiped out, experts say. The mammals are confined to small patches of hilly forests in Inani-Shilkhali area as Rohingya settlements have taken over their migration corridors that lead to parts of Bandarban and Myanmar.

Umme Sultana Poppy, a key accused in the murder case of Feni madrasa student Nusrat Jahan Rafi, confessed to have called Nusrat to the rooftop moments before she was set ablaze, said police.

A silent change is taking place in the country’s secondary level education.

Bangladesh slid four notches and is now 150th in the World Press Freedom Index revealed by the Reporters Without Borders yesterday.

The critical biodiversity areas in Cox’s Bazar -- Teknaf Wildlife Sanctuary, Himchhari National Park and Inani National Park -- face a grave risk of peril due to high level of human interventions following the Rohingya influx, according to two recent studies.

A day labourer was allegedly sent to jail on Wednesday for not paying electricity bills, even though his house at Mochagora village in Muradnagar upazila had no electrical line.

A culture of impunity, moral degradation and culprits’ getting political backing in many cases are the major reasons why incidents of rape and sexual violence continue unabated in the country, according to experts and rights activists.

Two girls, including an autistic teenager, were allegedly raped in Bandarban and Narayanganj on Tuesday and Wednesday.