The youngsters, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach enter the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand during heavy rains after football practice.

Elite divers hauled four more young footballers out of a flooded Thai cave yesterday, authorities said, bringing to eight the number saved in a stunning rescue mission but still leaving five others trapped.

Football is played in cycles, although they do not change often.

If you discount World Cup pedigree, which has actually had little or no bearing in Russia 2018 so far, there is little to choose from between France and Belgium when the two European nations lock horns in the first semifinal at the Saint Petersburg Stadium today.

Protests continued yesterday against the recent attacks on some quota reform activists by Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) men.

The Dhaka University authorities yesterday said no outsider will be allowed to roam or stay on the campus without prior permission, a move that goes against the very character of the country's premier university.

Countless efforts and numerous unsuccessful experiments for over five years. In the end, they all proved rewarding when Dr Mubarak Ahmad Khan realised he has finally struck the right chord. Since 2010, the noted scientist had been trying to invent a biodegradable polymer from jute fibre. Success came in late 2015.

Three alleged drug peddlers and one alleged robber were killed in separate “gunfights” with law enforcers in Jhenidah, Mymensingh and Gaibandha yesterday.

In a fictitious claim, a police officer has said that Rajshahi University student Toriqul Islam, also a quota movement leader, was hurt in a “mere scuffle” with some members of the public.

Four of 12 Thai schoolboys were rescued from a flooded cave yesterday as divers launched a daring and dangerous mission to free the children and their soccer coach who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks, officials said.

Hundreds of patients suffered as private clinics, hospitals and diagnostic centres in Chittagong called an indefinite strike in response to mobile court drives in four hospitals yesterday.

Criminals abducted 25 villagers at gunpoint from Hatimara area of Rangamati's Naniarchar upazila yesterday, said UPDF.

Roberto Martinez has emphatically silenced those who doubted whether he was the right man to lead Belgium's "golden generation" in their bid for World Cup glory following his struggles with Premier League club Everton.

Heartbreak for hosts, but Russians were heroes. Ranked 70th in the world and playing in this World Cup by virtue of being the host nation, Russia were taken on neither seriously nor respectfully by rivals and pundits. But what a gallant run the elderly Russian players had in this tournament.

Dhaka University Vice Chancellor Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman has compared the activities of quota reformists with that of Islamist militant outfits like the Taliban and Al-Shabaab.

The seven-member committee formed “to review or reform or cancel” the quota system for the civil service will sit for its first meeting today.

With bandages from toe to thigh on his right leg and eight stitches on left side of his head, Toriqul Islam is unable to turn to any side while lying in his hospital bed.

The expansion of Dhaka city is showing no signs of slowing down. Private developers are pushing the boundaries of the metropolis by building eastwards and what currently exists as rural townships show the promise of being the future Dhaka city. Will we build it right this time, or will an unplanned urbanisation once again be the go-to-method? Martin Rama, chief economist for the South Asia region of the World Bank, talks to Zyma Islam of The Daily Star about the planned development of greater Dhaka.

As darkness descends, a sense of unshakeable foreboding grips Rohingya refugee camps in Balukhali and Kutupalong.

What a match it was Friday midnight! A cracker of a contest that was fought hard till the end.