The election to 614 union parishads in the third phase of UP polls yesterday saw some stray incidents of violence and electoral irregularities, including ballot-stuffing and taking of polling stations mostly by ruling party men. Polls violence left one dead in Pabna and more than 200 injured in 10 districts. The injured include 11 journalists and four policemen, two of whom were hit by bullets. The extent of violence in this phase was much less compared to the previous two phases in which more than 40 people were killed and several hundred injured. Yesterday's polls, however, were marred by electoral irregularities as in the previous two phases of elections. In the evening, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed told reporters that though there were some stray incidents...

A Dhaka court placed journalist Shafik Rehman on fresh 5-day remand in a case filed over an alleged plot to kidnap and kill prime minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. Metropolitan Magistrate Mahmudul Hasan passed the order after detectives produced Shafik with a seven-day remand prayer around 2:00pm today. Detective Branch of Police sought fresh remand after completion of his five-day remand that concluded yesterday. DMP Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam on that day said he (Shafik) admitted meeting four ...

The United Nations (UN) has appointed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (MP) as one of the members of a high-level UN panel on water. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim yesterday announced the appointment of 10 heads of state and government, as well as two special advisors, to the panel, according to the UN headquarters. The panel, which is aimed at mobilizing “effective action” to accelerate the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 6, was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos last January.