Extra climate funding needed for women entrepreneurs: Adviser Farida
Fisheries and Livestock Adviser Farida Akhter spoke at a seminar titled 'Voices for Change: Putting Climate Action, Women Entrepreneurs, and SMEs in Bangladeshi Public Policy' held at a city hotel on Saturday (6 December 2025). Photo: UNBFisheries and Livestock Adviser Farida Akhter has stressed the need for additional financing from global public-sector climate-risk funds to support women entrepreneurs and all others facing climate-induced vulnerabilities. Farida said promoting women entrepreneurs should not only be about increasing numbers, but ensuring their visibility in economic activities. "Although institutions like Bangladesh Bank and SME Foundation provide special support for women entrepreneurs, the overall scope is still insufficient despite women making up 51% of the population. Turning to the impact of climate change, the adviser said earthquakes may strike once, but climate change is a daily crisis.
Source:bd News24
December 06, 2025 13:37 UTC
Advisors ignored women’s commission under fire: TIB
Transparency International Bangladesh’s Executive Director Ifthekharuzzaman has said he has repeatedly appealed to members of the interim government for action after hostility grew around the Women’s Affairs Reform Commission, but received no redress. On Saturday, speaking at the opening session of the Bangladesh Energy Summit at the Military Museum in Dhaka, he said he had approached at least seven advisors directly as “abusive” campaigns surged against the commission and its members faced security concerns, bdnews24.com reports. The TIB chief said he had asked the advisors to set out the government’s position in support of the commission but was told only that the report was “not a government report”. He asked why any commission’s findings should be dismissed on that basis and said the reaction had emboldened the groups attacking the body’s work.
Source:bd News24
December 06, 2025 13:11 UTC
Lioness brought back into Dhaka zoo cage 2.5 hours after escape
Authorities have managed to bring the lioness that escaped at Mirpur Zoo back into its cage. The zoo’s Director Rafiqul Islam Talukder said the animal was tranquilised and returned to its cage at 7pm on Friday. The director had said immediately after the escape the lioness was roaming in the zoo premises. The zoo authorities said it took a while to bring the situation under control as they did not want to render the lioness completely unconscious. Rafiqul suspects the door to the animal's cage must have been left open as there was no other way to escape with the cage secured with grills.
Source:bd News24
December 05, 2025 14:27 UTC
Air ambulance from Germany to take Khaleda to London, flight to arrive in Dhaka on Saturday
The Qatar government has arranged for an air ambulance from Germany to take BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia from Dhaka to London for medical treatment. Asadur Rahman Asad, a spokesman for the Qatar Embassy in Dhaka said the aircraft is to land in Dhaka on Saturday afternoon. BNP chief Khaleda was scheduled to take a special air ambulance from the country’s royal fleet to London. Asad said, “The Qatar government is renting an air ambulance. It will come from Germany to Dhaka.
Source:bd News24
December 05, 2025 11:43 UTC
Madrasa student found dead in Gopalganj; family allege rape by institution’s superintendent
Family members of the 14-year-old victim allege she committed suicide “out of shame” after being raped by the superintendent of her madrasa, who was allegedly aided by one of the female teachers of the institution. Angered by the news, villagers detained the superintendent of Ayesha Siddika Mohila Madrasa and beat him up on Wednesday, according to Muksudpur Police Station's Inspector Shital Chandra Paul. The rape suspect, 51-year-old Mahmudul Hasan Shikder, was later rescued by police and sent to a local hospital for treatment. Shital said the victim’s mother filed a complaint against Mahmudul and his alleged abettor, Khadiza Begum, on Wednesday. According to the victim's brother-in-law, Khadiza had also threatened the child's mother with her life if she disclosed the matter to anybody.
Source:bd News24
December 05, 2025 11:38 UTC
SSF security only for Khaleda, not family: Rizwana
News Desk :Environment Advisor Syeda Rizwana Hasan has said, although the Special Security Force (SSF) has been assigned to protect “critically ill” BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia during her treatment in hospital, no other member of her family will receive the same security. A government gazette formalising SSF protection for Khaleda in her capacity as a VVIP was issued on Tuesday. Following that, discussion emerged over whether SSF security would also be provided to her son Tarique Rahman upon his return to the country from London. Khaleda has been undergoing treatment at Evercare Hospital since her admission on Nov 23, after her health deteriorated. When asked at that time, Foreign Advisor Touhid Hossain said he had not yet applied for a travel pass.
Source:bd News24
December 05, 2025 07:05 UTC
Bangladesh’s export receipts decline in November
Bangladesh’s export earnings have fallen for four consecutive months, though the cumulative total for the first five months of the fiscal year remains marginally above last year. Compared with October, however, earnings rose 1.77 percent, following $3.82 billion in exports the previous month. The ready-made garment sector, a key contributor, generated $3.14 billion in November, down from $3.30 billion a year earlier, marking a roughly 5 percent decline. The export target for FY2026 has been set at $63.50 billion. In the previous fiscal year, total export earnings reached $48.28 billion, up 8.58 percent from $44.28 billion in FY24.
Source:bd News24
December 04, 2025 16:28 UTC
Critically ill former Bangladesh PM Zia to be taken to London, doctors say
DHAKA: A medical board looking after critically ill former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia on Thursday decided to send her to London for advanced treatment, her personal physician AZM Zahid Hossain said. Zia, the 80-year-old Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson, will be flown in an air ambulance late after midnight or early Friday to London, where her elder son and acting BNP chief Tarique Rahman lives. "The medical board has unanimously decided that she will be taken to London via the Qatar Royal Air Ambulance, either after midnight tonight or early tomorrow morning," Hossain told reporters during a briefing outside the hospital. During the last such briefing on Tuesday, he said Zia was responding to the treatment. The BNP also issued a list saying 14 people, one of them being Syeda Shameela Rahman, wife of Zia's deceased younger son Arafat Rahman and six being doctors, who will accompany Zia to London.
Source:bd News24
December 04, 2025 13:23 UTC
Khaleda Zia Health: Bangladesh Ex-PM Zia to London
Critically ill former Bangladesh PM Zia to be taken to London: Reports“If madam's (Zia) health is suitable for travel, we plan to take her to London tomorrow morning. It all depends on her health,” Zia’s adviser Enamul Haque Chowdhury told.
Source:bd News24
December 04, 2025 13:15 UTC
50 police station chiefs reshuffled in Dhaka through lotteries
Ahead of the national election, the list of new officers-in-charge (OCs) for 50 police stations under the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has been published after a lottery-based selection process involving 527 stations nationwide. In an order signed on Thursday by DMP Commissioner Sheikh Md Sazzat Ali, 50 police inspectors were transferred and appointed as OCs to different police stations in the capital. Earlier, superintendents of police in all 64 districts were transferred through a lottery. As a continuation of that process, the lottery for OC postings was held at the Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday.
Source:bd News24
December 04, 2025 12:38 UTC
Khaleda Zia remains critical; Chinese medical team joins UK specialists in treating ex-Bangladeshi PM
The doctors have joined a UK specialist group that arrived earlier to help chart an advanced treatment plan for 80-year-old BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia. Dhaka: A four-member Chinese medical team has arrived in Bangladesh to assist in the treatment of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who remains in a critical condition at a private hospital. This marks the second batch of Chinese doctors to arrive in Dhaka. The foreign specialists will assess whether Zia can be transferred abroad for further treatment, The Daily Star reported, citing medical board sources. He told reporters that while Zia is “maintaining the treatment” being administered, her critical condition currently rules out transfer abroad.
Source:bd News24
December 04, 2025 12:33 UTC
Bangladesh seeks ‘new canvas’ in relations with India, says High Commissioner Hamidullah
Bangladeshi High Commissioner to India Riaz Hamidullah says Dhaka is trying to “articulate a new canvas” regarding the relationship with its next-door neighbour, the Times of India reports. "The effort is to articulate a new canvas where we can look at as a shared future,” he was quoted as saying. The high commissioner called the relationship between the neighbours “organic”, noting that both countries are growing fast. The “economic engagement” between them also amounts to over Tk 25 billion if sectors like tourism are taken into consideration. “We have not constrained the mobility of Indians into Bangladesh.
Source:bd News24
December 04, 2025 11:54 UTC
Former Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia to be transferred to London amid critical condition, reports say
# News DeskDhaka: The family of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who remains in critical condition, is reportedly preparing to transfer her to London, where her son and BNP acting chairperson Tarique Rahman resides, media reports said on Thursday. “After arriving in Bangladesh, Zubaida Rahman will take her to London (after) assessing Zia's physical condition,” at the Dhaka hospital, the BBC Bangla reported saying, several BNP leaders confirmed the decision without mentioning their names. "If everything goes well, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will be taken to London after midnight today, Thursday or early tomorrow, Friday. The decision to take her to London has been made on the advice of specialist doctors," AZM Zahid Hossain, Khaleda Zia's doctor, told the reporters. “If madam's (Zia) health is suitable for travel, we plan to take her to London tomorrow morning.
Source:bd News24
December 04, 2025 10:48 UTC
Over 50 Bangladeshi fishermen jailed in India
The families of more than 50 Bangladeshi fishermen claim that the Indian Coast Guard has arrested and sent them to jail for crossing into the country’s territorial waters while fishing in the Bay of Bengal. Others have come to know “through their contacts” that their family members have been arrested by the Indian Coast Guard. The families say 13 fishermen from Lalmohan Upazila in Bhola were arrested by the Indian Coast Guard on Nov 10. Another 28 fishermen from Kutubdia were detained on Nov 19, alongside 26 more fishermen from Kutubdia and Banshkhali that same day. Reports have also been published in the Indian media about the arrest and imprisonment of Bangladeshi fishermen.
Source:bd News24
December 04, 2025 07:05 UTC
Chinese medics join UK specialists to aid treatment of Bangladesh's ailing ex-PM Zia- The Week
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir met the specialists upon their arrival and discussed Zia's treatment with them, according to news portal bdnews24.com. The Chinese doctors joined a four-member UK specialist group led by Dr Richard Buell that had arrived earlier in the day to help chart an advanced treatment plan. The team's arrival marked the second batch of Chinese doctors, who had arrived earlier this week. A five-member advance team from China had arrived in Dhaka on December 1 to provide preliminary assistance. Hossain told reporters on Tuesday that Zia is “maintaining the treatment” being administered despite her critical state.
Source:bd News24
December 04, 2025 04:56 UTC