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IslamSaudi Arabia's Ministry of Hajj and Umrah says more than 1.2 million pilgrims arrived from the start of the new season to 30 Muharram, 30 percent more than a year earlier, with Umrah visas up 27 percent.
FisheriesCiting a one-kilogram hilsa price of Tk 2,600 to Tk 3,000 at home and alleged re-export via India, a Supreme Court lawyer has sent a legal notice to the cabinet secretary and four others demanding an end to hilsa exports to India.
HealthA mobile court in Goalanda, Rajbari, fined four pharmacies near Ujanchar bazar a total of Tk 20,000 under the Drugs Act 1940 for selling unapproved medicines and antibiotics without a registered doctor's prescription.
Prostate cancer makes up about 6.9 percent of male cancers in the Kolkata registry; ICMR puts India's new cases at 47,068 in 2025, up from 41,532 in 2020.
CropsAgriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan set a rabi target of 177.72 million tonnes and said opening fertiliser stocks are 47% higher than last year, with no shortage for the season.
CropsDinajpur's aman crop covers 273,750 hectares against a target of 272,270; the district aims for about 8 lakh tonnes of rice, with early varieties to be harvested from mid-Kartik.
FruitsPlantings from a decade ago are reaching full production; a USDA outlook puts the US crop 18% above the 2025 record, while Turkish frost damage has lifted exports and prices.
HealthThe community medicine department of Bankura Sammilani Medical College held a camp in Patalkhuri village with eye, dental, skin and child specialists and free blood sugar, blood pressure and ECG tests.
CropsOnce bamboo fences and nets were removed from the Kata canal at Komorpur in Keshabpur, Jashore, water drained from Padma beel and nearby beels, saving 600 bighas of aman; 4,000 metres of banned China duari nets were seized.
CropsNetrokona grew jute on 2,840 hectares this season against a 4,510-hectare target; high wages, a lack of water for retting and poor prices are pushing farmers towards vegetables and mustard.
AgribusinessA University of Illinois analysis of AFIDA records finds foreign interests in about 46.3 million acres, 89% of it commercial forestland, with Chinese-linked holdings a small share.
EnvironmentNorthern Ireland Environment Link says protected areas may count for as little as 0.38% of land and freshwater, and DAERA has yet to publish how progress will be measured.
IslamThe Prophet married Khadija around 595 CE after his second trade journey to Syria; early sources give her age as 40, 28, 30 or 35, and the mahr was twenty young camels.
CookingMaithili-style goat curry from Bihar uses no onion or garlic: the meat is marinated in yoghurt, ginger and spices, cooked, then fried in ghee with cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and asafoetida.
CropsICAR-CTCRI in Thiruvananthapuram signed an agreement with Sugam Organics, which will source tubers and make fried cassava snacks without artificial colours.
CookingIn Barishal's joltoba, balls of ground small shrimp go straight into simmering coconut-milk curry instead of being fried; Shahnaz Setu gives the recipe.
EnvironmentAbout 1.4 billion hectares grow food that is never eaten, FAO says, and the world has made no apparent progress on food losses since 2015; a new interactive Food Loss Index map was released.
CropsGrowers in Orkney and Caithness are battling saturated fields and losses, while further south yields are satisfactory, winter crops are going in well and potato lifting is advancing.
OpinionCGIAR's urban food systems lead Dr Mukani Moyo points to compost in Vietnam, insect feed in Nairobi schools and food rescue in Lima, and says technology alone will not solve losses. The views are the writer's own.
CropsThe Indian agrochemical firm told stock exchanges on 25 September that Fujita targets leaf, nodal and neck blast, while Wetcit Neo is a plant-oil adjuvant for better spray coverage.
OrganicAt the Chico State University Farm, finished compost is agitated in aerated water and the extract is sent through drip irrigation to support soil fungi and bacteria.
CropsThe Department of Agriculture counts 223,214 farmers and 249,028 hectares affected in 14 of 18 regions, and warns losses will rise as a very strong El Nino is forecast from October.
HealthMumbai interventional cardiologist Dr Parin Sangoi says not to waste time guessing whether it is gas or a heart attack but to call emergency services at once, and never to drive yourself to hospital.
AgribusinessA DAE district vigilance team meeting in Sirajganj decided on regular monitoring and drives against unapproved, counterfeit or adulterated pesticides and told traders to take and renew licences under the Pesticide Act 2018.
Watch
VideoAt Bindhara in Panchbibi, Joypurhat, farmers are growing the small, dark 'Black Baby' Chinese watermelon on trellises — a 60-day crop of 4–4.5 tonnes a bigha that beats any field crop for profit.
VideoShykh Seraj examines the government's first 180 days in agriculture, from farm loan waivers and farmer cards to crop insurance and canal excavation.
VideoAfter leaving a garment job, H M Forwardi Palash planted an acre of year-round guava in Bhaluka, Mymensingh, and is working towards GAP certification to supply supershops.
In pictures
GalleryGreen hills and white clouds: autumn in Bandarban in pictures19 photos
GalleryA kingfisher's catch, seed potatoes and fierce heat: Bangladesh in pictures10 photos
GalleryAfter a day on the char, cattle swim the river home: Barishal in pictures10 photos
GalleryPictures: Dimer Char in the Sundarbans, red crabs, kash grass and homebound trawlers9 photos
GalleryPictures: Sundarbans nipa palm fruit reaches Dhaka at Tk 10 apiece6 photos
GalleryBlue skies, kash flowers and green paddy: autumn in the Sylhet hills15 photos
GalleryLight traps, peanut sowing and morning fog: a day across Bangladesh in picturesSection
FisheriesAn air sac that lets it breathe air, aestivation in burrows, a thick mucus coat and storing waste as urea instead of ammonia carry the stinging catfish through drought.
EnvironmentTwo foals born in August at a steppe sanctuary mark a milestone for the Altyn Dala project, which is restoring 75,000 square kilometres of overgrazed grassland.
EnvironmentA mobile court in Shahjadpur, Sirajganj, fined Jamuna Textile because its effluent treatment plant is too small for its waste water, removed a bypass line and gave it four months to upgrade.
EnvironmentFrom 1 November 2026 to 31 January 2027, half of Delhi's office staff will work from home, non-BS-VI vehicles from outside will face entry limits and construction will be curbed, under India's winter pollution plan.
EnvironmentBelai Beel, some 50 square kilometres across 35 villages in four Gazipur upazilas, once met about a third of the district's fish demand; the Department of Fisheries says fish variety and quantity have both fallen below half amid toxic waste, grabbing and sand-filling.
Daily lifeChattogram WASA will build Karnaphuli Water Treatment Plant Project-3 at Sarafbhata in Rangunia to produce 100 million litres of treated water a day, using the second plant's existing pipeline to reach the city.
