Some 650 Bangladeshis, the first batch being evacuated out of around 1500 from the country residing in war-torn Sudan, have reached Port Sudan from the capital Khartoum. People familiar with the matter said 13 buses carrying them set out for Port Sudan, on the Red Sea coast of Africa, almost 1200 kilometres away, on Tuesday morning (May 2). The Bangladesh embassy has arranged food, water, medicines and temporary residence at Port Sudan so that the expatriates don't face any problems there.

The Bangladeshis are scheduled to leave for Saudi Arabia next, where they will reach Jeddah in a Saudi ship. Temporary arrangements of residence, food and water have been made at two Bangladeshi schools in Jeddah. "Around 1,500 Bangladeshis are stranded in Sudan. Of them, some 700 have registered so far to leave," State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shariar Alam said. Bangladesh Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Dr Jabed Patwary has said that every effort would be made to send the Bangladeshis returning from Sudan back home within 72 hours.

The monthly inflation rate fell slightly to 9.24 percent in April from 9.33 percent in March, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The BBS published the latest data on inflation on Wednesday.According to BBS, non-food inflation stood at 9.72 per cent in April while food inflation fell to 8.84 percent from 9.09 percent in March. The overall inflation rate stood at 9.68 percent in the urban areas and 8.92 percent in the rural areas.

The inflation rate had increased in February after five consecutive months of decline. It rose to 8.78 percent in February and again to 9.33 percent in March. Meanwhile export earnings registered a year-on-year fall of 16 percent in April, with the figure standing at USD 3.59 billion, according to the Export Promotion Bureau. The export fall came on the heels of a steady downtick in inward remittances, that clocked in at just USD 1.68 billion in April.

At least 328 people were killed and 565 injured in 304 road accidents in 15 days (April 15-29) during the Eid rush, according to the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a civil society watchdog for the transport sector. The organisation said the road crashes and road accident-related deaths during this Eid rush were 18.2 percent and 21.1 percent lower respectively, than during last year's Eid rush. At least 418 people died and 844 suffered injuries in 372 accidents in 15 days of Eid journey last year.

According to the report, the condition of the country's roads and highways was relatively better than before during this year's Eid rush due to the government's continuous development efforts. BJKS said most of the accidents involved motorcycles as a total of 167 people were killed and 120 others injured in 165 motorcycle accidents. It collected the data based on reports in national dailies, online news portals and electronic media in Bangladesh. Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of the organisation, presented the findings.

The Bangladesh Sports Press Association (BSPA), the largest body of sports journalists in Bangladesh, has suspended the honorary membership of Kazi Salahuddin, the President of the Bangladesh Football Federation. BSPA had conferred honorary membership to Salahuddin in 2012. According to a BSPA notice, Salahuddin's membership was suspended after he insulted the journalists by saying that journalists should submit photos of their parents to the BFF in order to enter its headquarters, with their father's shoes visible in the image.

Salahuddin made these disparaging comments just before a press conference at the BFF, and the comments were recorded on a device that journalists had set up to record the press conference. Following the public release of his cheap comments on social media, Salahuddin faced widespread criticism from the public. He subsequently offered an apology to the journalists.