One hundred twenty-nine individuals and 74 organisations from 21 countries, including Bangladesh, wrote to Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao urging him to withdraw and end provision of finance and technical support to the SS Power I Ltd (Banshkhali Power Plant) in Chattogram immediately.

The WHO is setting up a hub in South Africa to give companies from poor and middle-income countries the know-how and licenses to produce Covid-19 vaccines, in what President Cyril Ramaphosa called an historic step to spread lifesaving technology.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen yesterday expressed disappointment over rich countries’ behaviour in terms of supplying Covid-19 vaccines, saying they are hoarding vaccines and stipulating conditions for supply to other countries.

Planning Minister MA Mannan and Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen yesterday talked about resolving a spat between them over the route selection for a prospective railway in Sunamganj.

Awami League, the oldest and largest political party in Bangladesh, is celebrating its 72nd foundation day today in a restricted manner amid the pandemic.

India opened up free vaccinations to all adults in an attempt to bolster its inoculation drive yesterday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off a muted International Yoga Day hailing the practice’s “protective” properties against the coronavirus.

A policeman died at a hospital in Jhenaidah yesterday, three days after he had tested positive for Covid-19.

A massive reform is needed in the bureaucracy to modernise it as the bureaucrats still follow many age-old rules that have become irrelevant, Planning Minister MA Mannan said yesterday.

The High Court yesterday said forcing a confessional statement out of accused was “unfortunate for the country”.

The office of Senator Edward M Kennedy said today the state department had informed the senator that two Pakistani freighters now en route from New York to Karachi were carrying ammunition for the Pakistani armed forces.

Upgradation of Dhaka Bypass Road into a four-lane access-control expressway under the first-ever Public Private Partnership project of Roads and Highways Department (RHD) is finally making progress.

Bangladesh Bank’s fact-finding committee has asked two former deputy governors to give their versions on the financial irregularities at a non-bank financial institution (NBFI).

A Nigerian police inspector has killed five civilians and injured four in a shooting rampage, police said yesterday, in the latest violence in the country’s restive southeast.

Israel said Sunday it will allow the “limited export” of farm produce from Gaza, one month after a ceasefire with the enclave’s Hamas rulers to end an 11-day conflict.

Syrian government shelling on the rebel-controlled enclave of Idlib yesterday killed at least nine people, including four civilians, a war monitor reported.

Ethiopians yesterday began voting in a closely-watched election taking place as famine grips the war-torn Tigray region and doubts linger about the credibility of the twice-delayed vote.

German federal prosecutors said yesterday they had arrested a Russian scientist accused of passing sensitive information from a German university to Moscow in return for cash.

Police yesterday arrested former Hefajat-e Islam leader Nasir Uddin Munir in Chattogram’s Hathazari over the organisation’s mayhem at Hathazari on March 26.

Malaysian immigration department arrested 309 undocumented migrants, including 102 Bangladeshis, during an operation carried out at a settlement near a construction site in Dengkil early yesterday.

A Sunamganj court yesterday granted bail to the prime accused in cases filed in connection with the attack on Hindu houses in Naogaon village of the district’s Shalla upazila on March 17.