BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia currently does not have any post-Covid complications, but she is still at risk because of her old age, the party said yesterday.

Twenty general and science and technology universities have postponed holding of uniform admission tests due to Covid-19.

Rivers are likely to erode about 28 square kilometres of land this year, which is more than the land eroded last year, according to a research body of the water resources ministry.

The United States appealed today to India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and urged the Pakistanis to restore normalcy in East Pakistan through “peaceful political accommodation”.

Mukti Fouj guerillas made a series of attacks on Pakistani positions in Cumilla sector in the last few days, killing at least 28 Pakistani soldiers, according to Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. Twenty soldiers were killed when guerillas ambushed a Pakistani army column near Fakirhat on June 10, 1971.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin directed the Pentagon on Wednesday to sharpen its focus on China, which the United States has tagged as its top strategic rival.

Belgium’s defence minister said yesterday the country could take in around 30 Afghans who had worked with its military during the Nato mission, as the alliance wraps up a two-decade deployment.

A Union Parishad member was shot dead by a group of unidentified miscreants in Noakhali’s Hatia upazila early yesterday.

The Election Commission has postponed polls to 163 union parishads in Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Noakhali, Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar districts due to a surge in Covid-19 cases.

The Myanmar junta has hit deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi with corruption charges over claims she accepted illegal payments of gold and more than half a million dollars in cash, state media reported yesterday.

Noted Bengali filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta passed away at his Kolkata residence yesterday.

India yesterday recorded a global record of more than 6,000 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours after one state dramatically revised upwards its data, stoking suspicions that the country’s toll is much higher than reported.

Lack of support for research and a dearth of quality publications are the main reasons for Bangladeshi universities lagging behind in most of the world rankings, said educationists.

Air travel within the country is going to get costlier as Padma Oil Company, the only source of jet fuel in the country, has once again increased the price of the fuel.

Bangladesh remains among the countries ranked highest for Covid-19 risk by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the US national public health agency lowered restriction levels of 110 other countries and territories.

The family of one of the two boys, who died after falling into a drainage pipe in their school, have accused the school authorities of negligence in duty in a case filed on Tuesday.

The Pakistani Government offered today a general amnesty extending to military deserters and politicians and asked refugees to return home.

A 1933 US gold coin that was never issued after Franklin D Roosevelt removed America from the gold standard sold for a record $18.87 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York Tuesday.

Dhaka has been ranked the fourth least liveable city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual global survey.

A drought without incessant rains or severe storms have blessed four mango-producing districts in Rajshahi division with good yields but the region’s farmers are yet to see good fortune.