Southeast Asian leaders yesterday said they had agreed on a plan with Myanmar’s junta chief to end the crisis in the violence-hit nation, but he did not explicitly respond to demands to halt the killing of civilian protesters.

BNP yesterday urged the government to close the country’s land ports with India as the neighbouring country is witnessing a serious outbreak of coronavirus.

Rights activists have expressed concern about a fair investigation into the case filed over police firing during demonstrations by workers of SS Power I Plant project in Chattogram’s Banshkhali upazila eight days ago.

Negotiations were difficult and the plan got off to a slow start, but Europe’s huge post-coronavirus recovery fund may make its first payments in July.

A daily record of more than 893,000 Covid-19 cases has been recorded worldwide yesterday as US regulators said pharma giant Johnson & Johnson can restart a vaccine rollout paused due to worries over blood clots.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour docked with the International Space Station (ISS) early yesterday, a livestream showed.

Police yesterday arrested two teenage boys for their alleged involvement in the rape of a minor girl in Bagerhat’s Chitalmari upazila.

Hospitals in India yesterday launched desperate appeals for oxygen as the nation’s Covid crisis spiralled, while Japan issued a state of emergency in some areas just three months before the Olympics are due to open.

Three members of the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) posted at a Rohingya camp in Ukhiya were sent to jail yesterday after they got arrested with 1,954 yaba pills and fake money.

A Rohingya man suspected to be a yaba dealer was killed in a “gunfight” with Border Guard Bangladesh in Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari upazila early yesterday.

The health condition of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has further improved as she no longer has coronavirus symptoms, said her physicians.

Eleven more Hefajat-e-Islam leaders and activists, including central leader Nur Hossain Noorani, were arrested yesterday in different cases.

After years studying the icy waters of the Southern Ocean with floating robotic monitors, a consortium of oceanographers and other researchers is deploying them across the planet, from the north Pacific to the Indian Ocean.

US State Department sent a telegram to the US Embassy in Pakistan on April 24, 1971. The telegram provided a critical overview of the East Pakistan situation based on US Assistant Secretary Sisco’s meetings with Pakistan Ambassador Hilaly and Indian Ambassador Jha.

The trial proceedings in the murder case filed in connection with the Rana Plaza collapse in Savar have made no progress in the last five years due to High Court stay orders.

While experts have been urging speedy improvement of Bangladesh’s worrying child marriage rate, some civil society groups have shown the path to resolving the issue.

The government has decided that passengers arriving from abroad on special flights will have to stay under institutional quarantine in government-designated hotels for five days instead of 14 days.

China has initiated a new platform for South Asia focusing on Covid cooperation and post-pandemic economic recovery as the region faces severe vaccine shortage amid rising cases of coronavirus that’s pushing millions of people into poverty, officials said.

The Czech government said yesterday it would slap a ceiling on the Russian embassy workforce as part of a spiralling diplomatic row, which means dozens of staff will have to leave by next month.

China yesterday said Australia’s sudden scrapping of a Belt and Road Initiative deal risked “serious harm” to relations and warned of retaliatory actions, but Canberra insisted it would not be bullied.