The European Union yesterday imposed sanctions on 11 people linked to last month’s military coup in Myanmar as the repression of pro-democracy protesters by security forces reached what Germany’s foreign minister called “an unbearable extent”.

Bids for the construction work of two student halls at Kushtia Islamic University (IU) for Tk 108 crore have been opened despite the fact that names of the bidders had been leaked a few days ago.

Police arrested a madrasa teacher on charge of beating up a student by hanging him from a ceiling fan in Bagerhat’s Rampal.

The representatives of President Yahya Khan and an Awami League team met twice today. The AL team arrived at the President’s House flying the Bangladesh flag -- a sight which clearly disturbed the junta. However, an agreement on the implementation of the principles embodied in the Six Points was ultimately achieved.

“They took away all of my savings and the gold jewellery we had for my daughter’s wedding. We managed to flee minutes before they attacked,” 55-year-old Jhorna Rani Das said, describing the attack on her house.

The government has increased the allocation for its Money for Work and Test Relief (TR) programmes by 81.25 percent for the current fiscal year to revitalise a pandemic-hit rural economy and provide money to people through development of rural infrastructure.

Dhaka and Kathmandu yesterday signed four Memorandum of Understandings to enhance cooperation between the two countries in different areas, including tourism, sanitation, cultural exchange and railways link.

India reported its most Covid-19 cases and deaths in months yesterday, on the first anniversary of the start of a chaotic nationwide lockdown that left many people jobless and shrank the economy.

Yemen’s Huthi rebels have admitted their forces caused a fire that killed 45 people at a migrant centre earlier this month, saying more than a dozen soldiers and officials face punishment.

French maritime authorities said they had rescued 72 migrants in the English Channel yesterday whose vessels ran into difficulties as they tried to reach the UK.

Police in Magura have detained three people for interrogation after panic spread in the local Hindu community following the distribution of letters inviting Hindus to Islam.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also president of the Awami League, has urged the party leaders, activists, and associate bodies to observe Mujib Borsho in a manner that benefits mass people.

Britain has hit a Covid-19 vaccination milestone with more than half of all adults having had at least one injection, health secretary Matt Hancock said, making it the world’s first major economy to achieve that level of innoculation.

Doctors and nurses in central Myanmar rallied in the streets donning hard hats and brandishing posters of Suu Kyi as security forces shot dead an anti-coup protester yesterday.

A student of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology was arrested yesterday in a case filed by police under the Digital Security Act.

Iran does not trust US promises on lifting sanctions and will only return to its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal once Washington fully removes the measures, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday.

Police have arrested three more people in two cases filed over Wednesday’s attack on Hindu houses in Noagaon village of Sunamganj’s Shalla upazila.

On the morning of March 22, 1971, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called on President Yahya Khan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was also present at the meeting.

Twenty-eight years have passed since the country first detected arsenic in water, but neither the extent nor the intensity of the chemical element was reduced, say experts.

International Farakka Committee (IFC), in a statement, recently expressed hope that during the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Bangladesh the two countries will, in light of mutual friendship, take effective steps for basin-wide management of common rivers by keeping them alive from their source to sea.