Suspected Taliban fighters fired a rocket into a hospital in Afghanistan yesterday, sparking a blaze that caused extensive damage and destroyed Covid-19 vaccines though there were no reports of casualties, government officials said.

Awami League nominee Aga Khan Mintu is likely to be elected unopposed in Dhaka-14 by-polls, scheduled for July 28.

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda yesterday said that more discussions will be needed regarding the shifting of services relating to National Identity (NID) cards from the Election Commission to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Once a victim of human trafficking, Nodi Akter became a trafficker herself and worked as a coordinator between traffickers in India, Malaysia and UAE.

Ten Supreme Court lawyers yesterday served a legal notice on the government in order to know what necessary steps have been taken to prevent the incidents of phone tapping and to ensure the right to privacy of telecommunication.

Iran yesterday accused the United States of interference for saying its presidential election on Friday was neither free or fair, Iranian state media reported.

Police arrested a 60-year-old man who absconded for 32 years to avoid seven-year imprisonment awarded for abducting a minor boy in Joypurhat’s Kalai upazila.

More than two-thirds of the people in the slum areas of Dhaka and Chattagram have most definitely been exposed to Covid-19, found a study by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).

The United States said Monday that its ambassador will return this week to Moscow after two months, voicing hope he will build on last week’s presidential summit and reduce potential miscalculations.

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.

BNP standing committee has demanded that the government immediately allow party Chairperson Khaleda Zia to go abroad for better treatment.

Bangladesh Home Minister AHM Kamaruzzaman welcomed today the decision of the Aid Pakistan Consortium to withhold further aid until there was a political settlement of the Bangladesh issue.

Some families living in a jungle may be fearful of things bumping at night, but for one household in Thailand, the sight of an elephant rummaging through their kitchen was not a total shock.

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.