A fire left a cottage in ashes in Rangamati’s Sajek early yesterday, around 40 days after four other cottages and a restaurant were gutted in another fire in the tourist destination.

With the health directorate reporting 2,458 new Covid cases yesterday, the highest in four months, experts warned that the pandemic situation, fuelled by community transmission of Omicron variant, may get worse fast.

Despite restrictions after her arrest, Dhaka’s Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal ordered the police to unblock the passport of Humaira Zakir Nabila, chief a “sister department” of Neo-JMB and it’s financier.

Hailing a Dinajpur court for sentencing Saiful Islam to life imprisonment for raping a five-year-old, the victim’s family said they were satisfied with the decision but the child is still to heal from the brutal torture she had to endure.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said Bangladesh will be governed as per the ideological speech of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that he delivered on his historic Homecoming Day in 1972.

The government should keep the economy open even during the new surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant, the Policy Research Institute suggested at a webinar on “After the Pandemic Onslaught – Economy on Strong Recovery Path”.

Following the latest Covid curbs issued by the government, Bangladesh Railway has decided to operate trains at half capacity from January 15, while maintaining health safety rules.

The parliamentary standing committee on expatriates’ welfare and overseas welfare ministry at a meeting recommended the installation of rapid test facilities in all three international airports of the country for outgoing expatriate workers.

President Abdul Hamid yesterday said he will take measures to ensure a free, fair and credible national election at a dialogue with Islamic Front Bangladesh, said Syed Bahadur Shah Mujaddedi, chairman of IFB.

Judicial functions of the Supreme Court’s chamber judge will run virtually from January 16 to contain the surge of Covid-19.

Chairman of River Protection Com-mission ASM Ali Kabir was laid to rest at the Martyred Intellectuals’ Graveyard in Mirpur yesterday.

Researchers now have gotten an opportunity to promote hilsa production in the country, thanks to the introduction of a high-tech vessel by the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute.

Legendary playback singer Lata Mangeshkar has been admitted to a hospital in Mumbai after she tested positive for Covid-19, PTI reported quoting her niece Rachna and doctors. She has mild symptoms.

More than half of people in Europe are projected to catch Omicron in the next two months, the WHO said yesterday, as millions in China faced fresh lockdowns on the two-year anniversary of the world’s first Covid death.

The government yesterday decided that only those vaccinated would be allowed to staff vehicles and vessels.

Rab-15 arrested a Rohingya for smuggling around five lakh yaba pills into the country in Cox’s Bazar on Sunday night.

With less than three months’ training, Poly Khatun and Mim Akhter, children from the slums of Mirpur, have defeated internationally rated chess players. 

Britain yesterday put the biggest private health companies on high alert to deliver crucial treatments should Omicron overwhelm National Health Service hospitals in England.

Washington said Sunday it refused to be threatened by Iran’s weekend sanctioning of some 50 Americans including senior officials, warning that Tehran would face “severe consequences” if it attacked any US nationals.

A Dinajpur court yesterday sentenced a man to life term imprisonment and fined Tk 20,000 for abducting and attempting to kill a five-year-old girl after rape in Parbatipur Upazila of Dinajpur in 2016.