Turkey yesterday expressed disappointment after an EU summit ended with a critical statement about Ankara’s rights record and no clear progress on a customs treaty or committment on aid.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally announced Thursday that lawmakers will create a select committee to investigate the deadly US Capitol riot, weeks after Senate Republicans blocked formation of a bipartisan, 9/11-style commission.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said the nation should be prepared with skills, education and infrastructure as a major shift is taking place in the world economy.

The World Bank’s board of executive directors has approved a $191 million credit to Bangladesh and a $18 million grant to Afghanistan to help the countries strengthen their higher education sector and respond better to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A ventilator “bank” where hospitals can rent critical care machines for Covid-19 patients has given Nepal’s cash-strapped healthcare system a much-needed lifeline.

Australia and Israel, which had been successful in fending off Covid-19, reimposed restrictions yesterday as cases surged of the highly contagious Delta variant which also threatened Africa with a brutal third wave.

The Philippines grounded its entire fleet of Black Hawk helicopters yesterday after one of the new aircraft crashed during a night-time training flight, killing all six on board.

Hundreds of fire and rescue workers scoured through tonnes of rubble yesterday after a 12-storey oceanfront residential building partially collapsed in southern Florida, with at least one person dead and 51 still unaccounted for, officials said.

Brazil set a new record for Covid-19 infections with 115,228 new cases identified within 24 hours, the health ministry said on Wednesday, confirming the arrival of a third wave of the pandemic.

A local journalist was stabbed and his mother and son were beaten up in Noakhali’s Companiganj upazila yesterday.

The High Court in a full text of an order has issued five directives to ensure that the identities of informants and complainants of criminal cases are recorded.

Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) has decided to raise the toll rate of Bangabandhu Bridge by around 17 percent aiming to boost its income for covering maintenance costs and repaying loans.

The major aid-giving nations, led by the World Bank, quietly agreed to postpone indefinitely any new economic assistance for Pakistan.

A homeless freedom fighter and eight others, who have been blessed with a cluster of houses in Shajahanpur, Bogura, have found that even moderate rains can leave their new houses completely flooded.

Five Bangladeshi migrants were rescued after a boat sank in the Caribbean Sea near Puerto Escondido of Colombia.

After his 22-year sentence for murder ended, Rafiqul Islam was released in 2017.

A Pentagon translator was sentenced Wednesday to 23 years in prison for passing the names of US informants in Iraq to a person linked to Lebanon’s powerful Shia movement Hezbollah.

The European Union should seek direct talks with President Vladimir Putin even as it stands together against “provocations” from Russia, said Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday.

Asean members, collectively or otherwise, should tighten the screws on Myanmar’s military by engaging with the National Unity Government (NUG) before geopolitical manoeuvres by superpowers further complicate the crisis, experts said.

General SM Shafiuddin Ahmed took the charge as the newly appointed Chief of Army Staff yesterday, said an ISPR press release.