Abbe Pierre, world renowned philanthropist and chief patron of the United Towns Organisation of Europe, calls on Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Gono Bhaban today and discusses with him his committee’s Town Twining Programme in Bangladesh.

Turkey’s Defence Minister Hulusi Akar made a surprise trip to Libya yesterday flanked by top military officers to inspect his country’s troops, the ministry said.

Russia’s FSB security service yesterday said it had foiled an attack planned by a cell loyal to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in the country’s unstable southern republic of Dagestan, arresting four people.

A Russian historian and Napoleon enthusiast was sentenced to 12-and-a-half-years in prison for murdering and dismembering his young lover last year.

A fire at a hospital north of Cairo yesterday killed seven coronavirus patients, security and judicial sources said.

Three UN peacekeepers have been killed by unidentified combatants in the Central African Republic, the United Nations said, as the country prepares for a general election and fighting continues between rebels and government forces.

Britain and the European Union yesterday published the full text of the post-Brexit trade agreement aimed at governing their relationship when the UK definitively leaves the bloc’s single market in just five days.

Arrests of a film director and an actor over “obscene dialogues” in a recently released movie is a threat to artistic expression and freedom of speech, noted filmmakers said.

Late Hefajat chief Ahmed Shafi’s family members yesterday told reporters that top leaders of the Islamist organisation have been threatening them.

China’s ruling Communist Party leaders have congratulated themselves on their “extremely extraordinary” success in handling the Covid-19 outbreak domestically, ahead of a World Health Organization probe into the disease’s origins.

The sacrifices made to protect people during the coronavirus pandemic must not be squandered over the festive period, the World Health Organization’s chief said in a Christmas message.

A 45-year-old constable of Chattogtam Metropolitan Police (CMP) died with coronavirus yesterday.

Turkey would like better ties with Israel but Israeli policy towards the Palestinians remains “unacceptable”, President Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday offered to hold fresh talks to end a stalemate over new agricultural reforms, in his latest push to win over farmers protesting for almost a month against the move.

Prime Minister Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman once again asks Pakistan President ZA Bhutto to stop bargaining with the fate of four lakh Bangalees stranded in Pakistan. “Despite Bhutto’s shouting, Pakistani war criminals will be tried on the soil of Bangladesh if I am alive,” the prime minister says.

The task of sniffing out passengers infected with Covid-19 at Chile’s Santiago international airport is going to the dogs.

The plan to dismantle the iconic parabolic umbrella roof and plaza of Kamalapur Railway Station to make way for a multimodal hub and an extended metro rail line has stirred up an outcry among experts who say it will be like destroying part of the history of Dhaka.

Israel on Thursday arrested a Palestinian man in connection with the murder of a Jewish settler in the occupied West Bank, in a case that raised tensions in the area.

The European Union yesterday warned Turkey that a heavy jail sentence imposed on journalist Can Dundar harmed both human rights in the country and Ankara’s relations with Brussels.

Russia’s growing role in the volatile Central African Republic was in the spotlight this week, after Moscow dispatched military instructors following a rebel threat to disrupt Sunday’s elections.