As the number of Covid-19 cases continues to go up, Health Secretary Abdul Mannan yesterday said the country would receive the vaccine hopefully by February next year or earlier.

Australian firefighters are struggling to control a massive bush fire that already destroyed 40 percent of the Unesco world heritage-listed Fraser Island before a heatwave hit yesterday.

A Turkish research ship at the centre of a row with Greece over potential gas riches in the eastern Mediterranean has returned to port, Turkey’s energy ministry said yesterday.

DNA test found evidence that four accused were involved in the rape of a woman at Sylhet’s Murari Chand (MC) College, police say.

Zahirul Islam alias Zia Uddin, an accused in a rape case in Feni, secured bail for one year from the High Court yesterday, 11 days after he married the complainant at the jail gate in line with a condition set by the court.

Chinese Defence Minister Gen Wei Fenghe has suspended his visit to Dhaka scheduled this week.

Iran said Israel and an exiled opposition group used new and “complex” methods to assassinate its leading nuclear scientist, as it buried him yesterday in a funeral befitting a top “martyr”.

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi has expressed the hope that the friendship and cooperation existing between Bangladesh and her country would grow and become an example of good neighbourly relations for the world at large.

The High Court is yet to dispose of an 11-year-old writ petition that challenged the legality of empowering administrative officials to perform judicial functions.

Commuters have been enduring sufferings for around two weeks as a portion of the Dhaka-Pagla-Narayanganj road is submerged in filthy water.

The BNP has demanded that the army and relevant organisations be given the responsibility to procure the Covid-19 vaccine and preserve and distribute it.

Two local courts in Sylhet and Gazipur yesterday sent three arrestees to jail in two cases over rape and attempted rape.

Democrat candidate Joe Biden’s victory in the US elections offers hope for democracy and governance globally as well as for healing the scars of structural racism and inequality in American society, global affairs analysts have said.

Bangladesh has urged the OIC member states to continue political and humanitarian support to Bangladesh until dignified repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar is ensured.

Thousands of protesting Indian farmers yesterday refused to comply with a government appeal to stop blockading major highways into New Delhi and vowed to intensify their action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s liberalising reforms.

Iran will give a “calculated and decisive” response to the killing of its top nuclear scientist, said a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while a hardline newspaper suggested Tehran’s revenge should include striking the Israeli city of Haifa.

A housewife was stabbed and burnt to death in her flat by unidentified criminals in the capital’s Kafrul area yesterday.

Unknown criminals beat a former Chhatra League leader to death in Cox’s Bazar’s Chakaria upazila early yesterday.

In a rare move, Road Transport and Bridges Ministry yesterday appointed a project director within five days of the approval of the Jhenaidah-Jashore highway expansion project.

Cambodian villager Ek Chan has avoided the coronavirus so far without masks or social distancing but rather the scarecrows she has made to keep the deadly virus at bay.