The use of facial recognition technology by a British police force was ruled unlawful yesterday by the Court of Appeal in a case brought by a civil rights campaigner.

Iran said yesterday that its courts have sentenced two men to 10 years each in jail for spying on the Islamic republic for Britain, Germany and Israel in separate cases.

Sudan said yesterday 13 people were killed and 42 injured in days of clashes between rival ethnic groups in its Red Sea port, state media reported.

Indonesia yesterday launched human trials of a Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine with some 1,600 volunteers slated to take part in the six-month study.

Salvage crews yesterday raced against time to prevent a second disastrous oil spill off the picture-perfect coastline of Mauritius, with a damaged tanker carrying thousands of tonnes of fuel at risk of splitting apart.

Gunmen on motorcycles killed eight people including a group of French aid workers as they visited a part of Niger popular with tourists for its wildlife, officials said.

The government yesterday issued several directives regarding wearing mask for overall public safety in the country during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

India’s former president Pranab Mukherjee yesterday tested positive for coronavirus infection and was admitted to the Army’s Research and Referral (R&R) Hospital in New Delhi.

Australia recorded its biggest one-day rise in Covid-19 deaths yesterday although a slowdown in new cases gave hope that a second wave of new infections in the state of Victoria may have peaked.

Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh (Noab) has expressed deep concern over Chattogram Journalists’ Union staging protests surrounding the residence of Dainik Azadi editor.

Internet services across the country returned to normal early yesterday after 12 hours of disruption due to damage caused by an excavator to the country’s second submarine cable on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of farmers across the country suffer a double blow due to the prolonged flood that has damaged matured crops as well as seedbeds on vast swathes of land.

Janmashtami, the birth anniversary of lord Sri Krishna, one of the major festivals of the Hindu community, is being celebrated across the country today with due religious fervour.

There is a “vast global gap” between funds needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic and funds committed, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday, and the WHO was only “10% of the way” there.

Security Council members, striving to avert a Chinese veto, today agree to defer until August 21 further consideration of Bangladesh’s application for the UN membership.

An improvised bomb planted on a motorbike killed six people in Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province yesterday, police said.

With a highest single-day spike of 64,399 cases, India’s Covid-19 tally zoomed past 21 lakh yesterday, while the death toll climbed to 43,379 with 861 more fatalities, the Union Health Ministry said.

Some Lebanese yesterday called for a sustained uprising to topple their leaders amid public fury over this week’s devastating explosion in Beirut, and the country’s top Christian Maronite cleric said the cabinet should resign.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs has sought permission from West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee-led government to take back 2,680 people from the state stranded in Bangladesh since the Covid-19 lockdown began in March.

People whose houses have been damaged by floods are passing their days in extreme hardship amid insufficient government relief and support for their rehabilitation.