The Kremlin yesterday accused Washington of “adding fuel to the fire” by planning to supply Kyiv with advanced missile systems, as Ukraine looked close to losing the key eastern city of Severodonetsk to Russian forces.

The High Court yesterday stayed the trial proceedings against photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol in three cases filed under the much-talked-about Digital Security Act.

Mitali Express, the third passenger train between Bangladesh and India, has started operations yesterday, after railways ministers of the two countries flagged it off virtually.

The world is paying too little attention to a slew of mass displacements of people across Africa, risking starvation deaths and prolonging conflicts, the Norwegian Refugee Council warned in a report published yesterday.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has wondered why Bangladeshi journalists don’t ask the US ambassador about the human rights situation and the state of democracy in his country.

A week-long special campaign for administering Covid-19 booster jabs will start countrywide on June 4, said the Directorate General of Health Services.

Archaeologists working near Cairo have uncovered hundreds of ancient Egyptian coffins and bronze statues of deities.

Israel yesterday accused its arch-foe Iran of stealing classified documents from the International Atomic Energy Agency to help it hide evidence of its nuclear programme.

China has made the second largest incursion into Taiwan’s air defence zone this year with Taipei reporting 30 jets entering the area, including more than 20 fighters.

Action will be taken against election officials found guilty of neglecting their duties, said Election Commissioner Md Alamgir yesterday.

Russian forces have seized control of half of eastern Ukraine’s key city of Severodonetsk, a senior official said yesterday, hours after EU leaders struck a watered-down deal to ban more than two-thirds of Moscow’s oil imports.

A local Awami League was hacked to death by unknown assailants in Lohagara, Narail, on Monday morning.

Police in Kalai, Joypurhat, arrested two men on charges of brokering deals between those needing a kidney transplant and those willing to donate a kidney.

A police officer, who was closed in March over allegations of bribery, was recently transferred to Barishal range.

Twenty-two public universities, including two new ones, have decided to hold integrated admission tests for 2021-22 academic session.

Israel signed a free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates yesterday, its first with an Arab country, building on their US-brokered normalisation of diplomatic relations in 2020.

Bangladesh would not be buying crude oil from Western-sanctioned Russia as its refinery is configured to process only oil from the Arab countries, said Nasrul Hamid, the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources.

The days of lengthy immigration formalities at Dhaka airport will soon be over as 27 electronic gates are set to become operational from June 7.

Election Commissioner Ahsan Habib Khan yesterday said one of the main challenges in using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in elections is interference by “goons” who forcibly press the EVM buttons for the voters.

Dhaka Wasa and the icddr,b yesterday said they tested Wasa supply water at source and found it to be safe.