China launched a spacecraft on Thursday carrying three astronauts to part of a space station still under construction for the longest stay in low Earth orbit by any Chinese national.

China will send three astronauts into orbit on Thursday in a high-stakes mission, the first of four crewed space flights to complete the country’s space station by the end of next year.

New Zealand today announced NZ $8.25 million (US$5.89 million) in humanitarian assistance to support refugees and their host populations in Bangladesh and to support the need of internally displaced and conflict affected people in Myanmar.

Another unidentified body of a child was found on a char of Naf river under Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar this morning, reports our local correspondent quoting police.

Bangladesh will reiterate its position, seeking quick and sustainable repatriation of Rohingyas, as Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen leaves for New York this morning (Sunday) to attend two important events at the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

Japan’s House of Councilors has unanimously passed a resolution, condemning the coup d’état in Myanmar and calling for early recovery of the democratic political system.

A 35-year-old Chinese national, who was held by India’s Border Security Force (BSF) near the border with Bangladesh in West Bengal’s Malda district for illegal entry on June 10, has claimed he runs a hotel in a posh locality of Gurugram -- a satellite city of Delhi -- along with an Indian partner, police sources said.

The UN rights chief yesterday said that violence was escalating across Myanmar, warning that the country had plunged into a “human rights catastrophe” since the February 1 coup.

The dusty, rocky Martian surface and a Chinese rover and lander bearing small national flags were seen in photos released Friday that the rover took on the red planet.

The Myanmar junta has hit deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi with corruption charges over claims she accepted illegal payments of gold and more than half a million dollars in cash, state media reported yesterday.

Scientists from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have developed a reusable mask that is able to kill bacteria droplets within 45 seconds and filter 99.9 percent of bacteria, viruses and haze particles - better than the medical-grade N95 masks used in hospitals.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos will fly to space next month on the first space flight from his rocket company Blue Origin, the billionaire said on Monday (June 7).

At makeshift factories hidden in Myanmar’s jungle, locals who have formed self-defence groups make rifles to take the fight to the military junta, but their homemade weapons don’t always hit the mark.

In a significant development, Myanmar’s National Unity Government has announced drafting a new constitution and committed to ensuring citizenship and fundamental rights of all ethnic groups, including the Rohingyas.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Friday that Pakistan is ready to restart talks with arch-rival India if Delhi provides a roadmap towards restoring the previous status of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

A shadow government in Myanmar yesterday called on the Rohingya minority to help it overthrow the junta, promising citizenship and repatriation for the persecuted Muslim community in a future democratic Myanmar.

Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said it is "appalled" by the move to take veteran Pakistani journalist and TV anchorperson Hamid Mir off air, terming it as "another step towards autocracy" in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led government's rule, reports Pakistan newspaper Dawn.

Bhasan Char is a much better place than the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, observed the UN delegation that visited the island recently.

The local administration yesterday extended the ongoing lockdown in Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf upazila as well as the five Rohingya camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf in an effort to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission.

UN Refugee Agency has urged immediate and stronger support for the COVAX initiative for the refugees and asylum seekers, including the Rohingyas in Bangladesh and the Asia-Pacific as Covid-19 is raging in many parts of the world, especially in South and Southeast Asia.