Bangladesh

13 Dec 2020; AA:  Bangladesh on Sunday signed a procurement contract with Serum Institute of India, which is producing doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, an official said.

Bangladesh will get five million shots each month after the vaccine is approved for mass use, Bangladesh Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque said at the official ceremony held in the capital Dhaka.

Doses are expected to first arrive in January, he added.

(Reuters) - A U.N. human rights investigator urged Bangladesh on Thursday to allow a safety assessment of the remote island where the government shipped 1,600 Rohingya refugees last week, amid U.S. concern about plans to carry out further relocations.

The United Nations says it has not been allowed to conduct a technical and safety assessment of Bhasan Char, a flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal, and was not involved in the transfer of refugees there.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Authorities in Bangladesh on Friday started sending a first group of more than 1,500 Rohingya refugees to an isolated island despite calls by human rights groups for a halt to the process.

The 1,642 refugees were boarding seven Bangladeshi naval vessels in the port of Chittagong for the trip to Bhashan Char, according to an official, who could not be named in accordance with local practice.

DHAKA (Reuters) - Thousands of Muslims took to the streets of the Bangladesh capital on Tuesday to protest against remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron in a row about cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

The dispute has its roots in a knife attack outside a French school on Oct. 16 in which a man of Chechen origin beheaded Samuel Paty, a teacher who had shown pupils the cartoons in a civics lesson on freedom of speech.

France has allowed displays of the cartoons, which are considered blasphemous by Muslims.

DHAKA, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh has been elected as a member of the executive board of three United Nations bodies for the term 2021-2023, starting from Jan. 1 next year, Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.

Bangladesh secured the highest votes (53 out of the 54 votes with one abstention) to become member of the executive board of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).

DHAKA, Sept 10 (NNN-BSS) – At least 10 bodies were recovered, after a boat carrying dozens of people sank, in the river of Gumai in Bangladesh’s Netrokona district, some 158 km north of the capital, Dhaka, yesterday.

Mohammad Fakhruzzaman Jewel, the district’s additional police chief, said over phone that, “10 bodies, including five women and five children have been found.”

DHAKA (Reuters) - A gas pipeline explosion near a mosque in Bangladesh killed 13 people and injured 30 as worshippers were about to end their prayers, officials said on Saturday.

The explosion, which fire service officials suspect was caused by leakage from the pipeline, occurred on Friday night at a mosque in Narayanganj district, just outside the capital Dhaka.

Dozens were rushed to Dhaka’s state-run specialized burn and plastic-surgery hospital, most of them with severe burns.

Dhaka, Aug 30 (PTI) The family of Bangladesh's main opposition leader Khaleda Zia has sought an extension of six more months on her suspended prison sentence for the former prime minister's treatment, according to a media report.

The government had in March released Zia for six months on a condition that she would stay at home amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country, receive treatment and not travel abroad.

DHAKA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Monsoon floods are robbing millions of people of their homes and livelihoods in parts of South Asia including Bangladesh, India and Nepal, with mounting risk of more deadly disease outbreaks when health resources are stretched to breaking point by COVID-19, said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Thursday.

Quoting the government figures, IFRC said so far almost 17.5 million people have been affected and more than 630 killed by major floods in India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh’s state medical research agency has approved a third-phase trial of a potential COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd, as infections rise in the densely populated South Asian country.

Sinovac has been looking for volunteers outside China as the number of coronavirus cases there has dwindled, said a member of Bangladesh’s national technical advisory committee to tackle COVID-19.

The trial, to be conducted by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), could begin next month.