Facebook said its services in Bangladesh were shut down on Saturday, as hundreds of protesters affiliated with religio-political parties marched across the country, angered by the police killing of their supporters who had protested against a visit by Indian premier Narendra Modi. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina did not comment if it had blocked Facebook and its messenger app, but …

TEHRAN: Iran and China signed a 25-year “strategic cooperation pact” on Saturday in the latest expansion of Beijing’s flagship trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative as the US rivals build closer ties. Negotiations for the deal, launched five years ago, sparked controversy in Iran last year and virtually no details of its contents have been released. China is Iran’s leading trade …

CAIRO: Hopes rose on Saturday that a mega-ship blocking Egypt’s Suez Canal could be refloated within days, even as the crisis forced companies to consider re-routing vessels around the southern tip of Africa. The president of Shoei Kisen — the Japanese firm which owns the giant container vessel — said it could be freed from the canal bed later on …

YANGON: As Myanmar’s military celebrated the annual Armed Forces Day holiday with a parade on Saturday in the country’s capital, soldiers and police elsewhere killed 114 people, including children, in a brutal crackdown on pro-demo­cracy protesters, news rep­orts and witnesses said. The killings drew strong renewed criticism from western countries. British Ambassador Dan Chugg said the security forces had “disgraced …

PARIS: France, Belgium and Poland on Saturday tightened curbs as coronavirus cases surged in Europe while the Philippines prepared for a giant lockdown and Chile confined over 80 percent of its population. France has admitted that the situation is “critical” and added three more departments to the 16 already under tight restrictions. Around 20 million people in France, including those …

DHAKA: At least five people were shot dead as police clashed with demonstrators in Bangladesh on Saturday, a day after clashes between police and hardline protesters against a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi left another five dead. The violence, which began on Friday at the main mosque in the capital Dhaka, rocked several key districts in the country. …

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has suggested founding an initiative from “democratic” countries to rival China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure initiative as tensions spike between the Asian power and Western nations. Biden said late on Friday that he floated the proposal in a call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson amid a row over sanctions against abuses targeting the …

Two suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a Catholic church in the Indonesian city of Makassar on Sunday, wounding fourteen people on the first day of the Easter Holy Week, the country’s national police said. The congregation had been inside the church on the island of Sulawesi at the time of the explosion, police said, just as the mass …

LAHORE: Lahore Commissioner retired Capt Muhammad Usman on Saturday warned that those found without mask at a public place will be sent behind bars, as it has been decided in principle to ensure implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to curb Covid-19 spread. The order will be effective from Sunday (today). “We are passing through peak time of the third …

As the NED Engineering University in Karachi turns 100, an academic fondly looks back at the history of engineering and engineering education in Sindh, and questions how universities can regain their lost glory. Can the engineers of tomorrow be inspired to dream of a brighter future for the country? ccording to a joke commonly shared online, South Asian children have …