Speculation intensified yesterday that North Korea is preparing another missile launch to coincide with a military anniversary, just weeks after conducting its first successful test of an ICBM that experts warned could reach Alaska.

A Malian activist whose fierce criticism of politicians and religious figures on YouTube has made him a cult figure, survived an assassination attempt on Tuesday, his family told AFP.

Senate Republicans face a do-or-die vote yesterday to launch a new Obamacare repeal effort, as confusion reigns over what path President Donald Trump's party will take -- and whether they even have the votes to move forward.

WILL WE EVER LEARN ?

Iran's judiciary chief yesterday accused the United States of holding Iranians "in gruesome prisons", as the two countries trade charges of illegally jailing each other's citizens.

Swaziland, which bears the world's heaviest HIV burden, has halved the rate of new infections in five years by boosting access to virus-suppressing drugs, researchers said yesterday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Doha yesterday as part of a Gulf tour aimed at defusing a dispute between Turkey's ally Qatar and a bloc of Saudi-led Arab states.

A video clip shows that Siddiqur Rahman collapsed to the ground when a policeman shot a teargas canister directly at the agitating college students at Shahbagh on Thursday.

Two men arrested over the murder of a school girl in Shariatpur confessed their involvement in the crime, said police sources.

The first hajj flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying 418 pilgrims took off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport yesterday morning.

An independent lawmaker was allegedly attacked by supporters of a ruling party union parishad chairman in Pirojpur's Mathbaria upazila yesterday.

Deputy Commissioners of Barguna and Barisal have been withdrawn and made officers on special duty (OSD) attached to the Public Administration Ministry for their roles in the filing of a case and arrest of Barguna UNO Tariq Salman.

Like previous years, students will be subjected to a strenuous admission battle this year as the government has failed to introduce a uniform admission test, overdue for seven years, for admission into public universities.

A three-day conference of deputy commissioners (DCs) of all 64 districts begins in the city today.

After offering an unconditional apology, the officer-in-charge of Akhaura Police Station in Brahmanbaria yesterday secured exemption from a High Court rule that questioned the legality of misreporting a businessman as dead.

A Taliban suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in the western part of Kabul yesterday, killing up to 35 people and wounding more than 40, government officials said, in one of the worst attacks in the Afghan capital in recent weeks.

The search and rescue operation for the four people missing in Sunday's landslide in Bandarban was disrupted by heavy rain yesterday.

Japan yesterday launched a scheme to promote "telework", or working from home, in an effort to ease congestion when Tokyo hosts the 2020 Olympics, as well as soften a notoriously rigid work culture.

Thursday's incident at Shahbagh that led to Siddiqur Rahman's eye injuries could have been averted had the authorities told the agitating college students that their demands had already been met two days before.

China yesterday defended its repatriation of North Koreans who have escaped across its border after a United Nations envoy voiced concern about increasing detentions and expulsions.