Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the Bangladeshi envoys to strengthen the country’s relations with the Muslim countries.

The BNP lawmakers walked out of parliament last night following an argument with two senior Awami League MPs over holding the upcoming Dhaka city polls in a free and fair manner.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, today begins her final mission, which will last till January 23.

Israel’s left-wing Meretz and Labor-Gesher parties said yesterday they had joined forces ahead of March 2 elections, to boost their chances against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing base.

Police in China shot and killed a kidnapper who held three people hostage using a homemade gun and explosive devices, local authorities said yesterday, in a rare case involving firearms in the country.

Nearly 200 Rohingya Muslims arrested at sea last month by Myanmar’s navy after a voyage of hundreds of kilometres have been sent back to Rakhine state, officials said yesterday.

Hong Kong’s top judge yesterday delivered a passionate defence of the city’s legal system as it struggles with a backlog of protester trials and accusations of bias from all sides.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has warned that military confrontation with Iran will impact global peace and stability, as he visits the Middle East hoping to ease tensions spiked by the US killing of a top Iranian general.

Prince Harry and his brother Prince William put on a united front as they were summoned to showdown talks yesterday on Harry’s future after he and his wife Meghan unilaterally announced they were quitting as front-line British royalty.

Royal motorcades will no longer completely shut down Bangkok’s roads, a rare concession by the unassailable Thai king to public opinion.

A Pakistan court yesterday annulled the death sentence handed to former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, ruling that the special court which had found him guilty of treason last year was unconstitutional, a government prosecutor told AFP.

China on Saturday officially opened operations of the world’s largest radio telescope, which it will use for space research and help in the hunt for extra-terrestrial life, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Two suspected drug peddlers were killed in a “gunfight” with detectives during an anti-drug raid in Dinajpur Sadar upazila early yesterday, said police.

Protesters denouncing Iran’s clerical rulers took to the streets and riot police deployed to face them yesterday, in a third day of demonstrations after authorities acknowledged shooting down a passenger plane by accident.

Baul singer Shariat Sarkar will be produced before a Tangail court today after a three-day remand, police said.

The High Court yesterday issued some directives for the government to reduce air pollution in and around the capital and also ordered the Department of Environment to shut down the rest of the illegal brick kilns in five districts, including Dhaka, in next two months.

Temperatures may rise over the next few days, reducing the effects of the cold wave sweeping over the country, says the Met office.

Police yesterday busted a den of “Neo-JMB” and arrested a female member of the militant outfit in Ashulia’s Gokulnagar area on the outskirts of the capital.

Queen Elizabeth II yesterday said Prince Harry and his wife Meghan would be allowed to split their time between Britain and Canada while their future is finalised.

Brazil’s government will propose legalizing oil and gas exploration as well as hydroelectric dam construction on indigenous land, a report said Saturday, citing a draft of a bill to be sent to Congress.