Washington on Friday spurned an Iraqi request to prepare to pull out its troops, amid heightened US-Iranian tensions after the US killing of an Iranian commander in Baghdad, and said it was exploring a possible expansion of Nato’s presence there.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam has cancelled his visit to India as he will travel to the UAE with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today.

The first phase of Biswa Ijtema, the world’s second largest Muslim congregation after Hajj, will end today through the Akheri Munajat [final prayer].

There is no immediate respite from the bone-chilling cold as the ongoing gloomy weather may continue until next Wednesday, says the Met office.

A gold bar found in a Mexico City park in 1981 was part of the Aztec treasure looted by Hernan Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors 500 years ago, a new study says.

At least 7,855 people were killed and 13,330 others injured in 5,516 road crashes across the country last year, according to a platform working for passengers’ welfare.

A physically challenged youth in the remote Haziganj Bhatitari village of Aditmari upazila in Lalmonirhat is using music to inspire children in his village.

The first phase of Bishwa Ijtema, the largest Islamic congregation after Hajj, started yesterday on the bank of the Turag river in Tongi.

A youth pins him to the ground and starts beating him with a stick. The victim cries in pain, repeatedly begs for mercy, but the youth does not stop.

At least 14 people were killed and 20 others wounded in a bomb blast during evening prayers at a mosque in Quetta’s Satellite Town area yesterday, police and a doctor said.

The controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which gives citizenship to non-Muslims who came to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan until 2014, went into force yesterday, the Indian home ministry said.

An air strike in eastern Syria killed eight fighters of Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force overnight, a war monitor said yesterday.

France said yesterday that the imprisonment of two prominent French academics by Iran was unacceptable and that their release would represent a “significant gesture”, as tensions mount between Tehran and the West.

The Israeli defence ministry has hailed a “breakthrough” in the development of cheaper laser-based air defences, as tensions soar in the region after Iran hit US targets in retaliation for a high-profile assassination.

A court in Italy has sentenced a former far-right extremist to life in prison for his part in a bombing at a railway station 40 years ago that killed 85 people.

The United States has approved the sale of up to 12 F-35 fighter jets -- one of the most advanced warplanes ever built -- to Singapore for around $2.75 billion, officials said yesterday.

A teenage boy was hacked to death in Char-Shadhupara village of Pabna Sadar upazila on Thursday night.

Israel has announced the release of two prisoners -- one of whom was convicted of spying for Syria -- as part of a swap deal brokered by Russia.

India’s Supreme Court said yesterday that an indefinite shutdown of the internet in Kashmir was illegal, rebuking the government for the communications lockdown imposed after it withdrew the Muslim majority region’s autonomy in August.

Australia urged nearly a quarter of a million people to evacuate their homes yesterday and prepared military backup as authorities said the next few hours could be “very, very challenging” even as rain poured down in some parts.