Italy’s former firebrand interior minister Matteo Salvini held a mass rally in Rome on Saturday which he hopes will propel him to leadership of the country’s disparate right-wing parties.

European Union officials yesterday called for a ceasefire in Afghanistan, saying the breakdown in talks between the US and the Taliban presented an opportunity to push anew for a truce.

When it comes to Japan’s royal family, anti-monarchy sentiment is almost non-existent. But government funding for two highly symbolic imperial rituals this year has sparked rare dissent.

The Rab arrested five female alleged drug peddlers, including an Indian, with 17,860 yaba tablets in Chattogram city yesterday evening.

Mexico’s foreign minister said on Saturday that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his US counterpart Donald Trump had agreed to take swift action to stem the flow of illegal weapons from the United States into Mexico, where a drug war is raging.

Influential Iraqi Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr has given his supporters the green light to resume anti-government protests, after the movement was interrupted following a deadly crackdown.

Bolivians voted yesterday to decide whether to give leftist President Evo Morales a controversial fourth term or turn their backs on the country’s first indigenous leader amid allegations of corruption and authoritarianism.

The longest non-stop passenger flight touched down in Australia yesterday morning after more than 19 hours in the air, a milestone journey from New York that Qantas hopes to parlay into commercial success.

A defiant British government doubled down yesterday, insisting it would leave the European Union in 11 days’ time despite parliament forcing a reluctant prime minister to request another delay.

An alleged drug dealer was killed in a “gunfight” between law enforcers and his cohorts in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar yesterday.

Hasina Begum, prime suspect of a double murder in Chattogram, yesterday confessed to police that she killed her husband and daughter to cover up her extra-marital affair.

At least nine people were killed yesterday in firing along the de facto India-Pakistan border in Kashmir, officials said, adding to the spike in deaths in recent days as New Delhi eased a curfew in the disputed region.

Nine new judges have been appointed to the High Court Division of the Supreme Court, creating hope of faster case disposal rate.

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday arrested Bazlur Rashid, deputy inspector general (DIG) of the department of prisons, in connection with a case filed over amassing Tk 3.08 crore beyond the known source of his income.

His plan was to form an online platform for radicalised youths who would be ready to work for the banned militant outfit, Ansar al Islam.

Sacks of crystal meth scooped from the sea by Myanmar fishermen who mistook it for a deodorant substance had a street value of $20 million, an official told AFP yesterday, in a country believed to be the world’s largest methamphetamine producer.

A flawless charge sheet in Buet student Abrar Fahad murder case will be submitted very soon, said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday.

Land grabbing and district administration’s negligence have caused Bandarban’s Myaksi Chhara to shrink into a narrow channel.

Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon yesterday alleged that people could not vote in the December 30 parliamentary polls.

As Greta Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion inspire climate protesters across the globe, young African activists say they still struggle to make themselves heard.