Dozens of Syrian pro-government fighters and civilians on Friday celebrated their return to the abandoned town of Quneitra close to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after rebels quit the area.

Australia's political leaders made last-gasp bids to sway voters yesterday as polls opened in five by-elections that could see the conservative government boost its wafer-thin parliamentary majority.

Four people died when their light aircraft crashed into the summit of a glacier in the Swiss Alps, police said yesterday, in the latest fatal accident to hit the popular tourist region.

A woman has died in hospital taking the death toll from Greece's worst wildfires to 88, many of them children, officials said yesterday.

The government has planned to further ease the visa system for tourists and activate visa on arrival effectively at land and sea ports to give them easier access to Bangladesh and thus boost the tourism sector, officials said.

The number of Bangladeshi children and adolescents staying in 27 correction centres under the government of West Bengal has crossed 200.

A bus carrying university workers plunged off a mountain road into a valley in western India yesterday killing 33 people, police said.

Hefajat-e-Islam's influence on a Tabligh Jamaat faction has become evident with the Hefajat chief attending a rally of the faction for the first time in the capital yesterday.

Four suspected criminals, including an outlawed party leader, were killed in “gunfights” with law enforcers in Comilla, Sirajganj and Rajbari early yesterday, while an alleged drug peddler died during a “gun battle” between two groups of drug peddlers in Tangail.

Continued losses in recent years have forced GlaxoSmithKline to close its medicine manufacturing unit in Bangladesh after over six decades of operation.

Petrobangla Chairman Abul Mansur Md Faizullah yesterday said taking coal out of the Barapukuria coal mine yard would not have been possible if its staffers had not been involved in the act.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to slap "large sanctions" on Turkey unless it freed an American pastor, prompting an angry response from Ankara and further escalating tensions between the two Nato allies.

The longest "blood moon" eclipse this century coincided with Mars' closest approach in 15 years yesterday to offer skygazers a thrilling astronomical double bill.

Dhaka has urged the international community to continue pressure on Myanmar for the safe repatriation of the Rohingyas and hold accountable the perpetrators of brutal atrocities in Rakhine state.

All critical personal data on people in India should be processed within the country, a government panel said yesterday.

Israel will build hundreds of new homes in a settlement in the occupied West Bank where a Palestinian stabbed three Israelis, one fatally, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said yesterday.

Forest department officials have requested the authorities concerned to ban tourists in the Sundarbans between June and August from next year as the months are the wild animals' breeding season.

Police recovered the body of an official of International Organization for Migration from a hotel in the district town on Thursday night.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked the public servants to remain careful so that every penny spent on development projects is spent properly.

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader yesterday held talks on different issues, including the country's current political affairs, with Krishak Sramik Janata League President Abdul Kader Siddique and former BNP leader Nazmul Huda.