BDR chief Moinul Islam will head a new committee to reform Bangladesh's border force.

A three-hour meeting, chaired by commerce minister Faruque Khan, coordinator for post-mutiny affairs, decided on Monday that a new frontier force would be formed with a change of name.

The Bangladesh Football Federation seeks a portion of the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan in Sylhet to run its football academy's activities round the year.

BFF president Kazi Salahuddin sought the help of the National Sports Council chairman and Army chief Moeen U Ahmed in an hour-long meeting at the cantonment on Sunday.

South Africa has barred Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama from entering the country to take part in a peace conference, media reports and a lobby group said on Sunday.

The Dalai Lama was to join fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates Desmond Tutu, Martti Ahtisaari and FW de Klerk, as well as Norway's Nobel Peace Committee, at the conference scheduled for March 27, the Sunday Independent reported.

Jasper Palmer didn't think he was doing anything special when he balled up his paper hospital gown and stuffed it into one of his gloves. He just knew it was tidy and would stop the gown from spreading germs.

But the technique is one of the simple innovations that has reduced rates of infection with so-called superbugs at his and other hospitals by 26 percent to 62 percent, infection control experts told a meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America in San Diego on Saturday.

The apex trade bodies of the garment industry, BGMEA and BKMEA, say they are ready to launch open market sales of rice for their workers from the first week of next month.

Food and disaster management minister Abdur Razzaq told reporters Sunday after a meeting with delegations of the trade bodies that the government is yet to finalise the launching date of the scheme to provide low-cost rice to garment workers.

The government has imposed bar on travelling abroad for 'suspected war criminals', law minister Shafiq Ahmed said Sunday.

"War crimes trials have not kicked off, but are in the process...that's why the government has ordered some people not to leave the country," the minister told a press conference at his office.

BNP decided Sunday not to remain on the committee formed to probe irregularities of former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, an official said.

The main opposition party called the detention order of former deputy speaker Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui 'unnatural' and demanded the order be revoked.

Bangladesh faces a sever water crisis by 2025 and will press for a regional policy to solve management issues, a minister said Sunday.

"We are facing a water crisis because of poor water management as there is plenty of water during the rainy season," local government state minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak told a seminar on 'Water from cross-border rivers into Bangladesh'.

Brazilians believe they have uncovered another precocious talent in the shape of 17-year-old Neymar, who after only four first-team appearances has been hailed as the new Robinho.

Neymar, who still has a brace on his teeth, wears the Santos number seven shirt which once belonged to Robinho and has the same frail-looking physique and ability to confound opponents with his trickery.

Iran's supreme leader said on Saturday he saw no change in US policy towards the Islamic Republic, a day after US President Barack Obama issued an unprecedented videotaped appeal to the country.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sharply criticised US behaviour towards Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution and said the United States was "hated in the world" and should stop interfering in other countries' internal affairs.

U.S. regulators and law enforcement officials said on Friday they are aggressively cracking down on fraud related to the financial crisis and are seeking more powers to prevent predatory lending in the future.

The FBI said it has 43 corporate fraud cases under way directly related to the financial crisis, and said they include allegations of financial statement manipulation, accounting fraud and insider trading.

Former deputy speaker Akhter Hamid Siddiqui was sent to jail after being arrested under the Special Powers Act, in Naogaon on Saturday, for allegedly voicing 'anti-state' sentiments.

"He has been shown arrested and will be detained for a month under Section 2/3 of the 1974 Act," Naogaon police superintendent Mofazzal Hossain told bdnews24.com.

Indian forces resorted to "unprovoked firing" on Pakistani positions in the disputed Kashmir region but there were no casualties in the rare clash between the rivals, the Pakistani military said on Saturday.

Relations between the nuclear-armed rivals have been tense since militants attacked the Indian city of Mumbai in November, killing nearly 170 people. India said the militants were Pakistanis and must have had support from Pakistan.

Criminal investigators may take up to three months more to conclude their work as they face an unprecedented task of dealing with thousands of witnesses, says a senior police source.

The source, who is familiar with the CID investigation process and cannot be named for obvious reasons, says the time will be spent in quizzing witnesses, collecting and analysing finger prints, corroborating video footages and examining evidence in preparation of the charge sheet.

Holders Manchester United will face 2004 winners FC Porto in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Friday's draw at UEFA headquarters also paired Liverpool with Chelsea. Barcelona meet Bayern Munich while Villarreal will play Arsenal.

Tata Motors will launch the much awaited Nano, slated to be the world's cheapest car at less than $2,000, on Monday but it may be the middle of the year before it is seen on Indian roads.

The formal launch comes 15 months after the tiny, snub-nosed car debuted at a glittering world autoshow in Delhi, and is seen as an effort by the leading Indian vehicle maker to meet a deadline it had set to launch in the first quarter of 2009.

The government will take a final decision on the trial process of the BDR mutiny case only after reports of ongoing investigations are in, the law minister repeated on Friday.

"There is no decision so far to hold the trial under the Army Act," Shafiq Ahmed told bdnews24.com after a number of newspapers, quoting the law minister, reported that his ministry had given the go ahead to try the BDR accused by "court martial".

US President Barack Obama sent Iran an unprecedented videotaped message on Friday offering a "new beginning" of diplomatic engagement after decades of US hostility to the Islamic Republic.

Obama went further than he has since taking office on January 20 in extending an olive branch to Tehran, which has been locked in bitter disputes with Washington over Iranian nuclear ambitions and support for militant Islamic groups.

The government probe into the BDR mutiny needs more time, but "realistic steps" will be taken to bring the accused to justice as fast as possible, says the minister in charge of coordinating all post-mutiny affairs.

"The report of a neutral and transparent investigation will be published soon, making clear who were behind the incident and how they carried out it," Faruq Khan told reporters Friday.

All Bangladesh passports issued from this July will be machine readable and no one will be allowed to travel without such a document after Apr, 2010, the planning minister said Thursday.

"The International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) has stipulated that all countries introduce machine readable passports (MRP) and visas (MRV) by Apr, 2010," A K Khandaker told reporters after an ECNEC meeting, chaired by the prime minister. "This has compelled us to take up this project as quickly as possible."