At least three people have been killed during clashes with police in Egypt during a day of rare protest against the government of President Hosni Mubarak.

The countrywide protests, inspired by recent events in neighbouring Tunisia, focused on widespread anger over alleged torture, corruption, poverty and unemployment in the three decades of Mubarak's rule.

Egyptian state TV said the dead included a policeman who was killed during clashes in the capital, Cairo.

The ruling Awami League government has broken its election pledge towards showing "zero tolerance" for abuses by its security forces, a human rights organisation says.

Two years on, new extrajudicial killings have been reported, and those responsible have not been brought to justice, according to the World Report 2011 by Human Rights Watch.

Dhaka stocks continued to rebound strongly on Wednesday's opening bell as the key index rose by over 6 percent in the first 15 minutes.

At 11.30 am, the general index of the Dhaka stock exchange shot up by 426 points or 6.25 percent to reach 7247.

Heavy buying caused 213 out of the traded 230 shares to gain while only 17 shares declined.

The Election Commission has suspended polls in almost half of the 25 centres in Noakhali municipality over violence.

Voting was stayed in thirteen centres in the municipality where clashes took place since Tuesday morning between BNP supporters and law enforcers.

The agitators took to the streets alleging that ruling Awami League supporters occupied centres and also attacked on BNP activists.

The human rights commission chief considers bureaucratic red tape the main obstacle to the government's promised change.

Mizanur Rahman told a seminar in Dhaka on Friday that the government would need efficient human resources, mainly bureaucrats, to fulfil its promises. "But it does not have such a workforce."

"What is worse, there are reactionary elements within the bureaucracy," said Rahman. These elements will have to be identified and removed if the government wishes to fulfil its promises, he said.

More frequent policy reviews reduce the need for off-cycle moves and minimise the surprise element, said Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao at a conference in New Delhi on Friday.

"While we have not surrendered our flexibility to take policy action as and when warranted, more frequent scheduling of policy reviews reduces the need for off-cycle action and thereby minimizes the surprise element," Subbarao said.

German consumers were warned on Tuesday to look out for potentially contaminated eggs after highly toxic dioxin was found in the feed of poultry and hogs last week, forcing thousands of farms to halt sales.

An official in North Rhine-Westphalia state said more than 100,000 potentially contaminated eggs had been distributed from two farms over the past two week but added that only eggs sold before the problem was first noticed on December 23 could be affected.

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh is due to arrive in Dhaka some time this year in reciprocation of his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina's visit to New Delhi in 2010.

India's external affairs minister S M Krishna said on Friday that Singh would visit Bangladesh in 2011. "We are trying to work out a mutually convenient date for the prime minister's visit to Dhaka," he told reporters in New Delhi.

England claimed a first Ashes series triumph in Australia in nearly a quarter of a century in the most emphatic style on Friday after wrapping up a third dominant innings victory in five Tests.

The tourists, who had already ensured they would retain the Ashes, needed a little more than 17 overs to remove Australia's last three batsmen on day five of the final Test to win the series 3-1 with an innings and 83-run victory.

A guideline will be formulated soon to prevent any single company from getting frequent contracts for setting up power plants, says the finance minister.

A M A Muhith on Thursday said this after a meeting of the cabinet committee on public purchase, when a local firm, Summit Power, got two work orders.

"Summit Power earlier got four work orders, [Thursday] they got two more. It seems an excess concentration in one company."

The United States plans to cut $78 billion in defense spending over five years, including a reduction of up to 47,000 troops, in a politically contentious move that would trim the government's growing budget deficit.

The proposed cuts, unveiled at a somber Pentagon briefing on Thursday, follow increased White House and congressional scrutiny of military spending, which has doubled in real terms since the September 11, 2001, attacks.

TWO YEARS OF GOVT

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has claimed success in two years of her government and asked the people of more time, saying her administration is trying.

"I request the people to please bear with us and assist us. (God willing), we will fulfil our promises," she said in her address to the nation as the ruling coalition headed by her Awami League party stepped into third year on Thursday.

Last season's AC Milan coach Leonardo was named manager of city rivals Inter Milan on Friday in a move which has stunned the soccer world despite the Italian game's celebrated eccentricities.

The Brazilian succeeds Rafael Benitez, who left the world, European and Italian champions on Thursday after just six months in charge following a poor domestic spell and his public attack on Inter for not investing in new players.

Iconic batsman Sachin Tendulkar's ability to adapt to the pressures of modern day cricket makes him better than Australian cricket legend Don Bradman, feels India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Dhoni, who faced a barrage of questions from mediapersons about these two batting legends on the eve of the second Test against South Africa in Durban, also said that he doesn't like any comparisons to be drawn between the two, reports ICC.

Police have arrested four female members of the banned Islamist outfit Hizb-ut-Tahrir.

They are Bakul Begum, 50, and Asma Akhter, 28, of Shahgira village under Gouranadi Upazila; Farzana Akhter, 19, of Charhoglapati village of Babuganj Upazila and Jebun Nahar, 19, from Gondeshwar village under Uzirpur Upazila.

Police said they were arrested from Goila village under Agoiljhora Upazila around 10:30am on Saturday.

A suicide bomber attacked a gathering of displaced people waiting to get aid in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 40 of them, a hospital official said.

The attack in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border came a day after a big clash between Pakistani Taliban insurgents and security forces in the neighbouring Mohmand region that left 11 soldiers and 24 militants dead.

After the recovery of over 13,000 bullets last week, law enforcers have recovered seven live mines from the same Bankakura cluster village in frontier Sherpur district.

BDR members recovered the mines along with 97 rounds of bullet from a forest at Bankakura under Jhenaigati Upazila around 11am on Saturday. However, there was no arrest in this connection.

Sammilito Ulama-Mashayekh Parishad has declared withdrawal of their countrywide dawn-to-dusk shutdown on Sunday after negotiations with the government.

The alliance of islamist groups had declared the hartal on Dec 8 protesting a government move to 'secularise' the education system. The main opposition BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami lent their supports to the general strike.

The Christian community in Bangladesh has started celebrating their biggest festival Christmas.

Archbishop Paulinus Costa inaugurated the celebrations in Dhaka on Friday cutting cakes at St. Mary's Cathedral at Kakrail.

Churches around the country have been illuminated and decorated with flowers on the even Christmas.

ONION PRICE HIKE

Retailers have held the wholesalers responsible for the sudden rise in onion price.

The government however thinks that India's ban on onion export has influenced the market which will take sometime to stabilise.

In local markets, price of onion suddenly shoot by Tk 20 per kg in last three days following the price increase in India.