A Dhaka court on Friday granted the police three days to remand Syed Golam Maula, the alleged coordinator of Bangladesh operations of outlawed Islamist outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir, in custody for questioning.

The police produced Maula, who teaches management at Dhaka University, before the Dhaka's Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court and asked for seven days to quiz him. However, magistrate Munshi Abdul Mazid granted three days after hearing.

The education ministry has formed a five-member committee to investigate the leak of government secondary school assistant teachers' recruitment test questions.

The education ministry's senior information official Subodh Chandra Dhali told bdnews24.com that the committee has been formed by order of the education minister.

The government has signed contract with a local firm to purchase 100 megawatts (MW) of power under the quick rental plan.

State-run Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will buy each kilowatt hour (kWh) of power at Taka 7.785 from the furnace oil-run plant, to be set at Keraniganj, on the outskirts of Dhaka.

According to a BPDB spokesperson, the plant, run by Power Pac Holdings Ltd, will be installed and ready within six to nine months.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation has opened a free access to its database, the world's major data source on food, agriculture and hunger, to help global efforts to fight hunger, FAO said on Friday.

The FAOSTAT (faostat.fao.org) database contains more than one million data items covering 210 countries and territories with records going back to 1961, FAO said in a statement.

Two days before the climax of Africa's first World Cup, silky Spain seemed everyone's favourite to beat the Netherlands though both are desperate to lift football's ultimate prize for the first time.

From schoolchildren in South Africa's Soweto township to bookmakers around the globe and even Paul the 'psychic' octopus in Germany, all the talk was of Vicente del Bosque's side.

State minister for home Shamsul Hoque Tuku saus he believes religion-based party Jamaat-e-Islami is linked to Islamist militancy.

"Militancy emerged at Bagmara in Rajshashi; innocent people tied to trees were cruelly beaten to death."

Bagmara came into the spotlight for militant activities during the 2001-6 BNP-Jamaat government.

The condition of former BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, suffering from lung cancer, has slightly improved.

His doctor Bazlul Gani Bhuiyan told bdnews24.com: "Bhuiyan's physical condition has slightly got better after 6pm."

'The temperature of his body has also come down to normal."

Senior BNP vice-chairman Tarique Rahman has been holding an exclusive meeting in a local restaurant in London on Sunday with party activists from different countries.

The main opposition party's UK unit president Kamar Uddin is coordinating the meeting, which was underway around noon at the Ramna Restaurant at South Gate Town Hall.

Foreign minister Dipu Moni has requested labour-receiving countries to issue visas on paper passports for urgent cases.

She made the request Sunday at a meeting with diplomats from Kuwait, Qatar, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, the Maldives, Malaysia and South Korea at the foreign ministry.

Finding no alternatives, the Bangladesh Noujan Sramik Federation has urged the water vessel workers to accept the new wage structure announced by the government.

Acting president of the left leaning workers' federation, Shah Alam made the announcement at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters' Unity auditorium on Sunday.

Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and Rural Power Company Limited (RPCL) are set to build a power plant together.

This is the first time that the two government agencies will join hands in setting up a plant. Previous plants were set up either by the BPDB or the Rural Electrification Board (REB).

Three Bangladeshi farmers were shot allegedly by Indians at Jaintapur Upazila in Sylhet on Sunday.

They were Delwar Hossain, Mohammad Kayes, Abdul Mannan of village Minatila in the bordering Sripur area. They were admitted to Upazila Health Complex.

Seven more Bangladeshis suffered injuries from arrows thrown by the Indian Khasia tribesmen.

A taste of cow's milk during the first two weeks of life may protect a child from later developing an allergy to the milk's protein, a new study suggests.

Cow's milk protein allergy is the most common and most dangerous among the family of dairy allergies and intolerances, with reactions including rash, respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms, even shock or death.

He has tamed Fabio Capello's Three Lions, demolished Diego Maradona's dream and snuffed out Lionel Messi's magic, but can Germany coach Joachim Loew now inflict some World Cup pain on Spain?

After routing Argentina 4-0 in Sunday's quarter-final, Germany face Spain in Wednesday's semi-final in Durban with a place in the July 11 final against either the Netherlands or Uruguay at stake.

Inspiration for the World Cup semi-finalists has come from the unfashionable, the forgotten, the overshadowed and the discarded -- a ragtag quartet putting the pre-tournament poster boys in their place.

Miroslav Klose of Germany, Uruguay's Diego Forlan, Spain's David Villa and Wesley Sneijder for the Dutch have become the unlikely heroes at a tournament that has refused to follow the script envisaged by marketing executives worldwide.

Afghan police, backed by US-led troops, have killed dozens of insurgents and seized several tons of illegal drugs in an operation in southern Helmand province, the interior ministry said on Sunday.

The two-day operation took place in the Desho district of Helmand, the key drug-producing region of Afghanistan, which is the world's leading supplier of heroin. The province is a bastion of Taliban insurgents being targeted by US-led forces.

Police have taken Jamaat-e-Islami chief Matiur Rahman Nizami to their headquarters on Sunday for questioning.

Paltan police chief Shahidul Haque told bdnews24.com that the Jamaat leader will be grilled in the case over obstruction of police duty filed with his station on Feb 17.

"He was taken to the DB headquarters from Dhaka Central Jail around 4.30pm. Before that, he was produced before a court in case for murdering freedom fighters in Keraniganj," Haque said.

The US Congress on Thursday sent President Barack Obama a sweeping package of tough new energy and financial sanctions on Iran, aiming to force Tehran to halt its suspected nuclear weapons program.

The US Senate and House of Representatives approved the legislation -- which backers described as the toughest ever unilateral US sanctions against the Islamic republic -- by crushing 99-0 and 408-8 margins, respectively.

A woman's body may be unconsciously selective about sperm, allowing some men's to progress to pregnancy but killing off the chances of less suitable matches, an Australian researcher said Wednesday.

University of Adelaide professor Sarah Robertson said her research suggested that sperm contains "signalling molecules" that activate immunity changes in a woman so her body accepts it.

A parliamentary watchdog has urged the government to liberally handle the case against readymade garment workers who allegedly ransacked vehicles and carried out arson attacks in Ashulia on Monday.

The parliamentary standing committee on labour ministry at its meeting on Thursday, however, recommended taking legal actions against those workers 'directly responsible' for the arson attack and violence.