A Chittagong magistrate's court has given the police permission to take former state minister for home affairs Lutfazzaman Babar in custody for questioning in the ten-truck arms haul case.

Chittagong metropolitan magistrate Mahbubur Rahman permitted the five-day remand on Monday.

Chittagong city police assistant commissioner Nirmalendu Bikash Chakrabarty said that the order was given following hearing of a 10-day remand petition by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police.

The government on Monday resumed sales of rice through fair price cards to help ease the cost of living of hardcore poor across the country.

Rice will be sold at Tk 24 per kg from 8am to 8pm six days a week through the month of November, food minister Abdur Razzaque said.

The minister on Sunday revealed the price at a press conference at his secretariat office.

A Dhaka court has ordered the arrest of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia's younger son Arafat Rahman Coco in a money laundering case.

Judge Mojammel Haque of Special Judge's Court-3 issued the warrant around 12.30pm on Sunday following a petition by the prosecution.

The number of malnourished children will hit nine million by the end of the year, according to a new report.

Officials of the Institute of Public Health and Nutrition (IPHN) and Save the Children, at a seminar in Dhaka on Monday, asked the government to include large number of community health workers to prevent the situation from becoming a disaster.

STALKER ON PROWL

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel have nabbed the alleged killer of Chapa Rani Bhowmik, Debashish Saha Rony, from Jhenaidah.

Faridpur police superintendent Awlad Ali Fakir told bdnews24.com on Sunday, "He will be brought here and produced before newsmen around 2pm at my office."

The government has fixed a target to send 400,000 labourers abroad this year.

Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment secretary Zafar Ahmed on Sunday said told a workshop on safe immigration in Dhaka that last year about 475,000 Bangladeshis immigrated with job. This year the target was cut down to 400,000 due to global recession and other problems.

After formation of industrial police, the prime minister has said her government is also considering formation of specialised forces like campus police, marine police and tourism police.

Sheikh Hasina formally launched the much hyped Industrial Police on Sunday.

Hasina said the special police force was launched to maintain law and order in the industries to attract more foreign investments. She was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the new police force at Bangbandhu International Conference Centre.

Communications minister Syed Abul Hossain told journalists, following a ministerial meeting, that the government was going to launch 14 buses on the Mirpur to Azimpur route for school-going children, from Jan 15, 2011.

The bus service will be launched as a part of an experimental project to ease traffic congestion. Success of the project will lead to similar launches on other routes, based on student demands, he added.

Police have arrested a former Jamaat MP and 19 others from a house at Mirpur. The police have said that they also recovered six bombs, bomb making materials and Jihadist books from the house.

A central leader of Jamaat-e-Islami and former MP of Rajshahi-1 constituency, Mujibur Rahman and the second man of the fundamentalist party's Khulna city unit Shafikul Alam are among the arrested. The identities of the others could not be ascertained immediately.

More than 1.5 million students will be sitting for their Junior School Certificate (JSC) and Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC) examinations to be held for the first time in the country in November this year.

The JSC examination would have a common question paper for students of all the eight educational boards in the country. The JDC examination would be held separately for the Madrasa board.

Russia called on Iraq on Wednesday not to carry out the death sentence on Tareq Aziz on humanitarian grounds, its foreign ministry said.

The Vatican has also appealed against the sentence which was passed by Iraq's high tribunal on Tuesday on Aziz, once the international face of late dictator Saddam Hussein's government and Iraq's foreign minister. He is also a Christian.

West Germany's 1954 World Cup-winning team, feted as the men who helped put a nation back on its feet after World War Two, may have been boosted by a secret doping programme, according to a new university study.

Germany upstaged red-hot favourites Hungary 3-2 in the final in Switzerland in a victory that became known as the 'Miracle of Berne', giving the war-weary nation cause at last for cheer.

The government has signed a deal with a private company that would allow it to start buying electricity within three months. The gas-fired plant, with a capacity of 78.5MW, will be installed at Ghorashal in Narsinghdi.

Bangladesh Power Development Board and private contractor Max Power Limited signed the deal at the Bidyut Bhaban on Wednesday. BPDB acting secretary Mohammad Iskander Ali and chairman of the company Ghulam M Alamgir signed for the respective organisations.

Doctors at a hospital in old Dhaka have withdrawn their strike on Thursday morning, after the authorities had assured them of fulfilling their demands.

Apprentice doctors and medical officers of the city's National Medical College Hospital went on strike from Tuesday night, leaving the 300-bed hospital stranded, after relatives of a patient assaulted several doctors, the hospital authority said.

The authorities of the national carrier have issued a notice to pilots warning them of stern action if they do not join work by 11am on Saturday.

"The notice declaring the 48-hour deadline was issued to Biman's flight operation director, president and general secretary of Bangladesh Airlines Pilots Association (BAPA) at 11am on Thursday," the airline's managing director, Zakiul Islam, told bdnews24.com.

Coach Jose Mourinho was happy despite Real Madrid being held to a 0-0 draw at Segunda B (third tier) Real Murcia in a King's Cup last 32, first leg on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, a weakened Barcelona were comfortable 2-0 winners at third-tier Ceuta with Maxwell and Pedro netting first-half goals.

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to urge the United States to lift a 48-year-old economic embargo against Cuba, making a now ritual call despite some US easing towards the communist-run island.

The assembly passed a nonbinding resolution -- with 187 votes in favour, two against and three abstentions -- for the 19th consecutive year, reflecting the world's disapproval of Washington's long-standing effort to isolate Havana.

BDR MUTINY

Trial of 42 BDR personnel of the 22 Rifles Battalion accused in last year's bloody mutiny at BDR headquarters has started in Jessore.

Special court-12 presided by Rajshahi sector commander Col Ehiya Azam Khan is conducting the trial, said BDR Major Abu Basit on Wednesday.

Deaths from Haiti's cholera epidemic approached 300 on Tuesday, and health experts said the illness would "settle" in the poor Caribbean nation, joining other endemic diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.

The week-old epidemic of the deadly diarrheal disease has so far mostly affected the central Artibonite and Central Plateau regions, with an accumulated 295 deaths and 3,612 cases registered to date, Haitian health authorities said.

A Biman flight to London has been delayed by roughly seven hours due to a pilot-crisis that arose from the indefinite work-halt by Bangladesh Airlines Pilots Association (BAPA).

The Dhaka-London flight was scheduled to take off at 6am on Wednesday, but was initially shifted to noon and then to 12.45pm, the Shahjalal International Airport control room told bdnews24.com.