Police have arrested four suspected members of banned militant outfit Ansar al Islam in the capital’s Jatrabari area.

Much of California was on high alert yesterday as fires tore through the state’s south, destroying dozens of buildings, officials said, with many neighborhoods left without electricity.

In a remote village of Joypurhat, Atiqul Islam drives a rickshaw van to make ends meet. A father of three, it was always difficult for him and his wife Nazma Begum to get by on the meagre income. But the family was close to a dream come true.

Around 12,000 Bangladeshis working in the strawberry farms in Greece are facing various forms of labour abuses, including low wages, long working hours and sub-standard living conditions with little amenities.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said yesterday he had ordered tighter security for state officials a day after a suspected Islamist militant stabbed the chief security minister as he was greeting crowds in a provincial town.

A Dhaka court yesterday sent a madrasa teacher to jail for attempting to rape a five-year-old female student in Savar’s Hemayatpur area. Police arrested the accused -- Abu Taher, 40, teacher of Darul Ulum Aman Madrasa -- on Wednesday night after the victim’s father filed a case with Savar Model Police Station.

French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday urged donor nations to replenish the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, warning that gains made in rolling back the killer diseases risked being reversed due to donor fatigue.

South Korea’s Navy is considering acquiring nuclear-powered submarines, it said yesterday in a surprise announcement which would change the balance of power in north-east Asia and is likely to upset several of its neighbours.

Syria’s Kurds battled to hold off a Turkish invasion yesterday as thousands of civilians fled air strikes and shelling that deepened fears of a humanitarian crisis.

The Khulna district Awami League (AL) has suspended its executive committee member Sheikh Baharul Alam for criticising the recent India-Bangladesh deals on Facebook.

Police recovered the bodies of a man, his wife and son from a flat in the capital’s Mirpur yesterday. The victims are SM Bayezid, 45, a businessman, his wife Kohinur Akter Anjana, 42, and son Farhan, 16, a student of Dhaka Commerce College.

Members of Indian Border Security Force yesterday detained and released three members of Rapid Action Battalion and two of their informers at Ashabari border in Cumilla’s Brahmanpara upazila.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent back 93 more Bangladeshi migrant workers on Wednesday as part of a crackdown on undocumented workers in the kingdom.

Graduates struggle to find jobs, with more than a third of them remaining unemployed one or two years after graduation, said the World Bank in its latest report -- a damning evidence of the poor state of the country’s education system.

The prospect of astronauts tucking into a roast dinner has grown slightly closer after a successful experiment used a 3D printer to create meat on the International Space Station.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged city dwellers to exercise austerity while using water since a significant amount of money is spent on water treatment.

A huge saltwater crocodile killed a Philippines fisherman after snatching him from his boat, local authorities said yesterday, the latest in a series of attacks terrorising a remote southern island.

Almost 800 animal parts including a huge stash of hornbill “ivory”, pangolin scales and deer’s antlers, have been seized in a raid on Borneo island, officials in Malaysia said yesterday.

Madrid hopes the upcoming ruling in the case of 12 Catalan separatist leaders will enable it to open fresh dialogue with the wealthy northeastern region, a junior minister said Tuesday.

The German government yesterday gave its blessing to draft climate legislation, even though it has been heavily criticised by environmentalists and scientists alike as an unambitious package.