Pacific Island countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan should maintain them in the face of “heavy handed” attempts by China to reduce Taiwan’s overseas contacts, a top US official said yesterday.

Defeated Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto was set to lodge a challenge to the result of the April 17 election in the Constitutional Court yesterday after complaining that the vote was rigged.

A suspected drug dealer was killed in a “gunfight” with police early yesterday.

Police on Thursday formed a committee to investigate the death of a man allegedly killed by several policemen in Mymensingh.

The 120th birth anniversary of National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam is being celebrated today across the country in a befitting manner.

A mother of two has allegedly been gang-raped by three men due to rivalry over possession of a pond in the district’s Begumganj upazila.

She does not talk that much nowadays. She has hardly been in talking terms for long 46 years. It is not the way Tepri Rani wished to live, but it was imposed upon her when she was 16.

At least 32 jobseekers and suspected gang members were arrested in three districts on charges of trying to leak the question papers of recruitment tests for primary school teachers yesterday. As the first phase of the staggered recruitment tests began yesterday, an assistant sub-inspector of police was sent to jail

The suffering of potato growers is increasing day by day even though their yield is high, as they are stuck with surplus stocks and low exports.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he did not think additional US troops are needed in the Middle East to counter Iran, casting doubt on a Pentagon plan to bolster forces in the region.

India last night banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) which was blamed for several terror attacks in the country.

Three Bangladeshis who survived a boat capsize in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Tunisia on May 9 returned home yesterday.

India has termed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s telephone call to greet her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on his victory in the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 as a “reflection of the extraordinarily close and cordial ties between the two neighbours”.

Iran will not hold talks with the United States “under any circumstances” while the rights of the Islamic republic are not respected, said an official quoted yesterday by state media.

Democratic congressional leader Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that US President Donald Trump would welcome impeachment proceedings against him -- but that her party is not ready to take the “very divisive” step.

UN envoy Ghassan Salame has bitterly denounced the conflict in Libya saying it is “committing suicide” and plundering its oil wealth to pay for the war.

At least three people have been killed in a violent tornado sweeping across the US state of Missouri, officials said yesterday.

The UN envoy for Western Sahara, Horst Koehler, has resigned from his post due to health reasons, nearly two years after he took up the peacemaking mission, the United Nations said Wednesday.

Malaysian police yesterday raided the Kuala Lumpur offices of auditor Deloitte as they ramp up investigations into a multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal, an official said.

Four of a family died in a gas cylinder blast inside a residential house in Islampur Sharif Market area of Gazipur city on Wednesday night.