The Israeli defence ministry has hailed a “breakthrough” in the development of cheaper laser-based air defences, as tensions soar in the region after Iran hit US targets in retaliation for a high-profile assassination.

Swarms of barefoot believers thronged a revered icon of Jesus Christ on Thursday in Manila for a lumbering and raucous procession considered one of the world’s largest shows of Catholic fervour.

Bolivia’s interim government said Wednesday it would launch a corruption probe into nearly 600 officials of the former administration, including ex-president Evo Morales

Four Turkish soldiers were killed Wednesday in a car bombing in northeastern Syria, Turkey’s defence ministry said.

Iran yesterday spurned US President Donald Trump’s call for a new nuclear pact and a Iranian commander threatened more attacks after both sides appeared to back off from intensified conflict following the US killing of an Iranian general and Tehran’s retaliatory missile strikes.

Australian authorities urged another mass evacuation across the heavily populated southeast yesterday as a return of hot weather fanned huge bushfires threatening several towns and communities.

Criminals shot an indigenous man dead in Rangamati’s Kaptai upazila on Wednesday afternoon.

Police recovered the bodies of a woman and her six-year-old son at their home in Manikganj’s Saturia upazila yesterday.

Surgeons at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (NICVD), for the first time, have successfully replaced the aortic valve in an elderly woman’s heart using a minimally invasive procedure.

The government yesterday said that 164 people died of dengue last year.

Muslim devotees of home and abroad have started gathering on the bank of the Turag river in Tongi to attend the first phase of Biswa Ijtema set to start today.

President Abdul Hamid yesterday urged concerted efforts to build a national consensus regarding the fundamental issues of continuity of democracy, the rule of law, and the country’s uninterrupted socioeconomic development.

A Singapore opposition party has mounted the first legal challenge against an online misinformation law that activists say is being used to silence criticism of the government ahead of elections.

A government official was detained in Dinajpur yesterday after the Anti-Corruption Commission recovered more than Tk 1.85 crore from his possession, said ACC officials.

Steve Bellchambers is digging pits to bury the carcasses of livestock killed by bushfires which swept through his farm in Batlow, New South Wales.

The EU’s top official yesterday told Britain that it could lose its open access to the European market if it refused to extend post-Brexit partnership talks beyond 2020.

The escalating cycle of reprisals between the United States and Iran is threatening the delivery of aid to millions across the Middle East, the Norwegian Refugee Council warned Wednesday.

Top police officials have asked the Special Branch of police to remain alert so that Rohingyas do not get Bangladeshi passports in any way.

The man accused of murdering 19 disabled people at a Japanese care home in one of the country’s worst mass killings pleaded not guilty Wednesday as his trial began.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin called yesterday for a ceasefire in Libya after talks in Istanbul, where they also inaugurated a “historic” gas pipeline.