After a divisive campaign marked by fierce clashes over race, immigration and other cultural issues, Americans yesterday voted to determine the balance of power in the US Congress and shape the future of Donald Trump's presidency.

The Supreme Court yesterday stayed its earlier verdict that directed the government to return Tk 615 crore to 17 companies and several businesspeople that had been forced to deposit the amount with Bangladesh Bank as tax on their alleged hidden money during the last caretaker government's tenure.

French police yesterday arrested five men and a woman, all from the radical far right, suspected of plotting to attack French President Emmanuel Macron, an official close to the investigation said.

President Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday Turkey would not abide by the renewed US sanctions on Iran's oil and shipping industries, adding that they were aimed at "unbalancing the world".

China yesterday unveiled a replica of its first permanently crewed space station, which would replace the international community's orbiting laboratory and symbolises the country's major ambitions beyond Earth.

An Afghan delegation will attend international talks on the war-torn country in Russia this month, officials said yesterday, as the Taliban consider whether to participate.

Over 200 Awami League and 125 BNP aspirants are campaigning and lobbying for party tickets in the 58 constituencies of Chattogram division, suggesting a potential rebel problem for the parties in the days to come.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the aim of her government was to ensure a peaceful situation in the country where people would live in happiness.

Saudi Arabia sent two experts to Istanbul with the specific aim of covering up evidence after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its consulate in Istanbul, a Turkish official said yesterday.

The country's youth must get an environment conducive to exercising free-thinking and they will oppose anything that infringes upon their freedom of expression.

Santina Tudu, 60, is now all by herself and begging is her sole means of survival.

An ally of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was charged with graft yesterday, the latest figure from the toppled scandal-plagued government to be targeted in an anti-corruption drive.

Explosions in several Shia-majority districts in Iraq's capital late Sunday killed six people, most of them civilians, and wounded several others, police and medical sources said.

A suspected drug trader was killed in what police said was a gunfight between two groups of drug dealers in Kushtia's Bheramara upazila early yesterday.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday found two people, including a former leader of Habiganj Awami League, guilty of crimes committed during the Liberation War in 1971 and sentenced them to death.

A defiant Iran said it will "proudly bypass" sanctions by the United States that took effect yesterday targeting the Islamic republic's vital oil and financial sectors.

Veteran freedom fighter Kader Siddique and his party Krishak Sramik Janata League (KSJL) yesterday joined the Jatiya Oikyafront, a newly floated political alliance.

A Rohingya refugee boy was shot and injured on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border as multiple rounds were fired from a Myanmar border security post, an official said yesterday.

Bangladesh may not have been able to become a consistent side in Test cricket, but their batsman have certainly remained consistent in a negative way by not reaching the 200-run mark in their last seven innings.

BNP Standing Committee Member Tariqul Islam passes away at a city hospital.