Bangladesh’s ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia today rejected election results that gave her arch-rival Sheikh Hasina a two-thirds parliamentary majority.

An election official says the political alliance headed by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has won a landslide victory in Bangladesh’s first election in seven years.

BANGLADESHIS voted in their droves yesterday in elections that marked the end of two years of emergency rule, with ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed’s Awami League party claiming to be ahead in early returns.

The head of Bangladesh’s military-backed interim government pledged today’s election for prime minister – the country’s first poll in seven years – would be free and fair and urged political parties to accept the results.

An Election Commission official said Bangladesh’s general elections scheduled to take place on December 18 may be delayed by 10 days if all political parties agree.

The son of a former Bangladesh prime minister has been charged with taking a €1.9m bribe to cover up the murder of a businessman.

Police searched the house of detained former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia and confiscated documents and mobile phones, an official said today.

Police in Bangladesh arrested former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on corruption charges today, the latest in a series of moves by the military-backed government to undermine a political elite widely viewed as corrupt.

Security forces arrested Bangladesh's former prime minister Sheikh Hasina at her home in capital Dhaka today, in a massive operation involving more than 1,000 police and troops.

Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was blocked today from boarding a flight home from London after the military-backed government barred her from returning.

The head of Bangladesh’s anti-corruption watchdog and one of his colleagues said they resigned today after the country’s president asked them to quit.

Bangladesh’s new interim leader took charge of security agencies and the election commission today as mass arrests continued days after the president declared a state of emergency following weeks of deadly unrest ahead of disputed elections.

Separate clashes between rival political activists and police left one man dead and about 65 people injured, as a major political alliance in Bangladesh staged a nationwide transport blockade today to force electoral reforms, police said.

Attackers set three election offices on fire outside the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka today, as thousands of protesters gathered to demand the resignation of election officials ahead of January polls.

Nearly 10,000 security forces fanned out across the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka today during an opposition-sponsored general strike that shut down schools and stores and disrupted traffic.

The Islamic world’s biggest bloc today demanded an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and a role for Muslims in a UN peacekeeping force, stressing that a slow end to Israel’s warfare could drown chances for lasting peace.

Unidentified assailants threw at least three bombs in eastern Bangladesh, killing an opposition party activist and wounding a ruling party member, police said today.

World leaders rushed to condemn the deadly train bombings that killed at least 190 people in Mumbai.

Bangladesh’s main opposition Awami League will end its year-long boycott and return to parliament tomorrow, a party spokesman said.

More than 5,000 Muslims paraded in Bangladesh’s capital today to protest against the publication of drawings of Prophet Mohammed.

A series of bombs in two Bangladesh cities killed at least eight people and injured 66 today in what appeared to be the latest attack by militant Muslims who want to impose harsh Islamic law, officials said.

Asia-Pacific leaders will pledge to cooperate in developing a vaccine against a possible bird flu-spawned pandemic, an official said, as the European Union’s health commissioner headed to Indonesia today to discuss ways to boost the country’s fight against the virus.

Police interrogated scores of detainees today and beefed up security patrols in towns and cities following a wave of small bomb blasts across Bangladesh that killed two people and wounded 125 others.

Police in Bangladesh today continued interrogating detainees believed to be connected to a series of more than 100 small bomb blasts across the predominantly Muslim country that killed two people and wounded 125 others.

Thousands of opposition supporters joined hands or stood side by side Saturday to form a massive human chain across Bangladesh to demand a new government.

AN ANGRY mob set fire to a passenger train and protesters clashed with police across Bangladesh yesterday, leaving dozens of people injured.

THE United Nations is to seek international aid to help rehabilitate Bangladesh after devastating floods washed away rice crops, villages and livestock and killed more than 450 people in the impoverished nation.

The United Nations is to seek international aid to help rehabilitate Bangladesh after devastating floods washed away rice crops, villages and livestock and killed more than 450 people in the impoverished nation.

Police have arrested four men over the bombing of a Muslim shrine that killed three people and injured about 100, including the newly-appointed British ambassador to Bangladesh.

BANGLADESH stepped up security today as a general strike called by the main opposition party shut down shops and schools and disrupted traffic for the second straight day.

Icy winds from the Himalayas have killed 42 people in South Asia, pushing the death toll from a month of bitter weather to over 1,000.

More than three million Muslims have gathered in Bangladesh for what's regarded as Islam's second-largest event after the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

The death toll from the cinema bombings in northern Bangladesh has risen to 18.

Riot police today fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters who were demonstrating against the repeal of a law requiring public buildings display a portrait of Bangladesh’s founding father.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair today kicked off his tour of south Asia with a warning that the simmering conflict between India and Pakistan could destabilise the whole region and the wider world.

An alliance of right-wing and fundamentalist Islamic parties, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, appears set for a landslide victory in Bangladesh’s general election.

Dozens of political rivals exchanged gunfire in a village in eastern Bangladesh, killing three children, including a four-year-old boy, who were caught in the crossfire, police said today.

Bangladeshi schools and stores have closed and most traffic has halted in protest at a bomb attack on the country's main opposition leader.

A college student is being questioned in connection with the bombing of an open-air New Year concert that killed nine people and wounded 26.