Dhaka- Bangladesh's interim government plans to reduce the fuel price by 8 to 12 per cent in the wake of the crude oil price fall on the global market, an official said Tuesday.

The decision will be finalised at a meeting of the council of advisers to be headed by the chief adviser to the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed sometime next week, he said.

Dhaka - A total of 107 political parties have applied to register with Bangladesh's Election Commission for eligibility in December's general election, officials said Monday.

The parties applied to meet an extended deadline for the submissions. The submissions were mandated by the country's military- backed interim government, led by Fakhruddin Ahmed. The interim administration was installed in January 2007 against a backdrop of political turmoil.

Dhaka - A total of 107 political parties have applied to register with Bangladesh's Election Commission for eligibility in December's general election, officials said Monday.

Dhaka - The full-blooming rachis shoots skyward from the top of the rarest species of wild palm in the world.

But the budding of the 10-metre tree is unusually depressing for Bangladesh's Dhaka University botanists studying it, for the flower forecasts its death.

With the death of what is the only known wild Corypha taliera in the world, the species will be extinct.

Dhaka - Archaeologists in Bangladesh have discovered an ancient engraved stone, believed to be of the Gupta era nearly 2,000 years ago, in northern part of the country, a media report said on Saturday.

The sandstone, found on the bank of a pond near Sura Masjid at Ghoraghat sub-district of Dinajpur, has been put on display at an archaeological museum in Bogra, the Daily Start newspaper reported quoting museum officials.

The stonework depicts three figures dancing and holding ancient musical instruments. It escaped earlier excavations in Sura Masjid, one of the important archaeological sites of the country.

Dhaka - A High Court bench on Thursday ordered a three-month stay on all proceedings of a graft case against Bangladesh's former prime minister Khaleda Zia and 15 others, court officials said.

The order came hours after a lower court ordered Khaleda - the chief of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which led the last elected government - to face a special court.

The High Court bench, comprising Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Farid Ahmed, ordered the stay after holding a hearing upon a repeal petition filed by Khaleda's counsels.