Sydney, Sept. 17 : A taxi driver of Bangladeshi origin has been found guilty of raping an 18-year-old woman in his taxi while she was on her way home after a night out with friends.

A Sydney Morning Herald report today said that 23-year-old Mohammad Kowsar Ali was declared guilty by a jury of nine men and three women after deliberations lasting two hours and ten minutes.

According to the report, the girl, who was a virgin, was only identified as Jay and had recently moved to Sydney.

At the time of the attack, "Jay" believed she was gay. She had spent a night out at the Flinders Hotel in Darlinghurst with girlfriends and had travelled home alone to Oyster Bay at 12.30 a. m. on Sunday, November 4, last year.

Dhaka - More than 100 fishermen were feared drowned in the rough waters of the Bay of Bengal with rising tides setting off flash floods that hit the coastal belt of southern Bangladesh, rescuers and local officials said Wednesday.

The high tides caused by a depression in the bay inundated the low-lying areas of seven coastal districts, leaving hundreds of people stranded at flooded fishing villages and rice farms.

Dhaka - Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia was appointed chairwoman for life of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in a bid to protect her against moves by reformists to elect a new party leadership, officials said Sunday.

Tanvir Rahman Siddiqui, a member of BNP's policy-making standing committee, told a news briefing that Zia would remain party chief as long as she wished or her health permitted.

London, September 12 : Bangladesh has launched a climate change action plan to help itself adapt to threats such as rising sea level, water-logged land and increased salinity.

According to a report in Nature News, the strategy, which is aimed at adapting to the local effects of climate change over the coming decade, was launched at a conference in London on September 10, with a 75 million pounds grant from the UK government.

Last year, Bangladesh lost 3,000 people to cyclone Sidr and 140,000 people to a cyclone in 1991. Scientists estimate that 40 per cent of the country could be affected by flooding by 2050 as a result of climate change.

Dhaka  - Former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia announced Thursday her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) would join the upcoming general election for the transition to democracy provided the military-backed interim regime could ensure a level playing field for all political parties.

"Certainly the BNP will contest the polls because we are a democratic organization," said Zia at a press briefing after she was released from a make-shift prison in the high security parliament complex in north Dhaka.

Dhaka  - Former Bangladeshi premier Khaleda Zia walked to freedom Thursday from a high security makeshift prison in the parliament complex in northern Dhaka, a senior prison official said.

Inspector General of Prisons Zakir Hasan said Zia was freed from her special cell after the courts delivered her release order.

Thousands of supporters of the ex-prime minister thronged the parliament building after news of her release spread.

Zia's release comes a year after she was arrested for graft and abuse of power during her second five-year term as prime minister leading a four-party alliance government which included her Bangladesh Nationalist Party.