Dhaka - Bangladesh's election authorities Wednesday proposed the deployment of troops to help the civil administration maintain order during the December parliamentary polls slated to restore democracy in the country, officials said.

"The Election Commission planned deployment of the army troops a week ahead of the voting day to ensure election security," commission spokesman Humayun Kabir told reporters after a law and order review meeting with Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda.

Officials at the commission say the troops will be deployed to aid the civil administration to look after the pre- and post-election situation. The troops will be deployed throughout the month of December, they added.

Dhaka - The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies announced nationwide protests against the detention of three former ministers in a graft case, saying it was a ploy to keep the alliance out of the December elections, media reports said Tuesday.

Dhaka  - A special court on Monday ordered the detention of three former ministers of the last elected Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government on graft charges over a coalmine deal, court officials said.

Judge Amar Kumar Roy of the special court set up by the military-backed interim government for speedy trials into graft cases, ordered arrest of the country's longest-serving finance minister M Saifur Rahman, also a senior BNP leader, and the president

Dhaka  - British Airways will suspend its Dhaka-London passenger flights from March because of non-profitability of the route, media reported said Saturday

"The decision to suspend flights between Dhaka and London has been a difficult one to make. However, the route is not making a profitable contribution to our business and we are unable to sustain it," Amanda Amos, the airline's Area Commercial Manager for South Asia, said in a statement.

The airline, however, will continue cargo operations using connecting flights via the Middle East, said the release issued on Friday.

Dhaka  - One of Bangladesh's past ruling parties on Friday voiced a seven-point charter of demands for joining the December 18 general election to return the South Asian nation to democracy, ending nearly two years of emergency rule.

"We will contest the election if the authorities ensure an atmosphere conducive for fair polls," former prime minister Khaleda Zia, the chief of Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP), told a huge gathering of her supporters in the south-eastern Chittagong city.

She called upon the military-backed interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed to meet her seven demands.

Dhaka, Nov 7: Former Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina Wajed last evening returned home to lead her party in December parliamentary elections. She spent the past five months in the US getting medical treatment.

Police said more than two lakh supporters packed the route to the airport to greet their leader after the emergency government this week lifted all curbs on political rallies ahead of the first polls in seven years.