New Delhi - More than 6,000 high-ranking Muslim scholars and clerics from across India have put their name to a joint religious opinion, or fatwa, against terrorism issued by one of the world's most important centres of Islamic teaching, it emerged on Sunday.

The Darul Uloom in Deoband, north of Delhi, issued a fatwa on May 31 sharply condemning terrorist violence. Since then 6,000 scholars and clerics have endorsed the fatwa.

Dhaka - Bangladesh election authorities on Sunday extended the deadline for submission of nomination papers for the December general election by a week, in apparent response to requests by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

The deadline has been extended until November 20.

"Although the submission date has been extended, the election date will be unchanged," Election Commissioner Sohul Hossain told reporters after the meeting, saying that the election commission has made every preparation for December 18 balloting.

Bolzano, Italy - Some 3,500 marksmen have held a protest "against fascism" and have demanded that relics from the era of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini be removed from buildings in the city of Bolzano in the German-speaking part of northern Italy.

The protest, held Saturday, was the largest ever held in the area, Suedtirol Online reported Sunday.

The marksmen have been committed to defending their Tyrolean identity in South Tyrol, also known in Italy as Bolzano-Bozen, since 1919.

Varanasi/Allahabad, Nov 9 : Hindu devotees took a holy dip in the river Ganges at Varanasi and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh to mark the onset of the auspicious marriage season on Sunday.

Hindus believe that by taking a holy dip on the occasion of ''Devotthan Ekadashi'' (11th day of lunar fortnight of Kartika month in Hindu calendar) makes their married lives hassle free and for those intending to get married, the marriage would get solemnized without any difficulties.

Kabul/Madrid - Two NATO-led Spanish soldiers were killed and four were wounded when a suicide bomber attacked their convoy in Afghanistan's western Herat province, Afghan and Spanish officials said Sunday.

The bomber rammed his explosives-laden van into a convoy of Afghan and NATO soldiers in the Shindand district on Sunday morning, Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, spokesman for police forces in western Afghanistan, said.

Baghdad - Three people were killed and seven injured when a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a hospital west of Iraq's capital Baghdad on Sunday.

A doctor and his wife were among the injured in the attack that took place in Amiriyat al-Fallujah near the city of Fallujah, 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, the Iraqi al-Buratha news agency reported.

Earlier, US military said that extremists have killed four civilians, a policeman and a US soldier.