Kolkata, Mar 1 : Giving a fresh jolt to the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress on Sunday wrested the Bishanpur (West) assembly seat from the Left Front by a huge margin in a byelection.

The bypoll was held on February 26, in which 82 percent voters cast their votes.

Madan Mitra of the Trinamool Congress Secured 85,335 votes and he defeated his CPM rival Iskandar Hossain by 30,395 votes.

Dhaka  - The government of Bangladesh announced Saturday that it intends to prosecute members of a paramilitary border force that mutinied this week by special tribunal, as more graves of the mutineers victims were discovered.

"The law ministry was asked to enact laws for the speedy trial of the killers and looters," Syed Ashraful Islam, the Local Government Rural Development and Cooperatives minister, told a press briefing after an emergency meeting of the council of ministers and senior leaders of the ruling Awami League party.

Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe/Johannesburg  - Supporters of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe gathered in the farming town of Chinhoyi on Saturday to mark their leader's 85th birthday at a lavish party, as more than half the country's population faces abject poverty.

Mugabe's birthday fell on February 21 but loyalists from his political party Zanu PF postponed the celebrations as they were raising money for the event.

Kabul - Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered in a decree on Saturday that the country's presidential poll, which had been slated for August, be brought forward to April.

The Afghan Election Commission will therefore conduct presidential, parliamentary, provincial council, district council and municipality elections in accordance with the constitution, the decree said.

According to the Afghan constitution, the presidential election should be held at least 30 days before the end of the presidential term on May 22.

Harare - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's attendance at the lavish 85th birthday party of his rival, President Robert Mugabe, was in doubt Saturday, after a party official ruled out his presence at the controversial bash.

"He (Tsvangirai) will not be attending today's celebration as far as I know," Tsvangirai's Communication and Information Minister Nelson Chamisa told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Women and children's development minister Renuka Chowdhury on Friday sacked National Commission for Women (NCW) member Nirmala Venkatesh for her alleged failure to conduct an unbiased inquiry into the Mangalore pub attack.

In a notification, Chowdhury said Nirmala was sent to probe the assault on women in a pub by the Sri Rama Sene, but she went public and "acted in a way which was detrimental to public interest".

Nirmala was also charged with making the report public before it was submitted to the government and for making derogatory remarks that women should not wear revealing and provocative dresses, a statement she retracted.