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At least 10 more bodies from Friday's ferry disaster in the river Meghna in the southern Bangladeshi district of Chadpur were recovered yesterday downstream in neighbouring Munshiganj district.

Pakistan's new government is in danger of becoming an unruly coalition with delays in calling the new parliament, political analysts and Western diplomats warned yesterday.

Journalists may be banned from covering visits made by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to urban poor communities.

A key Tamil political party in Sri Lanka has called for the postponement of local elections to be held in March saying that it could affect proposed peace talks between the Tamil rebels and the government.

Leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-e- Amal (MMA), a newly-formed alliance of various religious parties, have declared that the country's religious parties could contest the forthcoming elections under the MMA platform.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia renewed her call for the Awami League to join parliament and cautioned that legal action would be taken if the party resorted to creating chaos for perverse purposes.

Pakistan's former prime minister and Pakistan People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto has demanded that elections for the National and Provincial Assemblies, scheduled for later this year, be held on the basis of computerised voters lists prepared in 1995 because the electoral rolls prepared by the military, did not contain her name or that of her entire cabinet, which was a gross irregularity.

Detained Moro leader Nur Misuari has the money to pay for the services of the 25-man legal panel that will defend him in the rebellion case filed against him by the government for the failed armed revolts in Jolo and Zamboanga, southern Philippines on November 19 and 27, sources said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will visit Islamabad January 7-8 during his regional tour, which is expected to focus on defusing the current high tension between Pakistan and India, officials said yesterday.

The Bangladesh Home Ministry, in a comprehensive step against the menace of acid attacks on girls, decided last December 24 to dispose of cases related to these incidents  in three months.

The council of the Jamiaatud Da'awa has appointed an acting chief in place of their detained leader, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed.

The brutal murders in Lahore on Sunday of four members of a family, including a 13-month-old child, have created new fears over the state of law and order.