Five former Bangladeshi soldiers have been executed for the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s independence leader and first president, in a military coup over three decades ago.

Al Jazeera has learnt that a plan is being considered to pay up to $1bn to Taliban fighters to persuade them to lay down their arms.In advance of an international conference in London to discuss Afghanistan’s future on Thursday, Japan, the United States and Britain are said to be leading the proposal.

Sheikh Abdul Hameed demanded the Iranian government to review the discriminatory policies which Sunni sect has been suffering in Iran for many years.

ISTANBUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he will press for Taliban names to be removed from a UN blacklist, as peace overtures intensified heading into a London conference.

MIRAMSHAH: A suspected US drone has crashed in North Waziristan, sources said Sunday.

Kurdistan: Sheikh Asaad Siddiqi and Sheikh Saeed Zulfiqari, the great Sunni scholars and prominent personalities in Kurdistan and Kermanshah provinces had passed away.

Khorasan: the Iranian authorities have arrested a group of Sunni scholars and thrown them in prison.

TEHRAN: Seven people were killed and another 12 injured on Saturday when a train travelling from the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad to Tehran derailed, an official told state-run television.

ISLAMABAD – Angry with the Obama administration’s position on arch-rival India, Pakistan’s Army has rejected a US request to launch a new offensive against Taliban in the northern tribal belt.

One attack took place near the presidential palace where Karzai was swearing in cabinet ministers [AFP]