A clash broke out near Shahbagh Police Station over the playing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's historic March 7th speech. During the incident, a person identified as a Chhatra League member was beaten by Jatiya Chhatra Shakti activists. Earlier, police detained a former DU student and a Chhatra League functionary at Chankharpul intersection for playing the March 7th speech. Eventually, both Emi and Al Mamun were handed over to Shahbagh Police Station. After the incident, Emi wrote on Facebook: "Al Mamun was attacked under the leadership of Zubayer and Mosaddeq.

"The good news is that High Commissioner Abida Islam has been withdrawn. She has been removed from her post," Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs, Humaiun Kobir, who is currently visiting London, told reporters. High Commissioner Abida Islam officially assumed office as High Commissioner Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of Bangladesh to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 27 January 2025. Abida Islam has held key diplomatic positions in several international postings, including in the Bangladesh Missions in London (2001-2004), Colombo (2004-2006), and Brussels (2009-2012), Deputy High Commissioner, Bangladesh High Commission, Kolkata, India (2012–2014). During her tenure as Ambassador to South Korea, Ambassador Islam worked to improve Bangladesh-South Korea relations, particularly in trade, investment, and cultural exchange.

Voters will head to the polls in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a prosperous hub of Germany's flagship auto sector with a population of 11.2 million. The CDU, a year after winning national elections, hopes to snatch first place in Baden-Wuerttemberg back from the Greens, who have won the last two state elections. Merz's party until recently enjoyed large poll leads in the state but these have shrunk in recent months. The Greens' lead candidate is Cem Ozdemir, 60, who, if he wins, would become Germany's first state premier of Turkish heritage. Such a result would be "sensational" for the party, he said, and the best it had ever scored in a western German state.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 8, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Lebanon's health ministry said Sunday that an Israeli strike on a hotel in central Beirut killed at least four people, with Israel saying it had targeted commanders from Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Israel, which has kept up strikes targeting Hezbollah despite a 2024 ceasefire, launched multiple waves of strikes this week across Lebanon and sent ground troops into border areas. Early Sunday, the Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli air strike hit Beirut's city centre, targeting "a hotel room", killing four people and wounding 10 others. A separate statement later said Israeli forces carried out a "precise strike" in Beirut, targeting "key commanders" in the Quds Force, the Guards' foreign operations arm. Hezbollah also said its fighters were engaged in clashes with Israeli forces near the border town of Aitaroun.

Trump attends return of first US troops killed in Iran warDOVER, United States, March 8, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - US President Donald Trump attended the return Saturday of the bodies of the first six US soldiers killed during the escalating war with Iran. Trump, wearing a white "USA" baseball cap, saluted as troops carried each flag-draped case from a military transport plane at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the remains of US troops killed overseas are returned to American soil. The troops were killed last Sunday when a drone struck a key US command center in Kuwait, a day after the United States and Israel launched a sweeping military campaign against Iran. Trump traveled to Delaware for the transfer of the fallen troops after attending a summit of Latin American leaders Saturday morning in the southern state of Florida. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he warned the United States would hit Iran "very hard" and threatened to expand strikes to include new targets.

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, March 8, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - President Donald Trump on Saturday blamed Iran for what the country's authorities said was a deadly strike on a school in the southern county of Minab. According to Iranian authorities, a strike hit a girls' elementary school last Saturday, killing more than 150 people, mostly students. Israel and the United States have not claimed responsibility for the reported attack -- with US officials saying it remains under investigation -- while Iran has blamed Washington for the strike. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Friday they had targeted a US base in the UAE that they alleged had been used as a launchpad for the strike. The Pentagon has confirmed it is investigating, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US would "not deliberately target a school."

Australia could help protect Gulf states from Iran attacks: FMSYDNEY, March 8, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Australia will consider a request by Gulf states for assistance against Iranian drone and missile attacks, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Sunday. Asked whether that meant assistance in protecting them from Iranian drone and missile attacks, Wong said "correct". Iran responded with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel as well as Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar. As of last month, around 70 Australian military personnel are currently serving on American nuclear submarines, Canberra has said. The personnel were on the submarine as part of training arrangements under AUKUS, a multi-decade defence pact with Britain and the United States, Albanese said.

DOVER, United States, March 8, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - US President Donald Trump said Saturday that "two aircraft carriers" from Britain are not needed "any longer" to aid his war in the Middle East -- his latest critique of London's stance. The United Kingdom "is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East. That's OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don't need them any longer," Trump posted to his Truth Social account. Trump posted the message shortly after attending the return of the first six US service members killed in the Middle East war, at Dover Airforce Base in the northeastern state of Delaware. Trump has said he is "not happy with the UK," mocking Starmer by saying "this is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with."

ERBIL, Iraq, March 8, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Several strikes hit Kurdish Iranian militants in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on Saturday, officials from the exiled groups told AFP. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Saturday morning they had targeted "separatist groups" in Iraq's Kurdistan, as the war against Israel and the United States entered its second week. The autonomous region hosts camps and rear bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish militant groups that have repeatedly come under Iranian fire since the war began. The parties included the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and the Komala party. "If separatist groups in the region make any move against Iran's territorial integrity, we will crush them," the Guards added.

In the United States, protesters carried Iranian, Lebanese and Palestinian flags and signs "Iran is not our enemy" and "No war on Iran" in downtown Detroit, Michigan. In Washington DC, demonstrators gathered at the National Mall carrying US, Israeli and Iranian flags, with some protesters painting the colours of the Iranian flags on their cheeks. Protesters carried pictures of Khamenei and denounced the war in central Tunis in Tunisia. In Cape Town, Iranian pro-democracy activists and supporters of Israel waved Israeli flags and chanted slogans in the Albert Waterfront shopping mall. Several counter-protesters carried signs denouncing Israel and in support of the Palestinians.

FAIRFORD, United Kingdom, March 8, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - The United States has started using British bases for certain operations against Iran during the Middle East war, the UK government announced on Saturday. Britain's defence ministry said the US had begun using the military sites for "specific defensive operations to prevent Iran firing missiles into the region". UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer annoyed US President Donald Trump for initially refusing to have any role in the US-Israeli war with Iran, which started a week ago, on February 28. He later agreed to a US request to use two British military bases for a "specific and limited defensive purpose". Those bases are Fairford in Gloucestershire, southwestern England, and the UK-US Diego Garcia base on the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean.

TEHRAN, March 8, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Iran's military called on its neighbour Azerbaijan to "expel the Zionists" from its territory on Saturday in order to preserve its security, a day after Baku accused Tehran of plotting attacks on its territory. Israel is a close ally of Azerbaijan's and a key arms supplier, while Tehran has long accused Israel of using Azerbaijani territory for intelligence operations. Azerbaijan on Friday said it had foiled a series of planned Iranian terrorist attacks on its territory including on a key oil pipeline, a synagogue and Jewish community leaders. On Thursday at least four drones crashed into Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhchivan, including one that hit an airport, with Baku blaming Tehran. Tehran denied the allegation and accused Israel of trying to stage a provocation.

MADRID, March 8, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Nicolas Gonzalez netted twice for Atletico Madrid in an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad in La Liga on Saturday. It was only the second defeat for Real Sociedad coach Pellegrino Matarazzo in 14 matches at the helm, with the Basque side rising to eighth since his arrival. Atletico substitute Antoine Griezmann created the goal with a tidy backheel, and Gonzalez showed poise before stroking home. Real Sociedad immediately equalised, with Mikel Oyarzabal smashing in from the edge of the box, inside Jan Oblak's near post. However, Gonzalez netted again for Simeone's side, leaping high to nod home Matteo Ruggieri's curling cross from the left.

ISTANBUL, March 8, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Turkey's foreign minister warned against efforts to stir up a civil war inside Iran, while cautioning Tehran after NATO intercepted a Turkey-bound ballistic missile launched from Iran earlier in the week. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said any effort to stir up a civil war inside Iran in a bid to bring about regime change would be a 'historic' mistake. "We are against all scenarios that aim to instigate a civil war in Iran, that target ethnic or religious fault lines," Fidan told journalists in Istanbul. "We hope the Kurdish opinion leaders in the region will not make the mistake of shouldering such a historical responsibility," he said. "After Iraq and Syria, a long period of uncertainty, war and turmoil in Iran is not in anyone's interest," he said.

DORAL, United States, March 8, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - US President Donald Trump on Saturday urged Latin American nations to use military power against the "cancer" of drug cartels and offered to support them with US missile strikes targeting narco kingpins. They're extremely accurate," Trump told a dozen right-wing leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean at his Doral golf club near Miami. Irene Mia, a Latin America expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said drug cartel violence has hit countries in the region that until recently were considered fairly safe such as Ecuador and Chile. Trump urged regional leaders to use military force to stamp out criminal organizations, which he likened to a cancer, saying: "We don't want it spreading." "I'll take care of Cuba," Trump told leaders.