DHAKA: The Bangladesh Supreme Court on Wednesday began an unprecedented hearing into a petition filed by a senior lawyer alleging Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed committed contempt of court. A full bench was to hear the petition filed on Monday by the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Habibul Islam Bhuiyan. Bhuiyan and the government attorney general Mahmudul Islam attended the court as requested by the bench chairman Chief Justice ATM Afzal. It is the first time the court has agreed to hear such a contempt petition against the incumbent head of government, a senior lawyer earlier said. In his petition, Bhuiyan cited a reported comment by Sheikh Hasina to the press last week questioning how the High Court could give bail to 1,200 people in two days.

Sri Lanka warns foreign diplomats

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government has warned Colombo-based foreign diplomats against commenting on recent elections to the north-western provincial council wonby the ruling party amid charges of poll irregularities. In an apparent reaction to the recent remarks made by the US embassy here casting aspersions on the elections, a confidential letter from the foreign ministry on Tuesday said such statements by diplomats would be ``considered as interference'' in the internal affairs of the country. The foreign ministry's warning came after a US embassy spokesman expressed concern over the allegations of violence and vote-rigging in the north-western provincial council elections held on January 25 and said they were awaiting a final report from independent poll monitors.

`Ghost' on camera in UK mansion

LONDON: Security cameras outside a former country mansion in England, recorded ghostly apparitions one night last Christmas, including one that seemed to be a woman in Victorian dress, The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday. Staff at the Belgrave Hall Museum in Leicester, central England, have sent the video footage to a laboratory and contacted paranormalinvestigators to clear up the mystery of the two spectral shapes. The 18th century house was once the family home of John Ellis, a Leicester MP and industrialist, whose sister Charlotte is reputed to have died there, her spirit remaining in restless occupation. Museum staff reportedly had seen her flitting about before, though never on camera.