Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused her besieged opposition rival of trying to trigger anarchy Monday as security forces clamped down on protests on the first anniversary of her controversial re-election.

After main opposition leader Khaleda Zia accused Hasina of trying to cling onto power by force, the prime minister countered that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief was responsible for a wave of violence that left at least four people dead in the volatile South Asian nation.

Bangladesh riot police besieging the office of opposition leader Khaleda Zia lobbed pepper spray inside the compound Monday after dozens of her supporters attempted to break open the gate, a senior aide said.

The leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has been confined to her office since Saturday night after calling for mass protests as part of a campaign to force Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to hold new polls, a year on from her rival's controversial re-election.

Bangladesh police banned all protests in the capital from Sunday and locked main opposition leader Khaleda Zia in her office in Dhaka as clashes broke out before the first anniversary of an election her party boycotted.

Zia had threatened to hold mass rallies in Dhaka to mark "Democracy Killing Day" on Monday -- the first anniversary of the polls that her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies refused to join on the grounds they would be rigged by the ruling party.

Bangladesh's war crimes court Tuesday sentenced a leading Islamist to death for rape, mass murder and genocide during the country's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

A.T.M. Azharul Islam became the 16th person and the 11th Islamist to be convicted of atrocities by the International Crimes Tribunal, which found him guilty of being a key member of a notorious pro-Pakistan militia.

The U.N. General Assembly on Monday adopted a resolution urging Myanmar to grant citizenship to its Rohingya Muslim minority and grant them equal access to services. 

The non-binding measure was adopted by consensus in the 193-nation assembly, a month after it was approved by the assembly's rights committee. 

Bangladesh opposition activists clashed with police during a nationwide strike Monday, leaving one woman dead and several people injured, as tensions grew ahead of the first anniversary of controversial elections.

Police said a female school teacher succumbed to her injuries after she was hit on the head by a rock thrown by an opposition protester in the coastal district of Noakhali. 

Hundreds of relatives of people who disappeared during a violent crackdown on the opposition ahead of this year's elections in Bangladesh protested on Wednesday to demand justice.

More than 200 people were killed in street clashes between the security forces and opposition supporters before and during the January 5 polls.

A Bangladesh court on Tuesday found an award-winning British journalist guilty of contempt for questioning the official death toll of three million in the country's 1971 independence war.

Judges from a special war crimes court ruled David Bergman's blog in November 2011 had "hurt the feelings of the nation" and ordered him to pay a 5,000-taka ($65) fine or go to prison for seven days.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed Sunday to halt illegal immigration from Bangladesh into Assam, saying they were "destroying" the northeastern state.

Modi, whose right-wing Hindu nationalist party stormed to power at May elections, said: "Bangladeshis are entering Assam every day and destroying the state."   

A cargo ship rammed a Bangladeshi fishing trawler on Friday leaving one crew member dead and 26 others believed missing in the Bay of Bengal, navy officers said.

The trawler FV Bandhan, believed to have been carrying 29 fishermen, sank after being struck by the cargo ship 54 kilometers (34 miles) off the Bangladeshi coast early on Friday, an officer said.