DHAKA: Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who took on the Taliban, and Russian human rights activists are seen as top contenders for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the International Peace Research Institute said.Sister Mary Tarcisia Lakot is also a potential winner for her work

DHAKA: Japan`s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has a new leak of radioactive water after workers overfilled a storage tank, its operator says.The workers miscalculated the tank`s capacity as it was tilted on unlevel ground, plant operator Tepco said.It said around 430 litres (100

DHAKA: US President Barack Obama has canceled a trip to Indonesia and Brunei due to the government shutdown, the White House announced Thursday night."The president made this decision based on the difficulty in moving forward with foreign travel in the face of a shutdown, and his

DHAKA: Italy is holding a day of national mourning, after a boat carrying about 500 African migrants sank off the island of Lampedusa.At least 103 bodies were recovered and scores more are trapped in the vessel, which sank less than 1 km (half-a-mile) offshore.More than 150 people were

DHAKA: The United States would be prepared to consider relaxing certain sanctions on Iran if it engaged in confidence-building steps to prove its sincerity to negotiate over its disputed nuclear program, a top State Department official said Thursday."There may be some elements that we can

DHAKA: A police chase in Washington DC has ended in gunfire, sparking panic at the White House and US Capitol and leaving a woman dead and two officers injured.The chase and wreck that preceded the shooting were neither an act of terrorism nor an accident, police said.A female driver was

DHAKA: At least 94 people have died and scores are missing after a boat carrying African migrants, mostly from Eritrea, sank off the island of Lampedusa.Officials and rescuers said, reports Al Jazeera.Passengers on a boat that sank off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa were all believed to

DHAKA: A disgruntled former Maoist who rose to fame in Nepal after slapping the country’s leading leftwing politician announced plans on Thursday to fight him in upcoming elections.Padam Kunwar, a 26-year-old chef who assaulted Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal last November,

DHAKA: Syria’s defence ministry spokesman said Syrian chemical weapons arsenal is under strict guard.RIA news agency reports, according to The Voice of Russia.Syrian army takes necessary measures to ensure safety of UN and OPCW inspectors, said the defence ministry spokesman.BDST: 2015

DHAKA: After a long court battle, Palestinian farmers have reclaimed land they lost to an Israeli settlement in the 1970s.Israel dismantled Homesh and three other West Bank settlements in 2005, in connection with a wider withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, but refused to let the original

DHAKA: The man said to be responsible for bringing Al-Qaeda to Afghanistan announced he was running for president on Thursday, a move likely to be greeted with apprehension by the international community.Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai is barred from running by the constitution, and

DHAKA: The Belarusian president has lashed out against president Barack Obama, drawing a comparison between American exceptionalism and Nazism.Alexander Lukashenko told the Kazakh TV station 24.kz that Belarus had ‘already survived this ‘exceptionalism’... which cost us 50 million

DHAKA: French lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill that will prevent Amazon from offering free deliveries of discounted books.The bill, designed to support small bookstores struggling in the face of giant online retailers, was backed unanimously in the lower house National Assembly,

DHAKA: The Egyptian army has planned military attacks on specific targets in the Gaza Strip in the event that the security situation in the northern Sinai peninsula deteriorates.A senior Egyptian security official told the Ma’an news agency, reports The Jerusalem Post.The source said

DHAKA: An estimated 500 passengers on a boat that sank off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Thursday were all believed to be Eritreans coming from Libya.The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration said, reports The Straits Times.The boat

DHAKA: Russian president Vladimir Putin and US president Barack Obama may discuss the Syria crisis on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit next week in Bali.A Kremlin aide said on Thursday, reports Turkish daily Hurriyet.‘It would be rather logical to meet (Obama) in Bali, taking

DHAKA: A Saudi court has sentenced four men to up to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for dancing ‘naked’ in public.Media reported on Thursday, says The Straits Times.In a video posted on YouTube, several men appear dancing atop a vehicle in the ultra-conservative province of

DHAKA: An Indian court sentenced a powerful ally of the ruling Congress party to five years in jail on Thursday for siphoning off state funds, underlining that public disgust with corruption is finally catching up with the nation’s politicians.Arvind Singh, joint secretary of the bar

DHAKA: A young Saudi couple divorced after the husband and wife argued over the name of their first baby.The couple, married for two years, could not agree what to name their newborn daughter with the husband insisting on naming her after his mother and the wife arguing that she should

DHAKA: Six of the most powerful rebel factions in Syria issued a joint statement on Thursday telling an Al-Qaeda front group to withdraw from the northern town of Azaz bordering Turkey.In a separate statement, rebels in central Syria also called on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant