DHAKA: Pope Francis urged countries on Tuesday to welcome and respect migrants and refugees and not treat them as ‘pawns on the chessboard of humanity’.Pope Francis, who has made the defence of the poor and vulnerable a cornerstone of his papacy, said in a message for the World Day of

DHAKA: A list of goods banned for export to North Korea signals China’s commitment to enforcing international sanctions and is in no way intended to punish Pyongyang.China foreign ministry said on Tuesday, reports The Straits Times.Hong Lei, a spokesman for China’s foreign affairs

DHAKA: Somalia’s al Shabaab Islamist militant group said on Tuesday its militants were still holding out in a Kenyan shopping centre they attacked over the weekend, and said hostages they held in the Westgate mall in Nairobi were still alive.‘There are countless number of dead bodies

DHAKA: Sri Lanka’s military harassed and intimidated ethnic minority Tamil voters and candidates during the first ever local elections in the former warzone.Foreign observers confirmed on Tuesday, reports The Straits Times.The opposition Tamil party won a landslide victory in weekend

DHAKA: Russia’s government says UN chemical weapons inspectors are expected to return to Syria on Wednesday.Russia deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said they would investigate alleged chemical weapons attacks at Khan al-Assal, Sheikh Maqsoud and Saraqeb, according to the Interfax

DHAKA: An alleged commander in the Somali Shebab rebel group on Monday denied news reports that Westerners or women were involved in the hostage standoff at a Nairobi mall that has killed at least 69 people.The man, who claimed he had been in contact with the Islamist attackers inside the

DHAKA: Russian prosecutors have accused around 30 Greenpeace activists of piracy and say they will prosecute all of them for trying to board an Arctic oil platform.Russia’s Investigative Committee, modelled on the FBI, will question the activists. Six Britons are among them.Their ship,

DHAKA: North Korean scientists are able to build crucial equipment for uranium-based nuclear bombs on their own, cutting the need for imports that had been one of the few ways outsiders could monitor the country’s secretive atomic work, according to evidence gathered by two American

DHAKA: Two or three Americans and one Briton were among those who attacked a Nairobi shopping mall.Kenya’s foreign minister said Monday, NDTV says.More than 60 people have been killed in the assault on the upscale mall, which has lasted for three days.The foreign minister, Amina

DHAKA: A French appeals court ruled on Tuesday that an investigation could proceed into former president Nicolas Sarkozy for allegedly duping L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt into donating election campaign funds, a lawyer for her family said.The decision means continued legal

DHAKA: Kenya’s Citizen TV reported on Tuesday that troops had killed ‘six of the remaining attackers’ at a Nairobi shopping mall, but did not give further details and the report was unsourced.‘Security forces killed six of the remaining attackers,’ the channel said in a brief

DHAKA: Lawyers for four men sentenced to death for raping and murdering a young woman on a New Delhi bus challenged the convictions and death sentences at a High Court hearing on Tuesday.The brutal attack in December sparked public debate and fury over chronic sexual violence faced by

DHAKA: US president Barack Obama on Tuesday is expected to signal his willingness to engage with the new Iranian government if Teheran makes nuclear concessions long sought by the US and Western allies.Obama will address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday morning, reports The

DHAKA: An ex-FBI agent has agreed to plead guilty to leaking information to a reporter about an al-Qaeda bomb plot and to child pornography charges.Donald Sachtleben, 55, is to be sentenced to 12 years in prison.The May 2012 disclosures jeopardised an international intelligence operation

DHAKA: Cambodia’s parliament has approved a new five-year term for long-serving PM Hun Sen, despite a boycott by the opposition over disputed elections.Hun Sen, in power since 1985, is expected to be sworn in on Tuesday.The opposition, who have demanded an independent inquiry into

DHAKA: Kenyan security forces say they have taken control of all floors of the Nairobi shopping centre attacked by suspected al-Shabab militants.The interior ministry said it was "unlikely" any hostages were left in the building.At least 62 people have been killed with more than 170

DHAKA: Iran on Monday was finally taking control of its civilian nuclear reactor at Bushehr, a project begun 37 years ago by West Germany, wracked by setbacks, and finished by Russia.The Islamic republic’s atomic agency chief Ali Akbar Salehi confirmed Russia was handing over the

DHAKA: A bomb exploded near an ambulance taking a pregnant woman to hospital in Iraq on Monday, wounding her and killing two people, the police and a doctor said.The blast near the northern city of Mosul also wounded the ambulance driver and killed a medic and a relative travelling with

DHAKA: The Iranian authorities have pardoned 80 prisoners ahead of president Hassan Rohani’s visit to the United Nations in New York this week.The Iranian media reported on Monday, says The Straits Times.In a tentative sign that hardline policies are starting to soften following

DHAKA: China’s disgraced former politician Bo Xilai is appealing against his sentence, reports say.The former party chief of Chongqing was sentenced to life imprisonment on Sunday. He was found guilty of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.The popular politician was removed from