Tuesday, 24 Dec, 2024

International

Second team of arms inspectors arrives in Syria

DHAKA: A second team of international inspectors arrived in Damascus on Thursday to help supervise the destruction of Syria’s chemical arsenal under the terms of a UN resolution.Three UN vehicles carrying inspectors earlier departed from their Damascus hotel en route to an undisclosed

5 killed in Pakistan bomb blast

DHAKA: Police say a bomb exploded has outside a police station in a crowded market in southwest Pakistan, killing at least five people.Police official Mohammed Mohsin says the blast on Thursday in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, also wounded at least 20 people.The bomb also

Iraq hangs 42 people convicted on terrorism charges

DHAKA: Iraq’s justice ministry says authorities have executed 42 people, including a woman, over the past two days.They were all convicted on terrorism-related charges.Thursday’s announcement shows Baghdad’s determination to carry out capital punishment despite international appeals

Afghanistan preparing for meeting over US deal

DHAKA: An Afghan official says preparations are underway for a meeting of elders next month that will advise the president on whether to sign a long-troubled security deal with the United States.Afghanistan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said on Thursday that security services

20 pilgrims killed in India road accident

DHAKA: Twenty pilgrims were killed while 40 others were injured when an overloaded mini truck carrying them fell in a gorge in Manguwal village in the district early Thursday.‘The pilgrims were returning from Chintpurni shrine in Himachal Pradesh and were headed to Begowal falling in

Freed Libyan PM arrives at govt HQ

DHAKA: Libyan prime minister Ali Zeidan arrived at government headquarters in Tripoli on Thursday shortly after he was freed from the captivity of militiamen who had held him for several hours.Several government ministers and members of the General National Congress, Libya’s highest

‘Fukushima decontamination insufficient’

DHAKA: Japan’s efforts to scour areas around Fukushima have been insufficient, pressure group Greenpeace said on Thursday, as the government considers letting some residents return to homes near the crippled nuclear plant.The environmental group said tests it had carried out inside the

Myanmar takes ASEAN chair

DHAKA: Myanmar won a new diplomatic prize on Thursday for its dramatic political reforms, taking the helm of Southeast Asia’s regional bloc despite warnings from some critics that the move was premature.The one-time international pariah was formally awarded the rotating chair of the

Malala wins EU’s Sakharov rights prize

DHAKA: Malala Yousafzai, Pakistan’s teenage activist, on Thursday was awarded the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov human rights prize.‘Today, we decided to let the world know that our hope for a better future stands in young people like Malala Yousafzai,’ said the

Alice Munro wins for Literature

DHAKA: Canadian author Alice Munro has won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature.Making the announcement, Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, called her a ‘master of the contemporary short story’, reports the BBC.Her books include Dear Life and Dance of the Happy

15 killed as suicide bomber attacks at Iraq primary school

DHAKA: A suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into the playground of a primary school in northern Iraq and blew himself up, killing 14 students and their headmaster on Sunday.Iraq police and medical sources said, reports Today’s Zaman.The attack followed a suicide bombing

‘Major powers must table new nuclear proposals’

DHAKA: Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on Sunday for new proposals from the major powers in talks on its nuclear programme that are due to resume on October 15.Zarif said that the previous offer, made by the so-called P5+1 group at two meetings in Kazakhstan in

Assad admits to making mistakes

DHAKA: Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad has conceded making mistakes and says no side in his country’s civil war is entirely free of blame, according to an interview to be published Sunday by German magazine Der Spiegel.The respected Hamburg-based weekly reported that Assad

Syria chemical arms removal begins

DHAKA: Disarmament experts from international watchdog OPCW have begun destroying Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.A monitoring official has told the BBC.The operation is being carried out by a team from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.The mission was

Abe vows to seek talks with China, S. Korea leaders

DHAKA: Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe said on Sunday he would seek talks with leaders of China and South Korea at a regional economic summit in Indonesia despite strained ties.‘I want to seize on an opportune time to exchange views’ with them, he told reporters before leaving for

Muslim victims say Myanmar police aided attackers

DHAKA: Even as the president came to western Myanmar to urge an end to sectarian violence, security forces could not prevent Buddhist mobs from torching the homes of minority Muslims or hacking them to death, at times, unwittingly, even encouraging them.That has raised questions about the

Six dead in shoot-out in restive Thai south

DHAKA: Six people including two policemen were shot dead in a fierce gunbattle between Thai security forces and militants, authorities said on Sunday, after a raid in the insurgency-plagued south of the country.The clash broke out after a combined army, police and paramilitary group tried

China on alert for Typhoon Fitow

DHAKA: China`s maritime authorities issued red alerts on Sunday, representing the highest warning for storm tides and waves as Typhoon Fitow approached land, the country`s state news agency, Xinhua, said.Fitow battered the remote southern Japanese island of Okinawa late Saturday, with

4 Nato soldiers killed in Afghanistan

DHAKA: Four soldiers serving with the Nato-led international force in Afghanistan have been killed in the south of the country.Nato said they were killed by enemy combatants while taking part in an operation alongside Afghan forces.It did not give the nationalities of those who died, but

Obama to restrict Coal-fired power plant

DHAKA: The Obama administration will press ahead Friday with tough requirements for new coal-fired power plants, moving to impose for the first time strict limits on the pollution blamed for global warming.The proposal would help reshape where Americans get electricity, away from a