DHAKA: Japan is to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to stop leaks of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant.Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said an estimated 47bn yen ($473m, £304m) would be allocated to the project.The leaks were getting worse and the government

DHAKA: More than two million Syrians are now refugees, with the total going up by half a million in the past three months, the United Nations has said.More than 700,000 have fled to Lebanon, and more Syrians are now displaced than any other nationality, the UNHCR says.France and the US

DHAKA: US plans for strikes against Syria may be coupled with increased support for rebel forces in that country’s civil war, two leading Republican senators said after meeting with President Barack Obama on Monday.Obama met in the Oval Office with Sens. John McCain, and Sen. Lindsey

DHAKA: British army officials have dismissed what they called "baseless rumours" that troops mutilated the bodies of dead Iraqi fighters after a 2004 battle, as a public inquiry heard its first evidence from military witnesses.The Al-Sweady Inquiry is investigating claims that British

DHAKA: There could be at least 320,000 viruses awaiting discovery that are circulating in animals, a study suggests.Researchers say that identifying these viral diseases, especially those that can spread to humans, could help to prevent future pandemics.The team estimates that this could

DHAKA: Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah group, a close ally of the Syrian regime, is redeploying its forces ahead of possible US strikes on Damascus, according to witnesses in Lebanon.The reports come as the daily Al-Akhbar, which is close to both Hezbollah and the Syrian regime, said yesterday

DHAKA: Russian lawmakers will urge the US Congress not to approve military strikes on Syria.The speaker of the upper house of parliament told president Vladimir Putin on Monday, reports The Jerusalem Post.‘I think if we manage to establish a dialogue with our partners in the US Congress

DHAKA: The head of the Arab League has said military intervention in Syria is not an option, a further blow to United States` efforts to act over a chemical weapons attack in Damascus last month.Following emergency meetings in Cairo on Monday, secretary general, Nabil Al-Araby, said the

DHAKA: The head of India’s ruling party Sonia Gandhi left on Monday for the United States for a medical check-up, according to a report, a week after she was hospitalised in New Delhi.Sonia was accompanied by her daughter Priyanka, the semi-official Press Trust of India news agency

DHAKA: Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl at his ashram here, was behind bars on Monday after he was remanded in 14-day judicial custody by a local court.Wearing a white dhoti and kurta and a red cap, the controversial 72-year-old Asaram was

DHAKA: Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, one of the world’s most aggressive investors, is hiring senior bankers and industry executives to lessen the fund`s reliance on Europe and diversify its investment portfolio.Sources familiar with the plan said, reports The Straits Times.Under

DHAKA: New murder charges have been registered against Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, officials say.Musharraf, who is currently under house arrest, already faces murder charges over the deaths of Benazir Bhutto and a Baloch tribal leader.He also faces charges over

DHAKA: India’s government denied on Monday it was considering shutting filling stations at night to reduce oil imports, a widely ridiculed measure reportedly under discussion to tackle a deepening economic crisis.Oil Minister Veerappa Moily sparked the speculation on Sunday when he told

DHAKA: The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier is moving westward toward the Red Sea, although it has not yet received orders to support a potential US strike on Syria.ABC News reported Monday, says TDS.The Nimitz carrier strike group, which includes a guided missile cruiser and four destroyers,

DHAKA: The authorities in Malaysia have detained 2,500 migrants in a campaign to deport some half a million illegal immigrants.Tens of thousands of police, soldiers and local enforcement personnel are taking part in Malaysia’s largest round-up of foreign workers.Many of the workers come

DHAKA: French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault will present France’s evidence that chemical weapons were used in Syria, when he meets parliamentary leaders on Monday.The dossier is said to show that Syria has stockpiled more than 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents, including sarin, reports the

DHAKA: An Egyptian judicial panel advised a court to dissolve the Muslim Brotherhood as a legally registered non-governmental organisation on Monday, judicial sources said, presenting a legal challenge to the group as the army-backed government presses a crackdown.The court could rule as

DHAKA: NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday he had seen evidence about an August 21 attack in Syria that had convinced him that the Syrian authorities were responsible for a chemical weapons strike.‘I have been presented with concrete information and, without going into

DHAKA: Germany put a 92-year-old former member of the Nazi Waffen SS on trial on Monday on charges that he executed a Dutch resistance fighter in 1944.Dutch-born Siert Bruins, who is now German, volunteered for the SS after the Nazis conquered the Netherlands in 1941.Bruins served as a

DHAKA: Russia is sending a reconnaissance ship to the eastern Mediterranean, Interfax news agency reported on Monday, as the United States prepares for a possible military strike in Syria.The reconnaissance ship Priazovye left Russia’s naval base in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of