DHAKA: Nelson Mandela has spent his first night in almost three months at his home in Johannesburg after being discharged from hospital in Pretoria.The former South African president, 95, was admitted in early June for a recurring lung infection.Family members have spoken of their

DHAKA: France’s government will not cede to calls from opposition figures to have lawmakers vote on whether to take military action in Syria.The head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee Elisabeth Guigou said on Monday, reports The Jerusalem Post.French president Francois

DHAKA: Japan vowed quick, decisive action, including the use of public funds, to tackle the worsening problem of contaminated water pouring from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, as the authorities step in to help the facility’s embattled operator.Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe said

DHAKA: Palestine president Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday night vowed to put to a referendum any agreement he reaches with Israel.Abbas, who was speaking at the opening of a meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council in Ramallah, said that Palestinians everywhere would be asked to approve an

DHAKA: The threat that climate change poses to Pacific Island nations shows that international action on the issue is overdue.European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said on Monday, reprots The Straits Times.On the eve of this week’s Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in the

DHAKA: Philippine divers have recovered more dead bodies from a ferry that sank after colliding with a cargo ship, raising the death toll from the incident to 108.The Coast Guard said on Monday, reports The Straits Times.Twenty-nine more passengers are still unaccounted for, more than two

DHAKA: Syed Wali desperately wants to immunise his three young children against polio but fears the Islamic militants who banned the vaccine from this remote area in northwest Pakistan will catch him if he tries to smuggle it in.‘I can afford to bring the vaccine for my children, but

DHAKA: China said on Monday it was seriously concerned about any unilateral military action against Syria after US president Barack Obama delayed a military response to last month`s chemical weapons attack near Damascus until after a congressional vote.The United States has explained to

DHAKA: Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov says the information the US showed Moscow trying to prove that Syrian regime was behind an alleged chemical weapons attack is ‘absolutely unconvincing’.Lavrov said Monday ‘there was nothing specific’ in the evidence presented by

DHAKA: Egypt`s state prosecutor says he has referred ousted President Mohammed Morsi for trial on charges of inciting the murder of protesters.The accusations relate to violence outside the presidential palace in Cairo last December when at least seven people were killed in

DHAKA: More than a third of Britons say they or a family member have found it harder to secure work or a good salary because of increased competition from migrant workers.According to a survey by Lord Ashcroft, the former Conservative Party donor, 36 per cent of people said that they or

DHAKA: US state secretary John Kerry asserted on Sunday that the United States now has evidence of sarin gas use in Syria and said ‘the case gets stronger by the day’ for a military attack.A day after president Barack Obama stepped back from his threat to launch an attack, Kerry said

DHAKA: A Saudi newspaper is reporting that Russian resident Vladmir Putin suggested to his Syrian counterpart and ally Bashar Assad that he give up the presidency and leave the country.Israel Radio said Sunday, reports The Jerusalem Post.According to the radio, the newspaper claims

DHAKA: Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said the Syrian government, a strong ally of Tehran, had carried out chemical weapons attacks against its own people.The semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency reported on Sunday, says The Jerusalem Post.‘The people have been

DHAKA: Probable presidential candidate Omar Daudzai was appointed as Afghanistan’s acting interior minister on Sunday, putting him in a high-profile public role seven months before the country’s first democratic transfer of power.Daudzai will move back to Kabul from Islamabad, where

DHAKA: Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has said that his country is capable of confronting any external attack, a day after his US counterpart Barack Obama called for military action against him.‘Syria ... is capable of confronting any external aggression,’ state television quoted

DHAKA: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the Jewish State was prepared for ‘every possible scenario’ in neighbouring Syria after US president Barack Obama postponed a threatened missile strike.‘Israel is calm and sure of itself, the citizens of Israel

DHAKA: A powerful 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck off eastern Indonesia on Sunday, the United States Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued.The quake struck in waters near the Barat Daya islands in Maluku province, 411km east of Atambua and 425km south of Ambon.It was

DHAKA: More than 110,000 people have died in the conflict in Syria since March 2011, a rights watchdog said on Sunday.They said days after alleged gas attacks near Damascus shocked the world, reports The Straits Times.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the toll since the

DHAKA: US president Barack Obama’s decision to seek congressional authorisation for a military strike on Syria has sparked calls for the French Parliament to get the same privilege.The French Constitution does not require such a vote unless and until a French military intervention lasts