DHAKA: American forces are ‘ready’ to launch strikes on Syria if president Barack Obama chooses to order an attack, US defence secretary Chuck Hagel says.‘We have moved assets in place to be able to fulfil and comply with whatever option the president wishes to take,’ Hagel told

DHAKA: Denmark on Tuesday said it was prepared to support ‘alternative responses’ if the UN Security Council fails to take action on Syria over its use of chemical weapons.‘We hear from our closest allies that there is no doubt that chemical weapons have been deployed in Syria, and

DHAKA: At least 16 people have died and tens of thousands of others have lost homes, land or livestock across Laos in heavy rains.The United Nations said on Tuesday, reports The Straits Times.The deaths occurred during flash floods after downpours in the northwestern district of Beng on

DHAKA: British prime minister David Cameron is recalling members of Britain’s lower house of parliament from their summer break to give them a chance to discuss how best to respond to a suspected chemical attack in Syria.A spokesman from his office said on Tuesday, reports The Straits

DHAKA: As Mumbai reels over the gang-rape of a young photographer in the heart of the city last week, angry neighbours of the arrested suspects describe a gang of jobless youths known for petty theft and drinking.The five men are accused of repeatedly raping the 22-year-old woman and

DHAKA: A security official was killed by unidentified gunmen in Russia’s Ingushetia republic, local police said on Tuesday, the latest violence in a region plagued by an Islamist insurgency and near the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.Russian president Vladimir Putin has launched a

DHAKA: Japan on Tuesday cancelled the launch of a new rocket it hopes will be a cheaper and more efficient way of putting satellites into space, saying it suffered a problem that aborted the countdown 19 seconds before it was supposed to blast off.Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

DHAKA: Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region has no plans to send troops into Syria to defend fellow Kurds, a senior Iraqi Kurdish official said, despite safety concerns which have driven thousands to cross the border.Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said earlier this month his

DHAKA: Russia regrets the postponement of a meeting scheduled for Wednesday in the Hague with senior diplomats from the United States on an international peace conference for Syria.Russian deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov said on Tuesday, reports The Jerusalem Post.Washington said

DHAKA: Syrian foreign minister Walid Muallem has said he rejects ‘utterly and completely’ that Syrian government forces used chemical weapons.He was speaking in Damascus after the US said there was ‘undeniable’ proof of a chemical attack.Muallem said UN weapons inspectors had been

DHAKA: British prime minister David Cameron said on Tuesday that chemical weapons attacks in Syria were ‘absolutely abhorrent’, necessitating action from the international community with Britain considering a ‘proportionate response’.Cameron cut short his holiday on Monday to

DHAKA: The Afghan Taliban executed six men who worked for a government programme in western Herat, one of the war-ravaged country’s most stable provinces whose small but promising private sector is driving the national economy.The governor said on Tuesday, reports The Jerusalem Post.The

DHAKA: India’s parliament on Monday passed a flagship US$18 billion programme to provide subsidised food to the poor that is intended to ‘wipe out’ endemic hunger and malnutrition in the aspiring superpower.The Food Security Bill, a key scheme seen as a vote-winner by the ruling

DHAKA: Brazil’s foreign minister, Antonio Patriota, stepped down Monday night amid a diplomatic row with neighboring Bolivia.President Dilma Rousseff’s office issued a brief statement, saying Patriota had submitted his resignation and would be replaced by Brazil’s representative at

DHAKA: Mudslides killed at least 13 people after Fernand slammed into the east of coast of Mexico, state media reported Monday.Fernand was a tropical storm when it made landfall late Sunday, bringing heavy rains. The storm quickly fizzled into a tropical depression and had dissipated by

DHAKA: Palestinian negotiators have cancelled a planned round of peace talks with Israel to protest a raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank in which Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians, including a UN worker.Medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 15 others were

DHAKA: US Secretary of State John Kerry has condemned what he said was the “undeniable” use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.He described recent attacks in the Damascus area as a “moral obscenity”.The US and its allies are considering a response including possible

New Delhi:  The verdict on the Ayodhya title suit has been deferred by a week by the Supreme Court.  It was scheduled to be delivered tomorrow by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. The Supreme Court will hear the case again on Tuesday, September 28.  The verdict on the

US: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been named as the wealthiest person in the US for the 17th year in a row.Forbes magazine put his fortune at $54bn (£34.5bn), with investment guru Warren Buffet second with $45bn.Software tycoon Larry Ellison was in third place, while Wal-Mart heir

NEW YORK: Fidel Castro, the longtime president and leftist icon who stepped aside during a health crisis but still leads the Cuban Communist Party, has told a reporter that Israel definitely has the right to exist."Yes it does, without a doubt," Castro, 84, told visiting US journalist