DHAKA: The White House has hired its first openly transgender staff member.The White House announced Raffi Freedman-Gurspan's appointment on Tuesday, reports abcnews.go.com. Freedman-Gurspan is an outreach and recruitment director for presidential personnel in the Office of Personnel.

DHAKA: Video footage has emerged of a key suspect police want to question in connection with the deadly bomb blast in the Thai capital Bangkok.The footage, from a CCTV camera, shows a man in a yellow shirt leaving a backpack in the Erawan Hindu shrine, reports the BBC.At least 20 people

DHAKA: Turkey’s prime minister says he has exhausted all options to form a coalition government after talks with the nationalist MHP failed, pushing the country closer to fresh elections.Ahmet Davutoglu said he would return the mandate to the president, reports the BBC.The main

DHAKA: Iran wants to work with other powers in the Middle East to promote peace following last month’s nuclear deal.The country’s vice-president Masumeh Ebtekar says in an interview with the BBC.Ebtekar stressed that Iran had a right to defend itself, but that it had no intention of

DHAKA: Indonesian rescuers have found the bodies of all 54 people who were onboard a Trigana Air plane that crashed in the western Papua region.The head of the search and rescue agency said his team had found the aircraft completely destroyed and partially burnt, reports the BBC.The plane

DHAKA: A bomb blast rocked a shrine at a major central Bangkok intersection during the evening rush hour Monday, the government said, reportedly killing around 27 people and injuring 78 others.At least two bombs were found at the scene, Maj. Gen. Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak, a spokesman

DHAKA: Egyptian authorities have opened the Rafah crossing with the besieged Gaza Strip, allowing Palestinians to travel in both directions for the first time in two months.The border crossing, Gaza’s only gateway to the outside world with no Israeli control, opened on Monday for four

DHAKA: A bomb has exploded close to a shrine in the centre of the Thai capital, Bangkok.Police say, reports the BBC.Local reports suggest at least 12 people have died and dozens have been injured.The BBC’s Jonathan Head, who is at the scene, says there is a huge amount of chaos, with

DHAKA: A bomb blast in central Bangkok is believed to have killed several people and injured many more.The chief of Thailand’s national police said the loud explosion in the country’s capital was caused by a bomb near a shrine.Local media reported that five people were dead and 20

DHAKA: Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in protests across Brazil calling for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.Support for Rousseff has fallen to single-digit figures in recent polls.Many voters have accused her of failing to stamp out corruption and blame her

DHAKA: The US military will drastically increase drone flights over the next four years, in a bid to boost intelligence and strike capabilities across a growing number of conflict zones.The Wall Street Journal has reported, says The Times of India.The Pentagon is planning to expand the

DHAKA: Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has approved stringent new counter-terrorism laws to fight a growing Islamist insurgency.The laws establish special courts and offer additional protection from legal consequences for military and police officers who have used force.They also

DHAKA: The wreckage of an Indonesian plane which went missing with 54 people on board has been found in the remote western Papua region, officials say.The Trigana Air flight lost contact at 14:55 local time (05:55 GMT) on Sunday as it flew from the provincial capital, Jayapura, to the

DHAKA: Sri Lankans are going to the polls in a general election, with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa aiming to return to office as prime minister.Rajapaksa lost the presidency in a snap election in January to Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena, reports bbc.comFour people have died

DHAKA: Syrian government warplanes attacked a busy market in a rebel-held suburb of the capital Damascus on Sunday, killing at least 82 people and wounding more than 200 in one of the deadliest single incidents involving government airstrikes since the crisis began nearly five years ago,

DHAKA: Pakistan’s Punjab province home minister Colonel (retd) Shuja Khanzada was killed in a suicide attack on his political office in Shadi Khan village, Attock, Sunday, along with 13 others.Punjab Inspector General Mushtaq Sukhera inspected the blast site later in the day and

DHAKA: An Indonesian plane with 54 people on board is missing in Papua region, officials have said.Contact was lost with the Trigana Air ATR 42 turboprop just before 15:00 local time (06:00 GMT) after take-off from Sentani airport in the regional capital Jayapura.The plane was en route to

DHAKA: A number of opposition figures in the Maldives have been hospitalized after police used pepper spray to suppress a demonstration calling for the release of jailed former president Mohamed Nasheed.Police stepped in after thousands of opposition protestors assembled at the Artificial

DHAKA: Unknown gunmen shot dead four policemen in an attack near Egypt capital Cairo on Saturday.Egypt state-run newspaper al-Ahram reported, said Al Jazeera.The masked assailants riding a motorbike opened fire at a security checkpoint in Giza, a city famed for the Pyramids, according to

DHAKA: Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned Russia not to ‘play with fire’ after reports emerged that Turkish businessmen had been detained in Russia.Moscow said it would suspend visa-free travel with Turkey, and its tourism agency head announced on Friday it will ask more