DHAKA: Australian prime minister Tony Abbott said on Monday it was unclear if the siege at a Sydney cafe, where hostages are being held, was politically motivated. ‘We don’t yet know if this is politically motivated, although there are some indications that it might be,’ Abbott

DHAKA: Japan’s ruling coalition has won a new two-thirds majority in parliamentary elections seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic policy.Japanese media reported that Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) retained its House of Representatives majority.The

DHAKA: At least 40 people have been taken hostage by at least one armed man at a Lindt cafe in the centre of Sydney on Monday.Lindt Australia executive says there are about 10 staff and up to 30 customers trapped in the cafe. Hundreds of armed police have sealed off the normally busy

DHAKA:  At least ten people were charred to death and another 12 got injured when a gas tanker caught fire and exploded after being hit by a truck on a highway near Beelpur village, 35 kilometers from here, late on Saturday night.The condition of two people among the injured is

DHAKA: At least 129 people drowned after a boat capsized on Thursday night on Lake Tanganyika in the south-east of Democratic Republic of Congo.A new official death toll said, The Straits Times publishes this report on Sunday.‘Rescue workers recovered a total of 129 bodies,’ an

DHAKA: Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe won comfortable re-election on Sunday in a snap poll he had billed as a referendum on his economic policies after early success faded into a recession.But a low turnout from unenthusiastic voters beset by a heavy snowfall could cast doubt on

DHAKA: Turkish police on Sunday launched a sweeping operation to arrest supporters of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rival, US-exiled imam Fethullah Gulen, including a raid on the offices of the Zaman daily, which is close to the cleric.Anti-terrorism police conducted early

DHAKA: Thousands of people have marched through the US capital, Washington DC, to protest against the recent killings of unarmed black people by police. Relatives of Michael Brown, shot dead in the Missouri town of Ferguson, and Eric Garner, who died being restrained in New York, were

DHAKA: Millions of Japanese people are voting in a snap election called by prime minister Shinzo Abe to boost support for his economic reforms. Voters will be choosing who sits in the 475-seat lower house of Japan’s parliament, the Diet. Recent surveys show Abe’s coalition is likely

DHAKA: United Nations members have reached an agreement to tackle climate change after negotiations ran into the weekend in the Peruvian capital Lima. The president of the meeting said delegates had approved a framework for setting national pledges. Details of a final deal are due to be

DHAKA: Heathrow Airport cancelled 38 flights on Saturday as it recovered from a computer glitch that wreaked havoc with the London airport system, the world’s busiest hub.‘There are 38 flights cancelled today as a result of yesterday (computer fault),’ said a Heathrow spokesman,

DHAKA: The UN has agreed to Sri Lanka’s request to delay a long-awaited report into alleged atrocities committed during the country’s 26-year civil war.The UN rights chief said he recommended the deferral of the report until September ‘to allow for a stronger and more

DHAKA: A Japanese woman has told Indian police she was raped by a tourist guide in the historic northern city of Jaipur, in the latest sex attack on a foreigner.An officer said Monday, reports The Straits Times.‘We have received a complaint from a Japanese tourist alleging rape by a

DHAKA: Hundreds of thousands voted with enthusiasm Saturday in a fiercely contested assembly election in Delhi of India in which both the BJP and AAP claimed victory.While balloting was initially slow in middle and upper middle class areas, polling centres in low income neighbourhoods

DHAKA: The leaders of Russia, France and Germany have agreed to work on a peace plan for the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and, in this regard, they are going to talk with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko over telephone on Sunday.According to a report, published on the BBC, Russian

DHAKA: Voters across Delhi in India have already gathered at different booths to cast their ballot as voting is going on for the 70-member Assembly election 2015 on Saturday.The election has become a high-profile battle, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi coming out vocally against the

DHAKA: China's authorities have seized 7,600 toilet rolls and 20,000 packets of tissue printed with the image of Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung.Hong Kong's Democratic Party, which had planned to sell the novelty items at a fair next week, called the seizure a violation of freedom

DHAKA: The United States has invited the leaders of China and Japan for prestigious state visits, President Barack Obama's top security adviser said on Friday (Feb 6), signalling a deepening of his "pivot to Asia"."In furtherance of our relationships throughout this vital region, I'm

DHAKA: Indonesian search and rescue officials evacuated one of two bodies from the cockpit of the crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 late on Friday (Feb 6) afternoon.The pilots' heavily decomposed bodies still had their airline uniforms on and were strapped to their seats. The cockpit was

DHAKA: Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday he would honour a promise of US$200 million in aid to countries affected by IS, after the group threatened to kill Japanese hostages.‘This posture will not change at all,’ he told a Jerusalem news conference on the latest leg