DHAKA: Gary Bass, author of The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide, captured this year’s $75,000 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature at McGill. Chancellor Michael A. Meighen and Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi announced the winner Thursday night at a gala

DHAKA: Doubts are growing that Monday’s deadline for a deal on Iran's controversial nuclear program will be met at talks in Vienna in Austria. Both the US and Germany said the sides were working to close ‘big gaps’, with some suggestions that the deadline could be extended, reports

DHAKA: Teheran is ready to allow nuclear inspectors access to its Marivan military site, an Iranian official said Saturday, a facility long suspected of being used to develop explosive weapons.The declaration comes as Iran and six world powers hold talks in Vienna to reach a lasting

DHAKA: An earthquake with preliminary magnitude of 6.8 jolted central Japan on Saturday evening.The meteorological agency said, reports The Straits Times.Public broadcaster NHK said no tsunami warning had been issued.The quake struck at 10:08pm (local time), with its epicentre at a depth

DHAKA: Islamic State (IS) militants have killed 25 members of a Sunni Muslim tribe during their assault on a provincial capital west of Baghdad, local officials said on Saturday, in apparent revenge for tribal opposition to the extremists.They said the bodies of the men from the Albu

DHAKA: India on Saturday invited bids for a US$2.4-billion artillery deal while deferring a decision on acquiring 106 Swiss Pilatus aircraft for fighter pilot training.The bid for 814 mounted guns is the first big artillery tender in nearly three decades since the scandal-hit Swedish

DHAAK: Less than a month after electing a new parliament, Tunisians will vote Sunday in their first-ever open democratic presidential election, completing a tumultuous democratic transition begun with their revolution nearly four years ago.The front-runner, Beji Qaid Al Sebsi, who

DHAKA: Russia has 7,500 troops in the east of Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have been fighting government troops for months.Ukraine’s defence minister said, reports The Straits Times.‘Unfortunately, the stabilisation of the situation in the east of Ukraine does not depend

DHAKA: A 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck China’s south-western province of Sichuan on Saturday.The US Geological Survey said, reports The Straits Times.The quake struck 39 kilometres north-west of the city of Kangding in the mountainous west of the province at 4.55pm at a depth of

DHAKA: Suspected members of the Somali militant group al-Shabab have killed at least 28 people in an attack on a bus in northern Kenya.Officials say, reports the BBC.The bus was travelling to the capital, Nairobi, when it was stopped in Mandera county, near the Somali border.After

DHAKA: Talks on Iran’s nuclear programme are entering a crucial weekend in Vienna but there is no sign of a breakthrough as Monday’s deadline looms. The US admitted that ‘serious gaps do remain’, reports the BBC. But Secretary of State John Kerry did cancel plans to leave

DHAKA: An attorney for Osama bin Laden's son-in-law has been sentenced to 18 months in prison on tax charges. Stanley Cohen was sentenced Friday in federal court in Syracuse, New York, after pleading guilty to impeding the U.S. tax agency and failing to file tax returns, reports the abc

DHAKA: Across Pakistan, the black standard of the Islamic State has been popping up all over. From urban slums to Taliban strongholds, the militant group's logo and name have appeared in graffiti, posters and pamphlets, reports the India Times on Saturday. Moreover, last month, a

DHAKA: Hours after the White House publicly confirmed that President Obama will be the chief guest at India's Republic Day, the US president phoned Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to tell him that Washington values its ties with Islamabad. The mollifying phone call made from Air

DHAKA: Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena of Sri Lanka has announced to stand as the main opposition’s candidate against President Mahinda Rajapaksa in upcoming elections.“I thank the United National Party (UNP) for choosing me as the common opposition candidate,” said the

DHAKA: Thailand’s martial law will not be lifted for the foreseeable future despite an earlier pledge to lift the law in some provinces to help the tourism industry which has struggled since a military coup in May.The justice minister General Paiboon Koomchaya of Thailand said this on

DHAKA: Myanmar’s army has admitted a heavy weapons strike in strife-torn northern Kachin state that rebels say killed over 20 people.The government-backed media said Friday, as escalation of the fighting cast doubt over faltering peace talks.The military said its artillery hit a

DHAKA: At least eight militants have been killed in a US drone strike on a compound in Pakistan’s restive tribal region near the Afghan border.The CIA operated drone fired two missiles at the compound in Datta Khel area of North Waziristan Agency on Thursday killing eight terrorists,

DHAKA: Riot police forcibly cleared protesters from Mexico City’s main square late Thursday as outrage mounted over the case of dozens of missing students.A few minor scuffles broke out as police swept through the square, but the demonstrators left largely without incident.A short

DHAKA: Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dissolved parliament, paving the way for a snap election.Abe is seeking a new mandate for economic reforms and is delaying an unpopular increase in sales tax, reports the BBC.But opinion polls conducted by local media indicate low support for