DHAKA: Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying said on Sunday that the government will launch a new round of consultations on electoral reform shortly, following a weekend of violent clashes between police and pro-democracy activists calling for greater freedoms. Leung was speaking as police

DHAKA: Russia on Sunday successfully launched a Proton-M rocket carrying a satellite into orbit in the first such launch since one of the rockets fell back to Earth soon after liftoff in May. The Proton-M rocket lifted off on schedule from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12.23

DHAKA: The difficult process of disarming Philippine Muslim rebels after a decades-long insurgency has started, negotiators said on Sunday, with the decommissioning of a first batch of firearms expected before year-end. Philippine government and Muslim rebel negotiators started meeting

DHAKA: Rescuers have found 30 lifeless hikers near the peak of Mount Ontake, after Saturday’s sudden volcanic eruption.The hikers were not breathing and their hearts had stopped, reports said. Final confirmation of death in Japan always comes via a medical examination.About 250

DHAKA: Narendra Modi has used his first speech to the UN as India's prime minister to renew his country's call for reform of the Security Council (UNSC).UN institutions which reflected the imperatives of the 20th Century will not be effective in the 21st and should become more

DHAKA: Syrian militant group al-Nusra Front has denounced US-led air strikes as "a war against Islam".In an online statement, the al-Qaeda-linked group called on jihadists around the world to target Western and Arab countries involved, reports BBC. It comes as the US and other nations

DHAKA: A group linked to al-Qaeda has pledged retaliation over the ongoing air strikes in Syria as the US-led coalition widens its assault on ISIL targets in Syria and British warplanes fly their first combat missions over neighbouring Iraq.In its first reaction to the military

DHAKA: The leader of Hong Kong's Occupy Central pro-democracy movement has announced the launch of a mass disobedience campaign.Benny Tai addressed thousands who had gathered outside government headquarters in central Hong Kong, reports BBC.It comes a day after the arrests of more than 60

NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday highly appreciated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for maintaining stable situation in Bangladesh. He also expressed hope that the progress of Bangladesh would continue through this stability. The UN secretary general came

DHAKA: In his first address to the United Nations General Assembly, made in Hindi, India prime minister Narendra Modi said he was ready to engage in serious bilateral dialogue with Pakistan in a ‘peaceful atmosphere, without the shadow of terrorism’. The PM also said, ‘It is up to

DHAKA: Japan and Mexico will contribute troops to UN peacekeeping, a top UN official said Friday following a top-level meeting aimed at shoring up blue-helmet missions worldwide. Sweden announced plans to send 250 troops to join the UN force in Mali and China said it would send a

DHAKA: Two British jets were flying over Iraq and were ready to hit targets on Saturday, their first mission since parliament authorized strikes against Islamic State militants. Britain’s defense ministry said, reports The Jerusalem Post. A Reuters witness at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus

DHAKA: India’s Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa has been sentenced to four years in jail after she was found guilty of corruption by a Bangalore court, where she was present for the verdict. Jayalalithaa, who is 66, will most likely have to resign as chief minister, the Supreme

DHAKA: Myanmar’s national government has drafted a plan that will give around a million members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority a bleak choice: accept ethnic reclassification and the prospect of citizenship, or be detained. Most of Myanmar’s 1.1 million Rohingya

DHAKA: An Egyptian court postponed to November 29 its verdict on whether former president Hosni Mubarak ordered the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his three-decade rule. Before adjourning the hearing on Saturday, the judge said he and members of the prosecution

DHAKA: They were ‘fresh’ but eager to be militants after being recruited via Facebook just three months ago.Three would-be Malaysian militants, arrested at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Thursday, were enlisted into the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror group

DHAKA: A worker who had recently tried to convert colleagues to Islam beheaded one of them in a knife rampage after being dismissed from his job in Oklahoma State, Aljazeera reports. The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Alton Nolen, attacked another colleague with the knife before

DHAKA: The coalition is growing -- not just in words, but in action.Just over two weeks after U.S. President Barack Obama vowed "America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat" posed by ISIS, more than 50 countries have signed up, so far, to support the fight,

DHAKA: The US armed forces chief says Islamic State (IS) militants are being damaged by air strikes in Syria but air power alone is not enough to defeat them.Gen Martin Dempsey said a political solution and a ground campaign would both be needed in Iraq and Syria.Gen Dempsey said that

DHAKA: The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has passed 3,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.The latest figures indicate that more than 6,500 people are believed to have been infected in the region.Liberia is the worst affected country, having recorded around