DHAKA: Jihadists who overran Mosul last month have demolished ancient shrines and mosques in and around the historic northern Iraqi city. Residents and social media posts said on Saturday, reports The Straits Times. At least four shrines to Sunni Arab or Sufi figures have been

DHAKA: An Iranian pilot has been killed while fighting in Iraq, state media reported Saturday, in what is thought to be Tehran’s first military casualty during battles against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) jihadists. Iran’s official IRNA news agency did not say whether the

DHAKA: A suicide car bomb has killed at least four people near Somalia’s parliament, police and Somali media say. Reports say the bomb went off outside the main gate of parliament after guards shot at the bomber, according to the BBC. One report quoted al-Shabab militants praising the

DHAKA: A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck western Indonesia on Saturday, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The quake struck at 4.39pm (0939 GMT) at a depth of 30 kilometres, 88 kilometres southeast

DHAKA: Saudi-owned al-Arabia television said on Saturday that two suspected al Qaida militants who had been surrounded inside a government building in southern Saudi Arabia after an attack on a border post with Yemen blew themselves up early on Saturday. The satellite channel gave no

DHAKA: Initial autopsy findings from the body of a Palestine youth from east Jerusalem who was kidnapped and killed by far-right Jews showed that he was burned alive. The Palestinian attorney-general is reported as saying, The Jerusalem Post. ‘The direct cause of death was burns as a

DHAKA: An Egyptian court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie and 36 other Islamists to life in prison Saturday, and confirmed death sentences for 10 others, most of them on the run. Badie, convicted of involvement in deadly protests, had already received death sentences in

DHAKA: Most of pro-Russian rebels and their top commander had fled their eastern stronghold of Slavyansk in Kiev’s biggest success of the nearly three-month campaign. Ukraine’s interior minister said on Saturday, reports The Straits Times ‘This morning, intelligence reported that

DHAKA: Aung San Suu Kyi’s Myanmar opposition party faced calls to inject new blood into its ageing top ranks as it opened a landmark conference on Saturday dedicated to its youth wing. The Nobel Peace Prize winner’s National League for Democracy (NLD), founded after a bloody

DHAKA: A special Air India flight with 137 people on board, including the 46 nurses freed by insurgents in Iraq, arrived in Kochi on Saturday morning at 11.57 am, spelling relief for the Indian government and families of the stranded Indians. The plane reached Mumbai at 8.47am for

DHAKA: More than 400 trucks carrying fuel and oil were burning on roads west of Kabul, Afghanistan, police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanekzai said Saturday. Emergency crews tried to contain the damage, he said. Residents and local news reporters posted images online of a line of red fire

DHAKA: The German authorities have summoned the US ambassador in Berlin after a man was arrested on suspicion of spying. The US diplomat "was asked to help in the swift clarification" of the case, the foreign ministry said. German officials confirmed the arrest but released no other

DHAKA: Some 46 Indian nurses who were freed by militants in war-torn Iraq have returned on Saturday.     Indian newspapers published the report quoting Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.    But fate of 10 Bangladeshi nurses, who were with the 46 Indian women in Iraq, is unknown as

DHAKA: All 46 Indian nurses held captive by Sunni insurgents in Iraq have been freed and will return to India on Saturday. The nurses are with Indian officials and are being taken to Erbil airport, from where they will return to Kerala on a special flight. Kerala chief minister Oommen

DHAKA: Hamas has offered to halt its rocket attacks if Israel stops its air raids on the Gaza Strip. A source with the Palestinian militant group said Egyptian intelligence officials had brokered a potential ceasefire, after escalating clashes. Israel says sporadic shelling from Gaza

DHAKA: At least 17 suspected militants were killed Thursday in security raids in Rafah city of Egypt’s North Sinai province.A security source confirmed the matter, reports the New Indian Express.Egyptian troops killed 12 militants, who are believed to be members of Al Qaeda-inspired

DHAKA: An Indian passenger train set a new speed record of 160 kilometres an hour (100 miles an hour) on Thursday during a test between Indian capital city of New Delhi and Agra, reports Times of India. Thursday's test, part of Indian government's plans to upgrade the ageing rail

DHAKA: The UK drew up plans to train and equip a 100,000-strong Syrian rebel army to defeat President Bashar al-Assad, BBC Newsnight can reveal. The secret initiative, put forward two years ago, was the brainchild of the then most senior UK military officer, General Sir David Richards.

DHAKA: Hurricane Arthur, packing winds of 100mph, has made landfall in the US state of North Carolina, as thousands abandon their 4 July holiday plans. The first hurricane of the season, now a Category 2 storm, reached land between Cape Lookout and Beaufort at 23:15 local time (03:15

DHAKA: The extremist Sunni militant group that recently declared a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq wrested control of a major Syrian oil field in a sweeping land grab Thursday. A string of villages and towns along the Euphrates River fell like dominoes to the Islamic State in Iraq