DHAKA: North Korea’s top military body on Thursday piled fresh pressure on South Korea to cancel planned military drills with the United States, even as Seoul insisted the exercises would go ahead.In a statement carried by the North’s official KCNA news agency, the National Defence

DHAKA: Pakistan’s embattled former military dictator Pervez Musharraf has refused to leave the country on ‘medical grounds’ until he is given ‘clean chit’ in high treason and other cases, according to a close aide.Contrary to the impression that ‘Musharraf’s illness drama’

DHAKA: Ugandan troops are fighting alongside South Sudan government forces against rebels.Uganda president Yoweri Museveni has confirmed, reports the BBC.He said the combined forces had defeated rebels in a ‘big battle’ north of the capital Juba.Museveni said some Ugandans had been

DHAKA: Ahead of the crucial AICC session on Friday, India minister Oscar Fernandes said Rahul Gandhi is Congress candidate for prime minister even as suspense remains on whether the party will formally anoint him as PM nominee for the Lok Sabha polls. ‘Whether he (Rahul) accepts or

DHAKA: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an unannounced visit to neighbouring Jordan on Thursday for talks with King Abdullah II on the Middle East peace process.Kingdom’s palace officials said, reports The Straits Times.The rare meeting in Amman comes as US state secretary

DHAKA: The Vatican is being confronted publicly for the first time over the sexual abuse of children by clergy, at a UN hearing in Geneva.The Church was asked why it continued to describe such abuse as an offense against morals rather than a crime against children.Archbishop Silvano

DHAKA: Iran wants to take part in next week’s international peace conference on Syria but will not attend if conditions are set for its participation.Iran foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday, reports The Straits Times.The United States says Iranian delegates should be

DHAKA: The head of the world’s chemical weapons watchdog on Thursday prepared to outline plans for the destruction of Syria’s arsenal, including a transfer operation in an Italian port that has already sparked controversy.Ahmet Üzümcü, director general of the Hague-based

DHAKA: Nigeria’s top military chiefs have been sacked by president Goodluck Jonathan, his spokesman Reuben Abati has said.No reason was given but the dismissals come amid growing concern about the military’s failure to end the Islamist-led insurgency in northern Nigeria.Abati said Air

DHAKA: Indian police carried out raids across New Delhi on Thursday as they hunted for a further six men wanted over the gang-rape of a Danish tourist which has put the country’s record on sexual violence back into the spotlight.Police announced the arrest of two homeless men late on

DHAKA: Australians sweltering through an extreme heatwave were warned on Thursday that the worst was yet to come, with hundreds of fires raging in several states and temperatures nearing record highs.Most of south-east Australia has been in the grips of a scorching heatwave that triggered

DHAKA: A top Chinese military officer was arrested for corruption after lining his pockets with kickbacks and buying dozens of homes, a gilded statue of Mao Zedong, and a ‘golden boat’.Gu Junshan, a former lieutenant general and deputy logistics chief with great influence within the

DHAKA: A car bomb has exploded in northeastern Lebanon, killing four people and wounding 26 others.The bomb went off near a local government building in the centre of Hermel, a town at the northern end of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in a predominantly Shia Muslim area, shattering windows and

DHAKA: Thailand’s government pleaded with police on Thursday to arrest opposition protest leaders who have threatened to take the prime minister captive and paralysed parts of central Bangkok.Officials said the demonstrators’ self-styled ‘shutdown’ of Bangkok, aimed at forcing

DHAKA: At least 13 people have been killed and 40,000 have fled their homes after torrential rain triggered flash floods and landslides on Indonesia’s northern Sulawesi island.Indonesia officials said on Thursday, reports The Straits Times.Rivers on the island’s northern tip

DHAKA: US president Barack Obama has declared 2014 as the year of action to accomplish his key administrative goals and said he would continue to use his executive authority, his pen and phone, to get things done.‘This has to be a year of action,’ Obama said at an event in North

DHAKA: The trial of four men accused of murdering former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri has begun at an unprecedented tribunal at The Hague.The four, alleged members of the Syria-backed militant Shia movement Hezbollah, have not been arrested and are being tried in absentia, reports the

DHAKA: Three members of the Russian security forces and four armed fighters are reported to have died in a shootout during a sweep for armed groups who have threatened to attack the Winter Olympics that begin in Sochi next month.Wednesday`s deadly shootout occurred in a house in the

DHAKA: The two Pakistanis who were sentenced to death on charges of attempting to smuggle heroin into the Kingdom were executed on Tuesday.The Ministry of Interior confirmed their execution and said in a statement that Abrar Hussein was arrested while trying to smuggle heroin stuffed in

DHAKA: At least 61 people were killed and scores wounded Wednesday in the latest wave of attacks in the Iraqi capital and across the country.Bombings and shootings, aimed at security forces and civilians alike, made it an especially bloody day as sectarian violence flared up, reports