DHAKA: A strong earthquake of 6.8-magnitude has shaken parts of Mexico, causing buildings to sway in the capital.The US Geological Survey (USGS) said it was centered near the town of Tecpan de Galeana in southern Guerrero state, about 190 miles (300km) south-west of Mexico City.It was

DHAKA: A global team of experts reviewing data relating to the missing Malaysia Airlines jet will need at least two weeks to complete the task, an official said Thursday. “They are following best practice and they need to be thorough,” a spokeswoman for Australia’s Joint Agency

DHAKA: The head of general intelligence in eastern Libya was gunned down in the flashpoint city of Benghazi on Thursday. An intelligence source said, reports The Straits Times. Colonel Ibrahim al-Senussi Akila was shot dead near the Medical Centre in the city centre, the source told

DHAKA: A court in Pakistan has granted bail to an agent with the US FBI who was arrested for carrying ammunition while trying to board a flight in Karachi. The agent was released after paying a bail bond of 1 million rupees and handed to the US consulate. He was held under

DHAKA: India’s state air monitoring centre made a rare admission on Thursday that pollution in New Delhi was comparable with Beijing, but disputed a WHO finding that the Indian capital had the dirtiest atmosphere in the world. A study of 1,600 cities across 91 countries released on

DHAKA: Thailand’s former caretaker prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was on Thursday indicted by the nation’s anti-graft body for negligence in a state rice purchase scheme, putting her at risk of impeachment by the Senate. Yingluck was on Wednesday forced out of office by the

DHAKA: Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan pledged on Thursday to find more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist rebels, saying their rescue would mark ‘the beginning of the end of terrorism’ in the country. Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) being hosted in the capital

DHAKA: A 27-year-old man from near Tokyo has been arrested for allegedly possessing guns made with a 3D printer. Japan Broadcasting Corporation reports, says the BBC. Five guns, two of which could fire lethal bullets, and a 3D printer were seized from Yoshitomo Imura’s home, police

DHAKA: Prosecutors in South Korea have detained the head of a company that owned the ferry that sank last month with the loss of more than 300 lives. Chief executive of Chonghaejin Marine Kim Han-sik, 72, was taken into custody from his home on Thursday morning, reports the BBC.

DHAKA: Pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukraine have said they will not postpone a referendum on independence planned for Sunday. The decision comes one day after Russian president Vladimir Putin urged delaying the vote to create the conditions necessary for dialogue. But Ukrainian

DHAKA: Saudi Arabia has identified 18 new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers). It said late on Wednesday, pushing the total number of infections in the country so far to 449, The Straits Times publishes this report on Thursday. Four people died from the disease on

DHAKA: A large explosion in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo has destroyed a hotel and several other buildings. Syria state media and activists report, says the BBC. Rebel fighters are believed to have detonated a bomb placed in a tunnel beneath the Carlton Citadel Hotel, near the

DHAKA: US president Barack Obama issued a somber warning that the kidnapping of Nigerian girls and sectarian conflicts worldwide are a sign that ‘we have not extinguished man's darkest impulses’. Obama accepted a humanitarian award from director Steven Spielberg at the University of

DHAKA: Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a shooting by Taliban insurgents, has said the world must not stay silent over the abduction of more than 200 girls in Nigeria. She told the BBC that ‘if we remain silent then this will spread, this will happen more and

DHAKA: The US has spoken out over "dangerous conduct and intimidation" in the South China Sea, after ships from Vietnam and China collided in disputed waters. The collisions came as the Vietnamese ships tried to prevent China setting up an oil rig near the Paracel islands. The incident

DHAKA: Rising levels of CO2 around the world will significantly impact the nutrient content of crops according to a new study. Experiments show levels of zinc, iron and protein are likely to be reduced by up to 10% in wheat and rice by 2050. The scientists say this could have health

DHAKA: A Saudi court has imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi for 10 years for "insulting Islam" and setting up a liberal web forum, local media report. He was also sentenced to 1,000 lashes and ordered to pay a fine of 1 million riyals ($266,000; £133,000). Amnesty International called the

DHAKA: Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday asked pro-Kremlin separatists in southeastern Ukraine to postpone a series of disputed referendums planned for this weekend on declaring greater autonomy or outright independence from Kiev. ‘We ask the representatives of the

DHAKA: Archaeologists in southern Egypt have discovered a 5,600-year-old preserved tomb and mummy predating the First Dynasty of the pharaohs. The antiquities ministry said on Wednesday, reports The Straits Times. The tomb was built before the rule of king Narmer, the founder of the

DHAKA: Varanasi, the most hotly contested territory in this election, turned into a flashpoint Wednesday between the Election Commission and the BJP after the party’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, was refused permission for three events on Thursday. A seething BJP said