DHAKA: New Zealand prime minister John Key said on Wednesday he supported changing the national flag, but would hold a referendum before any decision was made to ditch the existing banner.The current flag has attracted criticism because one corner features the Union Jack, the symbol of

DHAKA: Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has criticised national broadcaster ABC for ‘taking everyone’s side but Australia’s’.Abbott said the publicly-funded broadcaster should show ‘some basic affection for the home team’, reports the BBC.The ABC has been at the forefront

DHAKA: President Barack Obama told Americans that 2014 should be the year to finally close the US prison at Guantanamo Bay as the United States winds down its military role in Afghanistan and shifts away from a "permanent war footing".In his annual State of the Union address on Wednesday,

DHAKA: Seven people were killed in Maharashtra when a luxury bus caught fire after colliding with a diesel tanker on the highway, late on Tuesday night.Fourteen others were injured in the accident, which took place at around 1 am near Manor on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, when most

DHAKA: India’s opposition criticised ruling party leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday for avoiding any expression of regret for the killings of Sikhs in riots three decades ago, a sensitive issue that threatens to dog him in a tight election due by May.Gandhi said the government led by his

DHAKA: Former India captain and current Lok Sabha MP Mohammed Azharuddin, in all likelihood, would contest the upcoming election from a constituency in West Bengal.Azharuddin, who formally joined Congress in February 2009, had contested from Moradabad in western Uttar Pradesh in the last

DHAKA: Ex-Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic has refused to testify after former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic called him as a defence witness at his war crimes trial at The Hague.Denouncing the UN tribunal as ‘satanic’, Mladic said testifying could prejudice his own case,

DHAKA: India is set to become the first country since World War II to buy a military aircraft from Japan, helping prime minister Shinzo Abe end a ban on weapons exports that has kept his country’s defence contractors out of foreign markets. The two countries are in broad agreement on a

DHAKA: Thailand’s government vowed on Tuesday to push ahead with controversial elections this weekend, despite threats by opposition protesters to disrupt the polls in an attempt to stop the ruling party returning to power.The announcement came after talks between prime minister

DHAKA: Ukraine prime minister Mykola Azarov resigned on Tuesday in a bid to defuse the country’s deadly crisis and preserve its unity, finally giving into months of pressure from street protesters.Azarov said he had taken a ‘personal decision’ to resign to preserve Ukraine’s unity

DHAKA: The trial of Egypt’s former Islamist president Mohammed Mursi over his escape from prison in 2011 has begun, state media say.He was taken to the court in Cairo by helicopter from a prison in Alexandria, Mena news agency reports, says the BBC.Mursi, Egypt’s first freely-elected

DHAKA: Rahul Gandhi, whose family have dominated post-independence politics in India, forecast an unlikely victory for his beleaguered Congress party in upcoming elections as he gave his first ever television interview on Monday.The 43-year-old, the ruling Congress party’s de facto

DHAKA: When a 39-year-old furniture factory owner named He came down with flu symptoms late last year, he wasn’t worried.According to his family, the man, who worked in Guangdong province in southern China, had always been healthy, reports CNN.Weeks later, He was on a ventilator.

DHAKA: The son of the assassinated former prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, has called on the country’s authorities to take military action against militant groups.Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said politicians must ‘wake up’ to the threat posed by armed groups such as the

DHAKA: The UN Security Council has approved a resolution urging countries to stop paying ransoms to terrorist groups.The UK-drafted resolution is designed to put pressure on governments, reports BBC.The British UN ambassador said al-Qaida-linked groups had made at least $105m (£63m; 77m

DHAKA: Retired defence chief Peter Cosgrove has been nominated as Australia`s next governor-general by Prime Minister Tony Abbott.The ceremonial role, as representative of Queen Elizabeth II, involves opening parliament, giving assent to laws and receiving official visitors.Cosgrove will

DHAKA: Italian police are hunting for a stolen holy relic that contains the blood of Pope John Paul ll.It appears to have been taken during the burglary of a small chapel that was a place of special significance to the late Pope.The church of San Pietro della Ienca lies in an isolated

DHAKA: Radiation levels in and around the Fukushima nuclear power plant are starting to be measured by drones.Special unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been created by Japanese Atomic Energy Agency and the Japanese Space Exploration Agency.The machines are controlled with the use of a

DHAKA: BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Monday called Rahul Gandhi Congress’ prime ministerial candidate in ‘purdah’ (veil), questioning why the party’s campaign centres around him even when he is not the official candidate for the top post.‘...the campaign is centred around one

DHAKA: Ukraine’s main opposition parties said on Monday they were ready to continue talks with president Viktor Yanukovych’s government.The also warned that the patience of protesters in the streets could ‘snap’ at any moment, reports The Straits Times.Opposition leaders said in a