DHAKA: South Sudan`s government and rebels have signed a ceasefire agreement after talks in Ethiopia.Under the deal, signed in a hotel in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the fighting is due to come to an end within 24 hours.In the past week, government forces have recaptured the two

DHAKA: As many as 31 elderly Canadians are unaccounted for and five are confirmed dead after a fire destroyed an old people`s home in Quebec of Cananda.Prime Minister Stephen Harper said there was little doubt the loss of life at Residence du Havre in L`Isle-Verte would be

DHAKA: Egyptian interim prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi said on Thursday he backed General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for president, one of the highest-level endorsements for a widely expected presidential bid by the army chief.General Sisi, who deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July

DHAKA: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said after international talks in Switzerland that the rival Syrian delegations said they would sit down for direct talks on Friday and that they should start with confidence-building measures.Lavrov, who said he held talks with Syrian foreign

DHAKA: Ukrainian opposition leaders have issued an ultimatum to president Viktor Yanukovych, after talks failed to resolve the political stalemate.Vitali Klitschko said he would lead pro-EU protesters ‘on the attack’ in the capital, Kiev, if the government refused to call snap

DHAKA: Thailand’s Constitutional Court said it would decide on Thursday whether to accept a case against holding February 2 election that would almost certainly extend the government’s shaky grip on power as protesters try to force it from office. The government declared a 60-day

DHAKA: Five policemen have been killed in Egypt in an armed attack on a checkpoint south of Cairo.Egypt interior ministry has said, reports the BBC.Two others were injured, one seriously, in the attack in Beni Suef province, some 100km from the capital.Two men riding motorcycles ‘opened

DHAKA: Police in India`s West Bengal have held 13 people in connection with a gang rape of a woman allegedly on orders of village elders who objected to her relationship with a man.The 20-year-old woman has been admitted to a hospital in a critical condition, reports BBC.Unofficial courts

DHAKA: The biggest union in South Africa`s platinum sector has called a strike over pay, the biggest in the sector since the 2012 Marikana massacre.On that occasion 34 protesting miners taking part in an illegal wage protest were gunned down by police, reports BBC.Thursday`s strike over

DHAKA: UN mediator for Syrian peace talks Lakhdar Brahimi is to hold separate talks with rival delegations to assess their willingness to meet together.The behind-the-scenes negotiations follow the first day of a major peace conference in Switzerland which ended in bitter divisions,

DHAKA: In his final moments, 8-year-old Tyler Doohan managed to rescue six people -- including two younger children -- from a burning mobile home in upstate New York, authorities said.A last-ditch effort, however, to save his disabled grandfather cost the boy his life. His body was found

DHAKA: Washington on Wednesday upped the ante against the Syrian regime, denouncing its ‘inflammatory rhetoric’ at the opening of key peace talks and dismissing claims of improved aid access as ‘laughable’.‘Instead of laying out a positive vision for the future of Syria that is

DHAKA: India union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday called Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal a ‘mad chief minister’, saying he had to cancel the leave of several policemen because of Kejriwal.India TV channels reported, says Hindustan Times.Speaking at an event in

DHAKA: Talks in Switzerland between Syria’s government and its enemies to end the country’s three years of civil war are unlikely to be successful, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday.Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported, says The Jerusalem Post.‘Because of the

DHAKA: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said it was the main task of the Syria peace conference that opened in Switzerland on Wednesday ‘to achieve an end to the tragic conflict’ and prevent a spillover to other countries in the region. Lavrov, in his opening remarks, called on

DHAKA: New Yorkers awoke Wednesday morning to the sound of plows clearing the streets.In Washington, federal workers got in a few extra zzz’s. And in Boston, parents scrambled to make other arrangements as kids enjoyed a snow day.The heaviest snowfall of the season has blanketed the

DHAKA: Syrian foreign minister Walid Muallem called the country’s opposition ‘traitors’ and foreign ‘agents’ as a peace conference opened in Switzerland on Wednesday.‘They claim to represent the Syrian people,’ Muallem said in opening remarks, reports The Straits Times.‘If

DHAKA: US state secretary John Kerry said during opening statements at the Geneva 2 summit that there is no way current Syrian president Bashar Assad can be part of a new transitional government.Kerry added that Assad cannot regain legitimacy to govern in Syria, reports The Jerusalem

DHAKA: Defiant Thai opposition protesters vowed to ignore a state of emergency that came into force across the tense capital on Wednesday, refusing to abandon their fight to bring down the government.Thailand prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is under intense pressure to step down after

DHAKA: A Taliban commander was killed in Pakistan’s tribal area of North Waziristan on Tuesday in military strikes.Geo News reported, says NDTV.Adnan Rashid was killed in military strikes, said security sources. But the Taliban denied the report.Earlier on Tuesday, military jets and