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

DHAKA: Iraq`s prime minister has called for international help in his fight against armed Sunni Muslim groups amid continued violence across the country.Nouri al-Maliki, who leads a government dominated by Shia Muslims, gave warning of a long fight ahead as 75 people died in a series of

DHAKA: Egyptian officials have spoken of a high turnout in a referendum on a new constitution, with voters expected to endorse the removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.Top election official Nabil Salib told state TV that voter turnout was higher than in previous polls but gave no

DHAKA: A truck slammed into a bus bringing schoolchildren home from an outing in southern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least 17 pupils and three adults, police said.‘It was a head-on collision when the truck slammed into the school van on a single track dirt road. Apparently,

DHAKA: A policeman has been jailed for three years for picking up a saleswoman from a nightclub near Ibn Battuta Mall and having sex with her in his car against her will.The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the 25-year-old policeman, NH, from Comoros Islands, to three years with

DHAKA: US president Barack Obama has summoned Senate Democrats to the White House for a rare meeting on Wednesday as he seeks to head off a congressional rebellion that he fears could undermine his efforts at diplomacy with Iran.Just as US diplomats begin final-stage talks with Iran over

DHAKA: China has flight-tested a hypersonic missile delivery vehicle in a move that was scientific in nature and not targeted at any country.China defence ministry said on Wednesday, reports The Straits Times.A Chinese military build-up has raised regional jitters.Many countries in Asia