DHAKA: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has reacted defiantly to the UK`s call for an inquiry into alleged human rights abuses, saying "people in glass houses shouldn`t throw stones".He was speaking on the second day of the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka.British PM David Cameron

DHAKA: A 48-hour state of emergency has been declared in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, after a fresh wave of clashes broke out following a deadly protest against armed groups.At least one person was killed and dozens wounded in Saturday`s clashes that took place a day after more than 40

DHAKA: The president of Iraqi Kurdistan visited southeastern Turkey for the first time in two decades on Saturday, a trip meant to shore up support for a flagging Kurdish peace process there and bolster Turkey’s influence across its troubled southern borders.Thousands gathered as Masoud

DHAKA: Syrian forces went on the offensive on Saturday against rebels positioned along a major highway linking the capital with the coast, rebels said, a strategic road that is likely to be used to extract chemical weapons from the country.The road passes through the mountainous area of

DHAKA: Foreign Policy magazine reported that the United States and Iran could collaborate at a UN sponsored meeting in Geneva to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Syria.More than 2.5 million people have been cut off from the UN aid pipeline by the civil war conflict.Top officials from a

DHAKA: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday that Iran nuclear talks had eliminated the fundamental areas of disagreement and there was a real chance of reaching a deal next week.‘Our general impression is that there is a very good chance that must not be missed,’ the

DHAKA: Silvio Berlusconi said on Saturday his centre-right party could not support Italian prime minister Enrico Letta if he is expelled from parliament but that it did not have the numbers to bring the government down following the creation of a breakaway group by party rebels.The

DHAKA: UK prime minister David Cameron put Sri Lanka on notice on Saturday to address allegations of war crimes within months or else he would lead a push for action at the UN.Speaking at a troubled Commonwealth summit in Colombo, the British premier warned his hosts that pressure over

DHAKA: Russian police killed the main suspect in last month’s bombing of a bus in Volgograd and several other suspected militants in Dagestan on Saturday, media reports said.Five militants, including the husband of the suicide bomber who detonated the bus bomb, were killed in a shootout

DHAKA: China is not considering a broad relaxation of its strict one-child policy despite an easing of existing rules since it would be too disruptive.China health ministry said on Saturday, reports The Jerusalem Post.The government announced on Friday that it would allow millions of

DHAKA: At least 21 people, including seven women and six children, died when a goods truck carrying them overturned at Soudatti, in India’s Karnataka province.The truck was reportedly carrying almost 50 people, mostly tribal labourers from Yadgir in Karnataka on their way to work on

DHAKA: Two explosions have been heard in the Afghan capital, Kabul, near the compound where a security pact with the US is to be discussed.There was no word on casualties. Gunfire was also reported, according to a private TV channel, reports the BBC.The security pact governs the status of

DHAKA: There is a place where Snoopy frolics carefree with the scandalous Yellow Kid, where Pogo the possum philosophises alongside Calvin and Hobbes.It’s a place where Beetle Bailey loafs with Garfield the cat, while Krazy Kat takes another brick to the noggin, and brooding heroes

DHAKA: Tajikistan’s long-running president Emomali Rakhmon was inaugurated for a fourth term on Saturday, as he promised to alleviate the grinding poverty in the former Soviet country.Rakhmon, who has led Tajikistan since 1992, won November 6 polls with a landslide victory of 84 percent

DHAKA: The Pakistani government has imposed a rare curfew in the garrison city of Rawalpindi next to the capital after sectarian clashes during a Shia religious commemoration killed seven Sunni Muslims.Shoaib Bin Aziz, an official with the government of Punjab province where Rawalpindi is

DHAKA: Six people have been killed in severe flooding sweeping central Vietnam, local officials said on Saturday, amid concerns that the inundations could continue to worsen.Authorities have evacuated some 20,000 people as heavy rains pummelled the country from Quang Tri to Ninh Thuan

DHAKA: Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Saturday called on the Taliban and their allies to join an assembly on a security pact that could allow some US troops to stay in the country after 2014.Around 2,500 tribal elders and civil leaders are expected to take part in an assembly known as a

DHAKA: Russia on Saturday finally handed over a refurbished ex-Soviet aircraft carrier to India after a refit that overran by five years and went vastly over budget, damaging ties between the countries.Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin and Indian defence minister AK Antony took

DHAKA: A senior Sri Lankan minister rejected pressure on Saturday for an international probe into alleged war crimes at the end of the country`s civil war, saying the government would ‘definitely’ not allow it.‘Why should we have an internal inquiry? We will object to it ...

DHAKA: The British government has issued an unusually stark warning about a cyberscam that locks users out of their computers unless they pay a ransom, saying that tens of millions of people may soon be targeted.In a message headlined ‘URGENT ALERT’, Britain’s National Crime Agency