DHAKA: Italian prime minister Enrico Letta on Monday hailed Iranian president Hassan Rouhani’s diplomatic opening as ‘an opportunity’ that should not be passed up and said Iran could help resolve the conflict in Syria.‘I think it would be in everyone’s interests to bet on the

DHAKA: Yemen has reopened its international airports after a brief closure on Monday due to a strike by workers at the civil aviation authority.The transport minister told state news agency Saba, reports Al Arabiya.Airports were closed earlier in the day as workers went on strike in

DHAKA: Officially pacifist Japan will waive its customary restrictions on arms exports to supply ammunition to South Korean peacekeepers in South Sudan, where fierce fighting has broken out.Reports said on Monday, according to The Straits Times.Japanese peacekeepers engaged in non-combat

DHAKA: A former British legislator and Cabinet minister has been sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to making nearly 13,000 pounds in bogus expense claims.Denis MacShane, who served as Europe minister under former prime minister Tony Blair, admitted to filing 19 fake

DHAKA: Syrian army helicopters have killed at least 56 people, including children, by dropping ‘barrel bombs’ on the northern city of Aleppo, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Sunday’s air raids targeted Aleppo’s Masaken Hanano neighbourhood,

DHAKA: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has become the second member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot freed from prison under a new amnesty law.Band member Maria Alyokhina was freed earlier on Monday in Nizhny Novgorod.Alyokhina said the amnesty was a ‘PR stunt’ ahead of the Winter Olympics and

DHAKA: The campaign against Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving has shifted tactics to increasingly challenge the law ahead of a new nationwide day of defiance on December 28.Women activists are now driving weekly and documenting their confrontations with law enforcement on social media

DHAKA: Former US president Jimmy Carter on Monday proposed three principles as a basis for Syria peace talks in Geneva: free elections, respect for their results and the deployment of peacekeepers.Syria peace talks are set to begin in Switzerland on January 22, though the full list of

DHAKA: India and the US may be moving towards a resolution of the stand-off over senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade’s case, with the envoy getting exemption from personal appearance in a New York Court hearing visa fraud charges against her even as she got her accreditation to the UN

DHAKA: Anti-government demonstrators in Thailand have surrounded the stadium where candidates were due to register to stand in February’s elections.They say political reform is needed before elections take place, reports the BBC.On Sunday, tens of thousands took to the streets of

DHAKA: Thousands of people thronged Japan’s Imperial Palace on Monday to celebrate emperor Akihito’s 80th birthday, as he lauded his wife for standing by him in his ‘lonely’ pursuit of leading the world’s oldest monarchy.Empress Michiko, a wealthy flour magnate’s daughter, was

DHAKA: Dubai police have made a record drug seizure of some 4.6 million Captagon pills, an amphetamine-like stimulant, worth more than $31 million.The local press reported Monday, says TDS.Dubai’s police chief, Major General Khamis Mattar al-Mazeina, said the ‘outstanding operation’

DHAKA: A UN official in South Sudan has spoken of an atmosphere of fear and desperation as violence escalates.Humanitarian Co-ordinator Toby Lanzer told the BBC about summary executions in Bor, in the restive state of Jonglei that has fallen to rebels.The UN mission in South Sudan has

DHAKA: Maria Alyokhina, a member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, has been freed early from prison under an amnesty.She told a Russian TV channel the amnesty was a ‘PR stunt’ and she would rather have remained in prison, reports the BBC.The release of fellow band member Nadezhda

DHAKA: A new anti-corruption party in India has announced it will form the government in the capital, Delhi.Arvind Kejriwal, former civil servant and leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), or Common Man`s party, will be the new chief minister, the party said.The government will be sworn in

DHAKA: At least eight people are dead after a bizarre mix of weather across the country spawned tornadoes, ice storms and record-setting warmth this weekend.Four of the deaths involved two vehicle accidents in Kentucky. Three people drowned in the Rolling Fork River near New Hope when a

DHAKA: About 100,000 people rallied in Ukraine`s capital to demand the ouster of the president and his Cabinet as mass anti-government protests entered their second month.Sunday`s rally was the latest in a series of rallies sparked by President Viktor Yanukovych`s decision last month to

DHAKA: A secret CIA programme helped Colombia kill at least two dozen FARC leaders, The Washington Post has reported.Washington`s covert help in targeting Latin America`s oldest insurgency, funded through a multibillion-dollar black budget, also includes "substantial eavesdropping help"

DHAKA: An unmarked mass grave has been found in Sri Lanka’s former war zone, the first discovery of an unmarked gravesite since troops defeated Tamil rebels more than four years ago, police said on Sunday.Construction workers in the coastal district of Mannar stumbled on at least 10

DHAKA: Saudi King Abdullah on Sunday appointed his son Prince Mishaal as governor of Mecca Province, one of the most prominent jobs in the country, the latest move in a rolling reshuffle of senior ruling family members over the past two years. He replaces Prince Khaled al-Faisal, who has