DHAKA: US state secretary John Kerry is in Brunei for meetings with top officials from China and its smaller Southeast Asian neighbours, in which he will urge all countries to cool tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.Kerry will make the case in Wednesday discussions

DHAKA: Iran will reportedly offer to stop enriching uranium to levels of 20% purity in upcoming talks with world powers in Geneva, as well as offer to open the country’s nuclear facilities to more intrusive international inspections.The Wall Street Journal cited officials as saying on

DHAKA: A court in eastern China on Wednesday allowed ousted former senior politician Bo Xilai to appeal against a life sentence handed out last month on crimes of corruption and abuse of power.Bo was a rising star in China’s leadership circles and cultivated a loyal following through

DHAKA: Six workers at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant were doused with radioactive water from a desalination system on Wednesday, the plant’s operator said.The fluid splashed onto the men when they accidently removed a pipe connected to the system, Tokyo Electric Power

DHAKA: Americans are fed up with the political deadlock in Washington and frustrated with how the federal government shutdown is interfering with everything from hunting season to weddings and even military funerals.The congressional approval rating dropped to 11 percent in a Gallup poll

DHAKA: Myanmar released 56 political prisoners in a presidential amnesty, the government`s official MRTV reported late Tuesday.The inmates were released from a dozen prisons, according to Tun Kyi, a member of government`s committee on political prisoners. Most were charged under an

DHAKA: The Pentagon has named Paul Lewis as its special envoy for closing the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the appointment on Tuesday.It was part of President Barack Obama`s renewed push to close the prison, which remains open

DHAKA: US President Barack Obama will nominate Federal Reserve Vice-Chair Janet Yellen to be the next head of the US central bank on Wednesday, according to a White House official.If confirmed by the US Senate, Ms Yellen would replace Ben Bernanke, who has held the post for eight

DHAKA: A well-known Iranian blogger and veteran activist says a court has sentenced him to six years in prison over security charges.Mahdi Khazali told media the sentence was for spreading ‘propaganda’ against the ruling establishment.He insists he did not break the law and will

DHAKA: The world’s oldest movie theatre, where the first films of the pioneering Lumiere brothers were screened in 1899, reopens in a sleepy southern French town on Wednesday after an extensive facelift.Gleaming, velvet seats replace dusty chairs, fresh yellow paint and mosaic tiles

DHAKA: Seven days after the Pakistani Taleban shot her in the head, Malala Yousafzai woke up confused in a place that wasn’t home.Her first thought? ‘Thank God I’m not dead.’Malala, whose campaign for girls’ right to education made her a Taliban target, describes the shooting

DHAKA: Egypt’s cabinet on Tuesday ordered authorities to remove the Muslim Brotherhood from the list of approved non-governmental organisations following a judicial order, state media reported.The move comes after an Egyptian court last month banned the Muslim Brotherhood from operating

DHAKA: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has replaced officials holding almost half of the nation’s key posts in an attempt to strengthen his control over the country.A South Korean report showed on Tuesday, reports The Straits Times.Kim has changed the officials filling 97 out of 218

DHAKA: Malaysia, in a rare out-of-court settlement, agreed Tuesday to pay an opposition lawmaker and five others US$63,000 after they were detained under a tough security law two years ago.The six members of the Socialist Party of Malaysia were arrested in 2011 and imprisoned for almost a

DHAKA: Libya’s prime minister Ali Zeidan said on Tuesday relations with the United States would not be affected by the US military raid to capture an al Qaeda suspect in Tripoli, but he said Libyan suspects should be tried in Libya.‘Our relationship with the USA is one of friendship

DHAKA: The Maldives Supreme Court on Monday annulled the results of the September 7 presidential election and scheduled a fresh vote by October 20, after a candidate challenged the outcome, citing irregularities.Four of seven judges approved the decision after the top court suspended the

DHAKA: Libyan militants have called for the kidnapping of American citizens in Tripoli and for attacks on gas pipelines, ships and planes to avenge the capture of a senior al-Qaida figure by US special forces in Libya last week.Nazih al-Ragye, better known by the cover name Abu Anas

DHAKA: Lebanon will reconsider the presence of Syrians in the country and check to see if they fit international standards of refugeesLebanon caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said Tuesday, reports TDS.‘We will re-examine the situation of every Syrian refugee on Lebanese territory

DHAKA: South Korean lawmakers say the country’s spy agency has told them that North Korea has restarted a plutonium reactor at its main nuclear facility.North Korea said in April it would restart the reactor but has not confirmed that it has done so. Recent satellite photos have shown

DHAKA: Francois Englert (University Libre de Bruxelles) & Peter W. Higgs (University of Edinburgh) have been awarded 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.They were awarded the prize for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass subatomic