DHAKA: An Indian diplomat who was arrested in New York City and accused of paying her housekeeper about $3 an hour had claimed the woman blackmailed her over the summer.An Indian official said Thursday, reports gulfnews.com.The case has sparked a diplomatic furore between the United

DHAKA: South Sudanese rebels have taken over a key town, the military has said, as fighting continues after Sunday’s reported coup attempt.‘Our soldiers have lost control of Bor to the force of Riek Machar,’ said army spokesman Philip Aguer, reports the BBC.President Salva Kiir has

DHAKA: Russian president Vladimir Putin praised the US role in forging an interim deal to ease concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme but said he hoped the blacklisting of additional Iranian companies under existing sanctions would not undermine progress toward a comprehensive

DHAKA: Syrian Kurds are demanding their own delegation separate from both the government and opposition at next month`s peace talks in Switzerland aimed at halting the conflict in Syria.Kurdish political leaders said on Thursday, reports The Jerusalem Post.The Kurds say they need

DHAKA: An Egyptian court on Thursday dropped the last outstanding corruption case against Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, Ahmed Shafik, judicial sources said, possibly clearing the way for him to return from self-imposed exile.The court referred the case back to the prosecutor,

DHAKA: The Muslim Brotherhood denounced the Egyptian authorities on Thursday for charging former president Mohamed Mursi and other Islamists with terrorism and conspiring with foreign groups, saying the allegations were ‘risible’.The Brotherhood also reiterated calls for all nations

DHAKA: A United Nations panel probing war crimes in Syria says people around the country are systematically vanishing without a trace as part of a widespread campaign of terror against civilians.The expert panel says it found ‘a consistent country-wide pattern’ of Syrian security,

DHAKA: India’s foreign minister has demanded that the United States drop a case against an Indian diplomat who was strip-searched after being arrested in New York City.Dr Deyvani Khobragade was accused of paying her Indian housekeeper far less than she had claimed on a visa

DHAKA: A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt among Shia pilgrims in Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 17 people, while militants shot dead a family of five.Iraq officials said, reports TDS.The attack on the pilgrims in the Dura area of south Baghdad took place at a tent where

DHAKA: A Tibetan monk set himself on fire in northwest China on Thursday, state media said, in what Tibetan media described as a suicide in protest against Chinese policies.The monk, 43, ‘committed self-immolation’, in Gansu province, which has a heavy ethnic Tibetan population,

DHAKA: A Saudi court has jailed a man for 15 years after convicting him of recruiting 14 nationals to join Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in neighbouring Yemen.Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Thursday, says The Straits Times.A Riyadh court specialised in security cases convicted the unnamed Saudi

DHAKA: Tokyo’s governor, one of the main faces of the mega-city’s successful bid to host the 2020 Olympics, resigned December 19 after admitting he was naive for accepting an undeclared $500,000 from a hospital tycoon.Naoki Inose, who was elected head of one of the world’s biggest

DHAKA: China is to send a military ship to help protect a specially adapted US vessel that will destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.China foreign ministry said on Thursday, reports The Jerusalem Post.Syria is due to hand over deadly toxins which can be used to make sarin, VX gas

DHAKA: The sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela’s memorial, who claimed schizophrenia after being accused of being an arm-flapping fraud, has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital.South African media reported on Thursday, says Times of India.Thamsanqa Jantjie sparked outrage

DHAKA: Iran can resume 20 percent uranium enrichment in less than 24 hours, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said a day before the resumption of talks in Vienna on how to implement an interim nuclear deal aimed at temporarily freezing Iran’s nuclear programme.Zarif told

DHAKA: Europe is about to launch the Gaia satellite - one of the most ambitious space missions in history.The 740m-euro (£620m) observatory is going to map the precise positions and distances to more than a billion stars, reports BBC.This should give us the first realistic picture of how

DHAKA:  Nearly 1,000 men were killed over a two-day period this month in the Central African Republic, according to Amnesty International.The human rights group said Wednesday that war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in that country, reports CNN."Crimes that have

DHAKA: The US Federal Reserve has announced a slowdown in its effort to boost the US economy.The central bank said it planned to scale back its $85bn (£51.8bn) a month bond buying programme by $10bn a month, reports BBC.Stimulus of this kind is designed to lower interest rates and boost

DHAKA: US Secretary of State John Kerry has called a top Indian official to express his regret over the treatment of an Indian diplomat arrested in New York on suspicion of visa fraud.Deputy consul general Devyani Khobragade was handcuffed and strip-searched last week.Mr Kerry spoke to

DHAKA: Egypt’s deposed president Mohamed Mursi will be tried on charges of ‘espionage’ that aided acts of ‘terrorism’.Egypt state media reported on Wednesday, reports The Straits Times.Mursi, an Islamist who the military toppled in July after a single year of turbulent rule, is