DHAKA: The Syrian government has been ‘deliberately and unlawfully’ demolishing thousands of homes.A new report by Human Rights Watch says, reports the BBC.Satellite images appear to show large-scale demolitions with explosives and bulldozers in opposition strongholds in Damascus and

DHAKA: US president Barack Obama and Jordan’s King Abdullah will discuss Syria and the Middle East at a February 14 summit at a retreat in California.The White House said on Wednesday, reports The Jerusalem Post.Obama had met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the same location last June,

DHAKA: Militants stormed an office of Iraq’s human rights ministry in northeast Baghdad on Thursday and took a number of civil servants hostage.Iraq security officials said, reports The Straits Times.The attack was mounted by eight armed men, said police and an interior ministry

DHAKA: The US Justice Department will decide this week whether to seek the death penalty for suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, accused of setting off two pressure-cooker bombs at the finish line of the world-renowned race.US Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate

DHAKA: UAE jewellers this month reported the strongest gold sales in seven years, but a spate of arrests at various airports has sparked confusion over the amount of gold passengers can carry out of the country.Although the UAE does not impose any restrictions, failure to declare

DHAKA: US senor advisor for Myanmar affairs Judith Cefkin is likely to arrive here on a two-day visit on February 2.US department of state said on Thursday that she will be visiting United Kingdom, Bangladesh and Myanmar from January 30 to February 8.During her visit, this US envoy will

DHAKA: Egyptian prosecutors on Wednesday referred to trial 20 journalists working with Al-Jazeera television network, including four foreigners accused of ‘airing false news’.The 16 Egyptians have been charged with belonging to a ‘terrorist organisation ... and harming national

DHAKA: India’s air monitoring centre denied on Wednesday that pollution in New Delhi was worse than in Beijing, following scrutiny of the Indian capital’s winter smog, which shrouds the city each year.A report in the New York Times last week and fresh research by scientists at Yale

DHAKA: The two rival delegations at the Geneva peace talks have reportedly made first steps towards discussing a transitional government in the war-torn country.Syria’s opposition National Coalition spokesman Louay Safi said on Wednesday, reports The Voice of Russia.Safi called

DHAKA: At least 37 Philippine rebels have been killed in a two-day offensive in the south.Philippines military says, reports the BBC.President Benigno Aquino said the offensive would protect villages from rebels in Maguindanao province.The insurgents involved in fighting oppose a recent

DHAKA: Libya’s interior minister escaped unscathed from an assassination attempt in Tripoli on Wednesday.The Lana news agency reported, says The Straits Times.Seddik Abdelkarim, who is also deputy prime minister, was in his car when ‘unknown gunmen fired a barrage of bullets’ at the

DHAKA: Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said he still wants to hold peace talks with the Taliban, despite a wave of deadly attacks in recent months.Sharif named a four-member team to pursue negotiations with the militants.In a rare address to the National Assembly, he said

DHAKA: An Indian female politician and activist has said rape victims may have invited attacks by their clothes and behaviour, fuelling a national debate over a series of incidents of sexual violence against women.Asha Mirje, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader in western

DHAKA: Israeli soldiers shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian north of the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday.Palestinian medical and security sources said, reports The Straits Times.The shooting, which took place just north of the Ofra settlement, was confirmed by the Israeli army in

DHAKA: A former Norwegian minister nominated fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize in a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.‘He has contributed to revealing the extreme level of surveillance by nations against other nations and of citizens,’

DHAKA: Ukraine’s first post-independence president has warned the country is on the ‘brink of civil War’ as parliament debates an amnesty for protesters.Leonid Kravchuk, president from 1991 to 1994, opened the debate in parliament by urging everyone involved to ‘act with the

DHAKA: A final nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers can be achieved in a short period of time.Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday, Tehran Times publishes this report on Wednesday.He made the remarks during a meeting with former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who

DHAKA: A launch ceremony for education activist Malala Yousafzai’s book at a university in her native Pakistan was cancelled after pressure from the provincial government.Organisers and officials said on Tuesday, reports gulfnews.com.Malala, now 16, survived a Taliban assassination

DHAKA: Besieged since June, nearly 20,000 people in Damascus’ Yarmuk Palestinian camp are so desperate for food that many eat stray animals, and some women have resorted to prostitution, according to residents reached via the Internet.‘Many here have slaughtered and eaten cats and

DHAKA: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has said an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory should take place within a three-year period under any final Middle East peace deal.His remarks came as an April deadline loomed for faltering US-backed peace talks, which have been in