DHAKA: Fire officials defended Australia’s defence department on Thursday after investigators revealed a military training exercise ignited the largest of the wildfires that have torn across the nation’s most populous state over the past week.The Rural Fire Service said Wednesday that

DHAKA: Armed pirates have attacked an oil supply vessel off the Nigerian coast and kidnapped the captain and chief engineer, both United States citizens.Security sources said on Thursday, reports The Straits Times.The US-flagged, Edison Chouest-owned C-Retriever was attacked in the early

DHAKA: The Philippines expects an early ruling from the United Nations’ tribunal on its arbitration case questioning China’s claim on the South China Sea.Philippines foreign minister said on Thursday, in the first public announcement of hopes for a swift outcome, reports The Straits

DHAKA: The United States is talking to Turkey about its concern over Ankara’s decision to co-produce a long-range air and missile defence system with a Chinese firm under US sanctions.US Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone said on Thursday, reports The Jerusalem Post.‘We are very

DHAKA: Syrian authorities have freed dozens of women prisoners and cleared a prominent young blogger for release in one of the final stages of a three-way hostage deal.A monitoring group said on Thursday, reports The Jerusalem Post.Syria president Bashar Assad’s government has released

DHAKA: Pakistan for years secretly approved of US drone attacks on its territory despite public denunciations.The Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing secret documents, dawn.com publishes this report on Thursday.The purported evidence of Islamabad’s involvement came as prime

DHAKA: Germany’s foreign minister Guido Westerwelle has summoned the United States’ ambassador to Germany, John B. Emerson, to discuss information obtained by Berlin that the US may have monitored Angela Merkel’s mobile phone.A German government spokesman said on Thursday, reports

DHAKA: Astronomers have found the most distant galaxy yet, a discovery that pushes back scientists’ view of the universe to about 700 million years after it is thought to have come into existence.Light from the galaxy, designated by scientists as z8_GND_5296, took about 13.1 billion

DHAKA: A disaster official says a volcano in western Indonesia has unleashed a column of dark volcanic material high into the air weeks after villagers fled from an earlier eruption.National Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho says Thursday’s explosion at Mount Sinabung,

DHAKA: South Korea says rival North Korea is allowing six detained South Koreans to return home.The South’s unification ministry said on Thursday in a short statement that the South Koreans on Friday will cross over the heavily armed border at the truce village of Panmunjom.The

DHAKA: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has recommended 560 troops be sent to the Central African Republic to protect a United Nations political mission in the virtually lawless country.The landlocked, mineral-rich country has slipped into chaos since northern Seleka rebels seized the

DHAKA: Kenya’s police chief has threatened journalists with arrest after they reported on looting and disarray among security forces during the massacre in Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall.The media said on Thursday, reports The Straits Times.Police Inspector General David Kimaiyo

DHAKA: Even with drones, smart bombs and precision weapons, war remains a clash of human wills that ultimately requires boots on the ground, and the notion that land forces are obsolete is naive and dangerous.The top US Army general said on Wednesday, The Jerusalem Post publishes this

DHAKA: A class IX student of a public school in south Delhi was allegedly gang-raped by three men inside a car parked at a ground near Safdarjung Enclave on Tuesday night, police said.The 17-year-old survivor was too scared to tell her parents about the assault but confided in a friend

DHAKA: A plane fighting bushfires in the Australian state of New South Wales has crashed, killing its pilot, as the military faced criticism for starting one of the major fires.The water-bombing plane crashed near Ulladulla, south of Sydney.Meanwhile the military said it was co-operating

DHAKA: Two Chinese children were killed and four others injured when a wall at their school collapsed on top of them.Officials in Zhenxiong county, Yunnan province, said sacks of coal had been stacked against one side of the brick wall, pushing it over.Local government official Song

DHAKA: Two UN peacekeepers from Chad have been killed and six others wounded - some "severely" - in a suicide attack in northern Mali, the UN has said.Civilians also died when a bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle to the checkpoint in Tessalit before blowing himself up, the statement

DHAKA: An EU summit is due to begin in Brussels with fresh allegations of US spying threatening to overshadow talks.It comes a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel called President Barack Obama over claims that the US had monitored her mobile phone.France`s President Francois

DHAKA: A 13-year-old boy carrying a replica assault rifle has been shot dead by police in the US state of California.Officers in the city of Santa Rosa say they opened fire after the boy refused orders to drop the rifle, which they believed to be real.The shooting on Tuesday is now being

DHAKA: Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif has told President Obama the US should halt drone strikes in Pakistan, a critical source of tension in the relationship.The two leaders held wide-ranging talks at the White House on Wednesday, pledging to strengthen the often-strained ties between the