DHAKA: As with any annual event that grows over time, Haj has become a complex, carefully choreographed ritual that leaves little wriggle room to include some of the simple traditions of the past.In fact, it’s inevitable. Up until this year, about 3 million pilgrims converged in Makkah.

DHAKA: Swiss radiation experts have confirmed they found traces of polonium on clothing used by Yasser Arafat which ‘support the possibility’ the veteran Palestinian leader was poisoned.In a report published by The Lancet at the weekend, the team provide scientific details to media

DHAKA: Three of the six aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross kidnapped in Syria have been freed, along with a colleague from the Red Crescent.‘Three ICRC colleagues and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer have been released and are safe and sound. We are

DHAKA: Iranian foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif voiced hope Tehran and world powers can agree in talks this week on a road map towards resolving their nuclear stand-off, but warned the process would be complex.The negotiations about Iran’s nuclear

DHAKA: Agya Amma surveyed the pile of twisted wood and shredded thatch that was her home in this seaside Indian village.Like most everything else in Podampetta, it was all but swept away when Cyclone Phailin roared in off the Bay of Bengal with a massive storm surge and winds topping 200

DHAKA: US state secretary John Kerry called on Monday for a peace conference on Syria ‘very soon’ but said peace would not be possible without a transition government to replace president Bashar Assad.‘We believe it is urgent to set a day, to convene the conference and work toward a

DHAKA: Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency met Japanese officials Monday as part of a mission to assess clean-up efforts at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.The UN atomic agency began the nine-day mission at the request of the Japanese government, as it did in

DHAKA: The 2013 Nobel Prize in economics has been awarded to Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller.It was awarded for their ‘empirical analysis of asset prices’, reports the BBC.The awarding committee said the trio’s separate pieces of work had ‘laid the foundation for

DHAKA: A car bomb killed at least 20 people on Monday in the northern Syrian town of Darkoush, close to the Turkish border.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, reports The Straits Times.It said dozens were wounded by the explosion at a market in Darkoush, a small rebel-controlled

DHAKA: A car bomb killed at least 20 people on Monday in the northern Syrian town of Darkoush, close to the Turkish border.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, reports The Straits Times.It said dozens were wounded by the explosion at a market in Darkoush, a small rebel-controlled

DHAKA: Nuclear power is set to remain a key part of Japan’s energy profile despite the safety concerns raised by the Fukushima disaster.Senior Japanese energy officials predicted Monday, reports The Straits Times.‘The Japanese government still considers nuclear as an option for the

DHAKA: Moscow police have detained 1,200 people in an anti-migrant raid on a produce market where a racially tinged riot took place over the weekend after the killing of an ethnic Russian.‘About 1,200 people have been taken to the police in the course of a raid on a produce market in

DHAKA: The United Nations’ Aids agency on Monday condemned a draft Chinese regulation to ban HIV-positive people from spas and public bathhouses, as campaign groups expressed outrage over the proposal.The proposed Ministry of Commerce rule is the latest instance of longstanding

DHAKA: Vietnam is evacuating tens of thousands of people in the path of typhoon Nari, state media said, after the powerful storm left 13 dead in the Philippines.Nari is expected to slam into central Vietnam on Tuesday morning, after ripping off rooftops, toppling trees and triggering

DHAKA: Italy is stepping up sea and air patrols following the deaths of hundreds of migrants sailing in overcrowded boats from North Africa.Italy prime minister Enrico Letta said an ‘air and naval package’ would start on Monday south of Sicily, reports the BBC.On Friday at least 33

DHAKA: The death toll in the stampede during Navratri festivities near a temple in India’s Madhya Pradesh on Monday climbed to 115 with a number of people who had carried away the bodies of their relatives turning up for autopsy.The stampede, which also left over 100 injured, was

DHAKA: Kurds have a right to self-determination and statehood, but this will not be accomplished through violence, the president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government, Massoud Barzani, has said.It is ‘a natural right for there to be a state for the Kurdish people, but this will not

DHAKA: The family of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi said he would not enter any negotiations or accept any compromises following a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood by military-backed authorities.Mursi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, was ousted by the military on

DHAKA: US state secretary John Kerry said in London on Sunday that ‘the window for diplomacy (with Iran) is cracking open’, in comments via satellite to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee summit in California.‘But I want you to know that our eyes are open, too. While we

DHAKA: The head of the team tasked with destroying Syria’s chemical weapons says he is concerned about accessing some sites in rebel-controlled areas.Ahmet Uzumcu, of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, renewed calls for both sides in the conflict to support his