DHAKA: Yemen’s Al-Qaeda branch has confirmed that a US strike killed one of its leaders at the end of last month.It said in a statement posted on a militant website on Saturday that Qaid al-Dahab was killed by a ‘perfidious American air raid’ in the el-Manaseh region of Bayda

DHAKA: India on Sunday conducted a second test flight of its indigenously developed nuclear- capable ‘Agni-V’ long-range ballistic missile, which has a strike range of more than 5000 km, from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast.The three stage, solid propellant missile was test-fired

DHAKA: French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said a Russia-US deal to remove Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons was an important first step and called for a political solution to address the mounting death toll in Syria.Fabius made the comments to reporters in Beijing

DHAKA: Outgoing Maldivian president Mohamed Waheed raised concerns on Sunday about the first round of the polls in which he suffered a humiliating defeat, while calling for ‘peace and harmony’ before the final vote.Waheed received just 5.13 percent of the vote in the first round on

DHAKA: US President Barack Obama has welcomed an agreement between the US and Russia under which Syria`s chemical weapons must be destroyed or removed by mid-2014 as an "important step".But a White House statement cautioned that the US expected Syria "to live up to its public

DHAKA: Twenty-seven Afghan miners trapped underground have been found dead in the northern province of Samangan, officials have confirmed to the BBC.Provincial governor`s spokesman Mohammad Seddiq Azizi said that the men had been working at the Abkhorak coal mine when part of it

DHAKA: India`s defence scientists are gearing up for the second test launch of Agni-5, the country`s most potent nuclear capable ballistic missile.Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Agni-5 can carry a single nuclear warhead of over 1000 kg and can

DHAKA: A suicide bomber who blew himself up at a funeral for a member of a tiny Iraqi minority on Saturday killed 26 people and wounded 45 others.A doctor said, reports The Straits Times.The attack in the town of Baashiqah, just outside the main northern city of Mosul, struck at 2pm (1100

DHAKA: Japan’s nuclear authority plans to conduct radiation contamination surveys at 600,000 points on the seabed off the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, up from 200 places so far.A report said on Saturday, according to The Straits Times.The Nuclear Regulation Authority is to survey

DHAKA: India’s Hindu nationalist party scrambled on Saturday to win support from the movement’s most senior leader over a decision to appoint controversial politician Narendra Modi as candidate for premier in looming elections.Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),

DHAKA: British foreign secretary William Hague on Saturday welcomed a US-Russian deal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons and said there would be ‘urgent work’ to implement it.‘Have spoken to (US) Secretary (of State John) Kerry. UK welcomes US-Russia agreement on #Syria

DHAKA: A suicide bomber killed at least 21 people at the funeral of a member of Iraq’s Shabak minority in the northern province of Nineveh on Saturday.Iraq’s security and medical sources said, reports The Straits Times.The attack took place in Bartella, some 25km east of Mosul,

DHAKA: UN leader Ban Ki Moon on Saturday welcomed a Russian-US deal on Syria’s chemical weapons and hopes it will lead to efforts to end the ‘appalling suffering’ of Syrians.A spokeswoman said, reports The Straits Times.Ban has the ‘fervent hope’ that the deal reached in Geneva

DHAKA: Syria’s rebel Free Syrian Army chief rejected on Saturday a US-Russian deal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014.‘We cannot accept any part of this initiative,’ General Selim Idriss told reporters in Istanbul, according to The Straits Times.He preceded that by

DHAKA: A South Korean court has detained a Chinese luxury cruise liner, stranding more than 2,300 passengers and crew members since late Friday.The Chinese tour operator HNA Cruise said in a statement on Saturday that the court in the port of Jeju acted upon a request of a Chinese company

DHAKA: Japan has launched the first in a new generation of space rockets, hoping the design will make missions more affordable.The Epsilon rocket is about half the size of Japan’s previous generation of space vehicles, and uses artificial intelligence to perform safety checks.Japan’s

DHAKA: Philippine officials say government troops have started to battle their way into coastal villages in the south held by Muslim rebels with scores of hostages to end a six-day standoff that has left 56 people dead.Philippines interior secretary Mar Roxas said on Saturday government

DHAKA: An Egyptian court on Saturday resumed the trial of toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak, who is accused of complicity in the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising against his rule.State television broadcast footage of Mubarak appearing in the court in a wheelchair. He was dressed

DHAKA: United States president Barack Obama said on Saturday he was willing to give a chance to diplomacy to help resolve the Syrian crisis, but warned the military option was still on the table.‘We need to see concrete actions to demonstrate that (Syrian president Bashar al-) Assad is

DHAKA: Syria must give inspectors access to all chemical weapons ahead of their complete destruction, US and Russia agree.US state secretary John Kerry outlined a six-point framework under which Syria must hand over a full list of its stockpile within a week.He said the deal could be