DHAKA: President Barack Obama took another step toward cementing an important political alliance with Bill Clinton on Wednesday, giving the 42nd president the nation`s highest civilian honor.Clinton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom along with 15 other luminaries in sports,

DHAKA: Saudi Arabia has asked its citizens to leave Lebanon due to the risk of political violence in the country, where twin suicide bombings near Iran`s embassy in Beirut killed 25 people this week.Riyadh has issued several similar calls in the past two years as the civil war in Syria

DHAKA: Four British men have been killed fighting alongside Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Syria, it was reported Thursday, as fears rise of the growing threat from jihadists returning from the war.Three of the men, all thought to be from London, were killed in August as their group attacked

DHAKA: An Iraqi Shia militia said on Thursday it had fired six mortar bombs into Saudi Arabia’s desert as a ‘warning message’ to the kingdom to stop ‘interfering’ in Iraqi affairs.‘The goal was to send a warning message to Saudis to tell them that their border stations and

DHAKA: Pope Francis on Thursday said the Catholic Church will not accept a Middle East without Christians, who often find themselves forced to flee areas of conflict and unrest in the region.‘We will not resign ourselves to imagining a Middle East without Christians,’ he said after

DHAKA: A car bombing near a cafe in a packed market killed at least 30 people and wounded 40 others in a town northeast of Baghdad on Thursday.The blast struck in Saadiyah, a town in restive ethnically-mixed Diyala province, according to a police colonel and a doctor, both speaking on

DHAKA: Australian police and central bank websites fell victim to cyber attacks on Thursday with an Indonesian hacker claiming responsibility, reportedly demanding that Canberra apologise in an intensifying row over spying.The row, triggered by reports that Australian spies tried to tap

DHAKA: A US drone strike in northwest Pakistan killed six people including a senior leader of the ruthless Haqqani network, officials said, in only the second such strike outside the country’s lawless tribal districts.The missile attack hit a religious seminary that militants and

DHAKA: The leader of Nepal’s Maoist party, who appears to have lost in this week’s national election, demanded on Thursday that the vote counting be stopped because of what he called massive irregularities.The irregularities occurred during transporting of ballot boxes and also during

DHAKA: Iran would not suspend its uranium enrichment activities says Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi.Speaking a day after talks with world powers resumed in Geneva, Araqchi told reporters on Thursday Iran would not suspend its uranium enrichment activities, saying it was a

DHAKA: Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah Sisi, who deposed elected president Mohamed Mursi in July following mass protests, said he did not rule out running for the presidency.Asked if he was a candidate for the job, Sisi replied ‘let’s see what the days bring us’ in an interview

DHAKA: France’s foreign minister said on Thursday the West needed to be firm in its dealings with Iran over the country’s nuclear programme, but he was hopeful an accord could be struck this week.‘I hope so,’ Laurent Fabius told France 2 television when asked if there could be a

DHAKA: A US envoy urged North Korea on Thursday to resolve the issue of American citizens detained by the reclusive country, among them an 85-year-old Korean War veteran from California and Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American Christian missionary.US Special Representative for North Korea

DHAKA: Six mortar shells landed near a remote Saudi border post close to Iraq and Kuwait on Wednesday, but caused no damage.The kingdom’s border guards agency said on Thursday, reports The Jerusalem Post.‘Six mortar shells fell in an uninhabited area near the new al-Auja border guard

DHAKA: Foreign ministers from the six world powers were poised to fly to Geneva by the end of the week in case their presence is required to sign an interim deal with Iran on its nuclear programme.The Guardian quoted western officials as saying on Wednesday night, The Jerusalem Post

DHAKA: Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has promised Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono a full and courteous response to his demand for an examination of reported Australian eavesdropping on senior Indonesian leaders’ phones.Indonesia has downgraded its relations with

DHAKA: US state secretary John Kerry accused the Muslim Brotherhood of stealing Egypt’s revolution.‘Those kids in Tahrir Square, they were not motivated by any religion or ideology,’ Kerry said in a speech to a forum on enhancing links between private sector businesses and

DHAKA: A senior Palestinian official accused then-US president George W Bush of okaying alleged Israeli killing of PLO leader Yasser Arafat.In an interview given to official Palestine television earlier this month, Fatah leader Jibril Rajoub said that the ‘fool known as (George) Bush

DHAKA: Up to 15,000 foreign troops could stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014 if a security pact with the US is signed.Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai said on Thursday, reports The Straits Times.About 2,500 tribal chiefs, chieftains and dignitaries are gathered in Kabul for a four-day

DHAKA: A suspected US drone attack has killed at least five people in an Islamic seminary in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, reports say.Officials said at least two of those killed were militants, reports the BBC.The attack appears to have taken place outside the