DHAKA: Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday struck a more conciliatory tone ahead of this week’s G-20 summit, saying Moscow would take ‘decisive’ action if the West proves who used chemical weapons in Syria.Putin’s comments came as lawmakers in the United States began

DHAKA: Radiation levels around tanks storing contaminated water at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have risen by a fifth to a new high, officials say.Ground readings near one set of tanks stood at 2,200 millisieverts (mSv) on Tuesday, the plant operator and Japan’s nuclear

DHAKA: An attack on a Shia family living near Baghdad has left at least 16 people dead, Iraqi officials sayThey were killed after militants bombed two adjacent houses belonging to brothers from a Shia family in Latifiya, 40 km south of the Iraqi capital.At least five women and six

DHAKA: The French government says punitive action against Syria in response to its alleged use of chemical weapons would ‘balance’ a situation that has seen gains for Syrian president Bashar Assad.Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the French government spokeswoman, said Wednesday that the

DHAKA: According to top-secret US intelligence documents, Al-Qaeda has hired specialists to find ways of effective fighting against US drones, which has inflicted huge losses upon the terrorist network by killing an estimated 3,000 people over the past decade.During the past decade,

DHAKA: Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned America and its allies against taking one-sided action in Syria.He said any military strikes without UN approval would be ‘an aggression’, reports the BBC.US president Barack Obama has called for punitive action in response to an

DHAKA: Ariel Castro, who kept women captive at his home in Cleveland, Ohio, has been found dead in his cell, US media say.Prison officials are quoted as saying he was found hanging at a prison in Orient, Ohio, late on Tuesday.Castro, 53, held three women against their will for about a

DHAKA: At least 60 people have been killed in a series of car bomb attacks and shootings in mainly Shia districts of Iraq`s capital Baghdad, officials say.Worst hit was the northern district of Husseiniya, where two explosions in quick succession in the evening near shops and restaurants

DHAKA:  US senators in a key committee have agreed on a draft resolution backing the use of US military force in Syria.The measure to be voted on next week sets a time limit of 60 days on any operation. The draft document also bans the use of any ground forces in Syria.Secretary of State

DHAKA: United States president Barack Obama says he is confident he will be able to work with Congress to pass a resolution authorising military intervention in Syria.The president indicated to reporters during a meeting with lawmakers at the White House on Tuesday that he is open to

DHAKA: The German office investigating Nazi war crimes said on Tuesday it would send files on 30 former Auschwitz death camp personnel to state prosecutors with a recommendation to bring charges.In a twilight bid for justice nearly 70 years on, chief investigator Kurt Schrimm said the

DHAKA: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asked the Swedish police on Tuesday to investigate what happened to a suitcase he suspects was stolen from him as he travelled from Sweden to Germany in 2010.Assange’s lawyer Per Samuelson told media that he had filed a criminal complaint with an

DHAKA: The Pentagon has announced that within the coming hour it will release information about the reported missile firings in the Mediterranean Sea.Earlier on Tuesday, agencies quoted Israeli military sources as saying Israeli and American naval forces had fired two missiles from the

DHAKA: An Egyptian military court on Tuesday sentenced 11 Muslim Brotherhood members to life in prison for violence targeting the army in the port city of Suez last month.Forty-five other Brotherhood members were handed five-year jail terms, and eight defendants were acquitted.The

DHAKA: A Syrian forensic medicine expert with evidence that president Bashar al-Assad’s administration used chemical weapons in an attack near Aleppo in March has defected to Turkey.Syrian opposition said Tuesday, reports daily Hurriyet.Abdeltawwab Shahrour, head of the forensic

DHAKA: An Indian report says a woman dies every hour in disputes over how much her family has paid in dowry to the groom for her marriage.The National Crime Records Bureau says more than 8,200 women were killed across India in such crimes last year, even though Indian law prohibits the

DHAKA: If the war in Syria suddenly stopped and reconstruction began Tuesday, around $73 billion would be needed to put the country back on track.A study published in Al-Watan newspaper said Tuesday, reports daily Hurriyet.Quoting Syrian real estate expert Ammar Yussef, the report said

DHAKA: India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh declared on Tuesday his embattled government has ‘nothing to hide’ and was ‘making all efforts’ to find missing files sought for a high-profile corruption probe.Singh told parliament more than 150,000 documents have already been

DHAKA: Fifteen militants were killed in the Sinai Peninsula by rocket fire, Egyptian state TV reported on Tuesday, after witnesses said army helicopters had attacked militant strongholds in the area.The state-run Nile TV gave no further details in a brief report, The Straits Times.The

DHAKA: The trial of four adult suspects accused of the fatal gang-rape of a student on a New Delhi bus in December will conclude on September 10.The presiding judge Yogesh Khanna said on Tuesday, reports The Straits Times.Dismissing pleas for more time by defence lawyers, the judge told