DHAKA: Iran on Monday was finally taking control of its civilian nuclear reactor at Bushehr, a project begun 37 years ago by West Germany, wracked by setbacks, and finished by Russia.The Islamic republic’s atomic agency chief Ali Akbar Salehi confirmed Russia was handing over the

DHAKA: A bomb exploded near an ambulance taking a pregnant woman to hospital in Iraq on Monday, wounding her and killing two people, the police and a doctor said.The blast near the northern city of Mosul also wounded the ambulance driver and killed a medic and a relative travelling with

DHAKA: The Iranian authorities have pardoned 80 prisoners ahead of president Hassan Rohani’s visit to the United Nations in New York this week.The Iranian media reported on Monday, says The Straits Times.In a tentative sign that hardline policies are starting to soften following

DHAKA: China’s disgraced former politician Bo Xilai is appealing against his sentence, reports say.The former party chief of Chongqing was sentenced to life imprisonment on Sunday. He was found guilty of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.The popular politician was removed from

DHAKA: Pussy Riot band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova declared a hunger strike on Monday to protest at death threats and what she described as conditions of slave labour at her Russian prison camp.In a letter released to the media, she painted a harrowing picture of the Gulag-style

DHAKA: Monsoon rains worsened by Typhoon Usagi pounded the Philippines for the third day on Monday, causing floods and landslides that left 18 people dead and others stranded on rooftops, officials said.The most severely affected area was the province of Zambales, about 80km north-west of

DHAKA: Syrian president Bashar Assad says his government will allow international experts access to its chemical weapons sites but that rebels might block them from reaching some of the locations.In an interview with Chinese state TV broadcast on Monday, Assad said Damascus is dedicated

DHAKA: A court in Egypt has banned ‘all activities’ by the Muslim Brotherhood.The Cairo administrative court said its ruling applied to the Islamist group, its non-governmental organisation and ‘any organisation derived from it’.It also ordered the interim government to seize the

DHAKA: Kenyan security forces are close to ending a Nairobi shopping mall siege, Kenya interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said on Monday, with Islamist attackers still fighting but left with no way out of the complex.‘We think the operation will come to an end soon,’ Lenku told a

DHAKA: The number of people confirmed to have died as a result of Tropical Storms Manuel and Ingrid in Mexico now stands at 110, the interior minister says.Another 68 are still missing, believed dead, after a landslide destroyed the village of La Pintada in western Guerrero

DHAKA: Egypt is likely to completely rewrite the constitution adopted under Mohammad Mursi.A spokesman for the committee amending it said on Sunday, in a further push to reverse changes introduced under the deposed Islamist president, gulfnews.com publishes this report on Monday.The

DHAKA: An Al-Qaeda group in Syria says one of its top commanders in Syria was killed in an ambush by rival, Western-backed rebels in a northern province.It was the latest in rising infighting among rebel groups in northern Syria, where the opposition controls large parts of territory

DHAKA: United States intelligence leaker Edward Snowden is living under guard at a secret address in Russia and sometimes emerges in disguise, although he remains in such danger that even a family visit could endanger his security.Snowden’s lawyer said Monday, reports The Straits

DHAKA: An Al-Qaeda group in Syria says one of its top commanders in Syria was killed in an ambush by rival, Western-backed rebels in a northern province.It was the latest in rising infighting among rebel groups in northern Syria, where the opposition controls large parts of territory

DHAKA: Kenyan security forces appear to have launched an assault on the Westgate shopping complex in the capital Nairobi in an attempt to break the siege there.Gunfire and explosions were heard at the complex and a cloud of smoke could be seen billowing from the building.Television

DHAKA: India prime minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said dealing with communal riots was the primary responsibility of the states and called upon them to stem communal incidents in the bud and deal sternly with the rioters, irrespective of their clout or political affiliations.Addressing

DHAKA: A bomb targeting police killed at least five people and wounded five others in Pakistan’s restive south-west on Monday, the police said.The attack was staged in Pishin district, 40km north of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, which is racked by a separatist insurgency

DHAKA: Support for Greece’s Golden Dawn has fallen by 2.5 percentage points after the fatal stabbing of an anti-racism rapper by a supporter of the far-right party and most Greeks believe it threatens democracy.A poll showed Monday, reports The Jerusalem Post.The poll by Rass for the

DHAKA: A Libyan commander and a dozen other fighters from al-Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have been killed in clashes with rival rebel forces in northern Syria.A monitoring group said, in the latest spate of internecine rebel violence, reports The Jerusalem Post.The

DHAKA: A Pakistan police official says the death toll from a church bombing has risen to 81 as angry Christians protested the deadliest attack ever in Pakistan against members of their faith.Police official Noor Khan says the death toll from Sunday’s bombing in the northwestern city of