DHAKA: The Netherlands has made a formal public apology for thousands of summary executions carried out by Dutch troops in its former colony of Indonesia.Dutch ambassador to Indonesia Tjeerd de Zwaan apologised for the ‘excesses committed by Dutch forces’ between 1945 and

DHAKA: US president Barack Obama has exchanged letters with his new Iranian counterpart Hassan Rohani in recent weeks, and the two leaders may hold a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.The Los Angeles Times quoted US officials as saying,

DHAKA: US state secretary John Kerry has arrived in Geneva to meet Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov as the UN tries to forge an international plan to disarm the Syrian government of its chemical weapons.Lavrov and Kerry will discuss efforts to agree a UN resolution on the issue, as well

DHAKA: Unemployment continues to rise in recession-hit Greece, with the overall rate reaching 27.9 percent in June. Even worse, 58.8 percent of people under age 25 are out of work.The Greek Statistical Authority reported on Thursday that the jobless rate had risen from 24.6 percent the

DHAKA: More than 200 members of the Rohingya minority fleeing Myanmar have been detained in southern Thailand after their boat ran aground.Thai district chief Watcharasak Chulayanon said the 219 men aboard swam ashore after their boat got stuck off on Wednesday off the coast of Satun

DHAKA: The UN nuclear watchdog is following reports that North Korea may have restarted a reactor capable of producing plutonium for weapons, but does not yet have a ‘clear understanding’ of the situation there.IAEA chief said on Thursday, reports Turkish daily Hurriyet.A US research

DHAKA: French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday that UN inspectors who investigated an August 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria would ‘probably’ publish their report on Monday.Diplomats have said the report is unlikely to pin blame on either Syrian president Bashar

DHAKA: Russia has handed the United States a plan for the Syrian regime to hand over its chemical weapons in four stages, starting with Damascus becoming a member of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.The plan, first announced by Moscow this week, aims to avert

DHAKA: With normalcy returning to riot-hit areas of the district, curfew was relaxed for seven hours on Thursday.‘The administration has decided to relax curfew in three police station areas between 10am to 5pm,’ district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said, reports The Times of

DHAKA: Former Bihar deputy chief minister and the state’s BJP chief Sushil Kumar Modi became the first top ranking leader within the saffron party to directly attack LK Advani for his opposition to Narendra Modi’s prime ministerial candidature.‘Advaniji has failed to gauge the

DHAKA: The CIA has started to deliver arms to Syrian rebels, after long months during which such aid was promise, according to a report by the Washington Post.The report said that both Syrian and US officials confirmed that the arms transfer had begun, though no one was quoted as saying

DHAKA: China will aim to cut total coal consumption to below 65 percent of total primary energy use by 2017 as part of a comprehensive new plan to tackle air pollution, the government said on Thursday.China will also stop approving new thermal power plants in key industrial areas such as

DHAKA: A Western-backed Syrian rebel leadership council has rejected a Russian initiative to place Syria’s chemical weapons under international control.The group said in a video statement, reports The Jerusalem Post.‘We announce our definitive rejection of the Russian initiative to

DHAKA: Philippine troops battled Muslim rebels on two fronts on Thursday, after the insurgents attacked a second town near the southern port where they are holding scores of residents hostage in a standoff with government forces.The rebels attacked predominantly Christian outskirts of

DHAKA: Qatari-owned news channel Al-Jazeera has launched legal action against the Egyptian authorities, saying that its journalists have been detained without charge and attacked.Al-Jazeera’s London-based lawyers announced on Thursday, reports The Straits Times.The network said it had

DHAKA: A report by United Nations inspectors probing a chemical weapons attack in Syria will ‘probably’ be published on Monday, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday.‘It will say that there was a chemical massacre,’ he told French radio, reports The Straits

DHAKA: Two explosions near a Shia mosque in the Iraqi capital Baghdad have killed at least 35 people, officials say.At least 55 others were wounded in the attack in the largely Shia district of Kasra as worshippers were leaving the mosque after evening prayers.No-one has yet said they

DHAKA: A Canadian national has been arrested in Colombia after trying to board a flight to Toronto with a phony pregnant belly stuffed with cocaine, police say.The tourist caught the attention of a policewoman at Bogota`s International Airport who allegedly asked her how far along she

DHAKA: Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a direct personal appeal to the American people over the Syrian crisis.In an opinion article in the New York Times, he warns that a US military strike against Syria could unleash a new wave of terrorism.He says millions of people see the US

DHAKA: Nigeria’s president Goodluck Jonathan has sacked nine cabinet ministers, amid serious divisions in the governing party.Two weeks ago, seven of the country`s powerful state governors and former vice-president Atiku Abubakar formed a splinter-group in the PDP.They were angry after