DHAKA: Iran plans to appoint a woman ambassador and a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry for the first time in the Islamic republic’s history.Iranian media reports said on Tuesday, according to The Times of India.Iran foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif ‘wants to employ women for

DHAKA: India cannot afford to grow at less than 8 percent per year and needs more reforms to revive growth.India finance minister P Chidambaram told parliament on Tuesday during a debate on the state of the country’s economy, reports The Straits Times.Asia’s third-largest economy has

DHAKA: Taliban militants have killed 12 civilians in Afghanistan, including six men working on government projects, local officials have said.The bodies of the six contractors were found in western Herat province. They were shot after attempts to negotiate their release failed.Separately,

DHAKA: Cuba’s air force chief, Major General Pedro Mediondo, was killed in a car crash.The military announced Tuesday, reports The Voice of Russia.Mediondo (68) was at the wheel of the vehicle at the time of Sunday’s crash, which also left his wife severely injured and killed her

DHAKA: North Korea tried to export gas masks to Syria but they were seized in Turkey along with arms and ammunition.A Japanese daily said Tuesday, as the US threatened action over an alleged chemical weapons attack, reports Turkish daily Hurriyet.A Libyan-registered vessel, identified as

DHAKA: Syrian foreign minister Walid Muallem said on Tuesday that his country will defend itself in case of any Western military strikes against it.‘We have two options: either to surrender, or to defend ourselves with the means at our disposal,’ Muallem said in a press conference in

DHAKA: Syrian opposition leaders have been told by Western allies to expect military strikes against president Bashar al-Assad’s regime within days.According to the report, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) was told in clear terms that ‘action to deter further use of chemical

DHAKA: American forces are ‘ready’ to launch strikes on Syria if president Barack Obama chooses to order an attack, US defence secretary Chuck Hagel says.‘We have moved assets in place to be able to fulfil and comply with whatever option the president wishes to take,’ Hagel told

DHAKA: Denmark on Tuesday said it was prepared to support ‘alternative responses’ if the UN Security Council fails to take action on Syria over its use of chemical weapons.‘We hear from our closest allies that there is no doubt that chemical weapons have been deployed in Syria, and

DHAKA: At least 16 people have died and tens of thousands of others have lost homes, land or livestock across Laos in heavy rains.The United Nations said on Tuesday, reports The Straits Times.The deaths occurred during flash floods after downpours in the northwestern district of Beng on

DHAKA: British prime minister David Cameron is recalling members of Britain’s lower house of parliament from their summer break to give them a chance to discuss how best to respond to a suspected chemical attack in Syria.A spokesman from his office said on Tuesday, reports The Straits

DHAKA: As Mumbai reels over the gang-rape of a young photographer in the heart of the city last week, angry neighbours of the arrested suspects describe a gang of jobless youths known for petty theft and drinking.The five men are accused of repeatedly raping the 22-year-old woman and

DHAKA: A security official was killed by unidentified gunmen in Russia’s Ingushetia republic, local police said on Tuesday, the latest violence in a region plagued by an Islamist insurgency and near the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.Russian president Vladimir Putin has launched a

DHAKA: Japan on Tuesday cancelled the launch of a new rocket it hopes will be a cheaper and more efficient way of putting satellites into space, saying it suffered a problem that aborted the countdown 19 seconds before it was supposed to blast off.Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

DHAKA: Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region has no plans to send troops into Syria to defend fellow Kurds, a senior Iraqi Kurdish official said, despite safety concerns which have driven thousands to cross the border.Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said earlier this month his

DHAKA: Russia regrets the postponement of a meeting scheduled for Wednesday in the Hague with senior diplomats from the United States on an international peace conference for Syria.Russian deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov said on Tuesday, reports The Jerusalem Post.Washington said

DHAKA: Syrian foreign minister Walid Muallem has said he rejects ‘utterly and completely’ that Syrian government forces used chemical weapons.He was speaking in Damascus after the US said there was ‘undeniable’ proof of a chemical attack.Muallem said UN weapons inspectors had been

DHAKA: British prime minister David Cameron said on Tuesday that chemical weapons attacks in Syria were ‘absolutely abhorrent’, necessitating action from the international community with Britain considering a ‘proportionate response’.Cameron cut short his holiday on Monday to

DHAKA: The Afghan Taliban executed six men who worked for a government programme in western Herat, one of the war-ravaged country’s most stable provinces whose small but promising private sector is driving the national economy.The governor said on Tuesday, reports The Jerusalem Post.The

DHAKA: India’s parliament on Monday passed a flagship US$18 billion programme to provide subsidised food to the poor that is intended to ‘wipe out’ endemic hunger and malnutrition in the aspiring superpower.The Food Security Bill, a key scheme seen as a vote-winner by the ruling