DHAKA: UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged the Security Council to add 5,500 UN troops to the 7,000-strong force in South Sudan, amid escalating fighting there.His plea comes as new details emerge of alleged ethnic killings committed during more than a week of violence, reports BBC. Ban

DHAKA: Pakistani former military ruler Pervez Musharraf is due to go on trial on treason charges.He will appear before a special court in Islamabad - a day after his petition that only a military court could examine his actions was rejected, reports BBC.The charge relates to his decision

DHAKA: Mikhail Kalashnikov, the Russian gun designer whose AK-47 rifle became the weapon of choice for many national armies and guerrillas around the world, died Monday, the Kremlin announced on its website.He was 94.Kalashnikov designed his first machine gun in 1942 after suffering

DHAKA: At least 14 people were killed Tuesday night when two explosions hit an Interior Ministry building in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, according to media reports from Egypt.Al Ahram, a semi-official news agency, reported that Health Ministry officials said 130 people also were

DHAKA: Iran wants to improve bilateral relations with the United States and other Western powers, president Hassan Rouhani said in an editorial published in a German newspaper on Monday, broaching an issue he has so far avoided since he took office.Rouhani won a landslide election victory

DHAKA: India on Monday successfully test-fired its nuclear-capable ‘Agni-III’ ballistic missile with a strike range of more than 3,000 km, as part of a user trial by the Army from Wheeler Island off Odisha coast.‘The test-fire conducted by Strategic Force Command (SFC) of the Army

DHAKA: Israeli Mossad agents operating in Ethiopia in 1962 unwittingly trained Nelson Mandela in hand-to-hand combat, weaponry and sabotage, according to a document released by Israel’s state archives.A letter from a Mossad official to the foreign ministry, dated October 11, 1962 titled

DHAKA: Journalists will no longer be allowed to enter police departments, a statement released from the Turkish police has said.‘Members of the press will not be allowed into the Police Departments all over Turkey as of December 22, 2013,’ a statement read, reports daily

DHAKA: Iran’s foreign minister and the EU’s top diplomat agreed during telephone call Sunday to postpone until after Christmas talks on implementing a landmark nuclear agreement.Iran’s chief negotiator said, daily Hurriyet publishes this report on Monday.‘During this telephone

DHAKA: South Sudanese troops are preparing to enter the rebel-held town of Bor, president Salva Kiir has said.Kiir told parliament the army was ‘ready to move’, adding that the counter-attack had been delayed to allow US citizens to be airlifted out, reports the BBC.Bor, in the

DHAKA: Russia has sent 25 armoured trucks and 50 other vehicles to Syria to help transport toxins that are to be destroyed under an international agreement to rid the nation of its chemical arsenal.Russia defence minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday, reports The Jerusalem Post.In a

DHAKA: Syrian warplanes have killed more than 300 people, including 87 children, in an eight-day bombing campaign against rebel-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo.A monitor said Monday, reports daily Hurriyet.‘From December 15 to 22, 301 people have been killed, including 87

DHAKA: Italian prime minister Enrico Letta on Monday hailed Iranian president Hassan Rouhani’s diplomatic opening as ‘an opportunity’ that should not be passed up and said Iran could help resolve the conflict in Syria.‘I think it would be in everyone’s interests to bet on the

DHAKA: Yemen has reopened its international airports after a brief closure on Monday due to a strike by workers at the civil aviation authority.The transport minister told state news agency Saba, reports Al Arabiya.Airports were closed earlier in the day as workers went on strike in

DHAKA: Officially pacifist Japan will waive its customary restrictions on arms exports to supply ammunition to South Korean peacekeepers in South Sudan, where fierce fighting has broken out.Reports said on Monday, according to The Straits Times.Japanese peacekeepers engaged in non-combat

DHAKA: A former British legislator and Cabinet minister has been sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to making nearly 13,000 pounds in bogus expense claims.Denis MacShane, who served as Europe minister under former prime minister Tony Blair, admitted to filing 19 fake

DHAKA: Syrian army helicopters have killed at least 56 people, including children, by dropping ‘barrel bombs’ on the northern city of Aleppo, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Sunday’s air raids targeted Aleppo’s Masaken Hanano neighbourhood,

DHAKA: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has become the second member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot freed from prison under a new amnesty law.Band member Maria Alyokhina was freed earlier on Monday in Nizhny Novgorod.Alyokhina said the amnesty was a ‘PR stunt’ ahead of the Winter Olympics and

DHAKA: The campaign against Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving has shifted tactics to increasingly challenge the law ahead of a new nationwide day of defiance on December 28.Women activists are now driving weekly and documenting their confrontations with law enforcement on social media

DHAKA: Former US president Jimmy Carter on Monday proposed three principles as a basis for Syria peace talks in Geneva: free elections, respect for their results and the deployment of peacekeepers.Syria peace talks are set to begin in Switzerland on January 22, though the full list of