DHAKA: US president Barack Obama opened a day of remembrance and celebration on Tuesday for his personal hero, Nelson Mandela, arriving in South Africa for a memorial service honouring the anti-apartheid icon who died last week at age 95.Air Force One touched down at a military base near

DHAKA: Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has rejected protesters` demands that she resign before February`s snap elections.Demonstrators have been calling for Yingluck Shinawatra to resign and be replaced with a "people`s prime minister", reports BBC.Ms Yingluck won the last polls

DHAKA: Tens of thousands of mourners are expected in Johannesburg for a memorial service for Nelson Mandela.US President Barack Obama and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be among those paying tribute, reports BBC.The service will be held at the 90,000 capacity FNB stadium, where

DHAKA: The United Nations says nuclear inspectors will visit Libya to assess its uranium stockpiles, amid concerns about fragile security in the country.The UN envoy to Libya, Tarek Mitri, told the Security Council that the IAEA team would arrive later this month, reports BBC.He said

DHAKA: When the leaders of the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meet in Kuwait on Tuesday, Iran and its developing relations with western countries are likely to feature high on the summit agenda.Gulf analysts said, reports gulfnews.com.The Iranian nuclear agreement with

DHAKA: Nelson Mandela’s daughter Makaziwe has told the BBC about the ‘wonderful’ final hours of the former president, who died aged 95 last Thursday.Mandela said his wife Graca, the children and grandchildren were all there to say goodbye.South Africa is observing a series of

DHAKA: Residents and tourists are spoilt for choice for New Year fireworks on December 31 with Burj Khalifa, Burj Al Arab, The Palm Jumeirah and Atlantis the Palm offering scenic backdrops for what could be the world’s largest pyrotechnic display.Some 450,000 colourful fireworks

DHAKA: US defence secretary Chuck Hagel discussed the use of US drones against militants in remote areas of Pakistan on Monday during the first visit by a Pentagon chief to the South Asian ally in almost four years.Islamabad says drone strikes kill too many civilians and violate its

DHAKA: Germany’s express delivery and mail company Deutsche Post DHL is testing a drone that could be used to deliver urgently needed goods to hard-to-reach places.The small pilotless helicopter was to fly a package of medicine Monday from a pharmacy in the town of Bonn to the

DHAKA: The Egyptian authorities have recovered a pharaonic statue looted from a museum that was ransacked during unrest touched off by the ouster of president Mohamed Mursi this summer.The limestone statue of Ankhesenpaaten, a sister of Tutankhamun, was recovered from the home of a man

DHAKA: The European Union’s top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, will travel to Ukraine on Tuesday for a two-day visit after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators protested against the rejection of an EU pact.The Commission said, reports TDS.‘She’s expected to meet all

DHAKA: Saudi Arabia has launched a genetic code mapping project aimed at identifying the basis of chronic diseases prevalent in the desert kingdom.The Saudi Human Genome Program will be run by Saudi researchers, in cooperation with the US Life Technologies Corporation, at the King

DHAKA: A car bomb outside a cafe and other attacks in central Iraq killed at least 18 people on Monday, officials said.The car bomb went off outside the cafe in the town of Buhriz, about 60km north of the capital, Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 24, police officials said, reports

DHAKA: Four Turkish soldiers abducted by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were released early on Monday in southeast Turkey’s Diyarbakir province after Kurdish politicians intervened on their behalf.Turkey’s security sources told media, reports The Jerusalem Post.Tensions rose

DHAKA: More than 70 heads of state and government are expected in South Africa this week to attend funeral events for former president Nelson Mandela, with most due to attend a huge memorial service in Johannesburg on Tuesday.‘The whole world is coming to South Africa,’ South Africa

DHAKA: Syrian president Bashar Assad’s forces have taken control of a highway connecting Damascus to the coast that is needed to extract hundreds of tons of toxic chemicals for destruction.A monitoring group said on Monday, reports The Jerusalem Post.Fighting in Syria poses a hurdle to

DHAKA: North Korea confirmed on Monday that Jang Song Thaek, an uncle of the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, had been dismissed for committing ‘criminal acts’ prompted by political ambition.Jang had been previously considered the second-most-powerful man in the country, viewed as his

DHAKA: US defence secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Pakistan on Monday for what is likely to be a day of tough talks with senior officials about security and the use of US drones, the first Pentagon chief to visit Islamabad in almost four years.The United States has long had a complicated

DHAKA: A car bomb exploded in north-eastern Iraq on Monday, killing 11 people and wounding 23.Iraq police said, reports The Straits Times.The explosion in Buhriz, 60km north-east of Baghdad, took place close to a cafe in a Sunni Muslim area.BDST: 1653 HRS, DEC 09, 2013

DHAKA: Thousands of protesters have spent the night in freezing cold in the centre of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, after Sunday’s huge anti-government rally.A group of protesters smashed the city’s statue of the Russian revolutionary leader Lenin, and brought its dismembered parts as