DHAKA: Japan’s deputy foreign minister has said negotiation with the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria threatening to execute a Jordanian pilot and a Japanese journalist has become ‘deadlocked’. Local media reported on Saturday, reports The Straits Times. Yasuhide Nakayama, who

DHAKA: Greece’s new government dramatically escalated its battle with the country’s international creditors, saying it would no longer meet with European Union and International Monetary Fund auditors and rejecting fresh loans offered for February. Athens had been promised another

DHAKA: A chemical weapons expert with the Islamic State (IS) militant group in Iraq has been killed in a coalition airstrike, the US military has said. Abu Malik's training provided IS with "expertise to pursue a chemical weapons capability", a statement said. He served as a chemical

DHAKA: Eight people, all reported to be factory workers, died after a wall collapsed Saturday in an industrial plant in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu in India. The accident happened in the SIPCOT industrial area in Vaniyambadi after a waste treatment plant at the site burst open and the

DHAKA: King Salman of Saudi Arabia has announced a major cabinet reshuffle, a week after he acceded to the throne.The chief of intelligence and the head of the national security council have both been replaced, reports the BBC.Other top officials, including the ministers of defence, oil,

DHAKA: At least 54 people were killed and 55 others injured in an explosion inside a central Imambargah (mosque affiliated with Shia Muslims) in Sindh province’s Shikarpur district on Friday.Civil Hospital Shikarpur had issued a list of 49 victims out of whom 46 bodies had been

DHAKA: South African apartheid-era death squad commander Eugene de Kock has been granted parole after 20 years in jail.He was nicknamed ‘Prime Evil’ for his role in the killing and maiming of activists fighting white minority rule in the 1980s and early 1990s.Justice Minister

DHAKA: The Taliban on Friday claimed responsibility for an apparent ‘insider attack’ at Kabul airport in which three American contractors and an Afghan were killed.A spokesman for NATO’s Resolute Support mission said the incident is under investigation. Though, details of the

DHAKA: US secretary of state John Kerry has been fined a penalty of $50 by the Boston City officials for not removing snow dumped on the side street in front of his house.The city officials on Thursday slapped Kerry with a $50 fine for failing to clear the snow-clogged sidewalk on the

DHAKA: EU foreign ministers have agreed to extend existing sanctions against Russia until September.At an extraordinary meeting in Brussels, they also agreed to discuss names to add to the list of individuals targeted for EU travel bans and asset freezes.However, they did not agree on

DHAKA: Militants fired a barrage of rockets and set off a car bomb on Thursday (Jan 29) killing at least 26 people, mostly soldiers, in Egypt's North Sinai province, where security forces are battling a raging Islamist insurgency.Jihadists have regularly attacked security forces in

DHAKA: The pilots of AirAsia flight 8501 cut power to a critical computer system that normally prevents planes from going out of control shortly before it plunged into the Java Sea, two people with knowledge of the investigation said. The action appears to have helped trigger the

DHAKA: Gap, Inc. on Thursday announced Rebekka Bay, the designer recruited in 2012 to help reboot the iconic brand, is out of the company."In evaluating the right leadership structure for the brand" Gap is "eliminating the Creative Director role, resulting in Rebekka Bay’s

DHKA: The new Greek government cannot make dramatic changes to its economic policy and expect other European states to foot the bill.German vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Thursday, reports The Straits Times.‘All citizens of Europe must be able to expect that changes in Greek

DHAKA: Sri Lanka is planning an investigation into accusations of human rights abuses in the final stages of a 26-year civil war amid international frustration at the failure to look into numerous civilian deaths.A government spokesman said on Thursday, reports The Straits Times.Former

DHAKA: United States president Barack Obama plans to ask for an increase in military spending in a proposed budget for 2016, with a request for US$585 billion that would exceed funding caps mandated by Congress.Officials said on Wednesday, The Straits Times publishes this report on

DHAKA: A day after Barack Obama flew out of India, the Modi government on late Wednesday evening announced the abrupt "curtailment of tenure of foreign secretary Sujatha Singh with immediate effect" — a not very polite way of saying it was sacking her eight months before she was due

DHAKA: Islamic State militants say they will execute a Jordanian pilot "immediately" if Amman does not hand over a female suicide bomber by sunset Thursday (Jan 29), as Japan waits in anguish for news of a journalist the extremists are also holding.In a new audio recording, a voice

DHAKA: The new leader of Germany’s controversial Pegida anti-Islamisation group Pegida has resigned a week after her predecessor, reports say.Kathrin Oertel appeared on TV at the weekend and had become the public face of the movement after Lutz Bachmann stepped down, reports the BBC.A

DHAKA: The UN says a peacekeeper has been killed in Lebanon amid border clashes between Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Israeli army.The UN urged ‘maximum restraint’ from all parties to avoid further escalation.Four Israeli soldiers were injured when an anti-tank missile hit