DHAKA: Australia has raised its terror alert level to "high" for the first time since the national alert system was introduced in 2003, reports CNN. According to the four-level system, a reading of "high" means a terrorist attack "is likely," however the country's Prime Minister Tony

DHAKA: Pakistani authorities Thursday moved to protect two major cities from raging floodwaters, readying explosives to divert swollen rivers, in a crisis which has hit nearly two million people.The floods and landslides from days of heavy monsoon rains have now claimed more than 450

DHAKA: Ten Arab states, including heavyweight Saudi Arabia, agreed on Thursday in Jeddah to rally behind Washington in the fight against Islamic State jihadists, as it seeks to build an international coalition."The participating states agreed to do their share in the comprehensive

DHAKA: Scotland is on the ‘cusp of making history’ by voting for independence, the country’s first minister has predicted.Alex Salmond described the independence referendum as a ‘process of national empowerment’ and said the country was ‘rediscovering self confidence’ and

DHAKA: Russia has warned that US air strikes against militants in Syria would be a ‘gross violation’ of international law.A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said any such action, without the backing of the UN, would be ‘an act of aggression’, reports the BBC.‘The US

DHAKA: The publisher of Japan’s leading newspaper apologised to readers on Thursday for several serious errors in its reporting, retracting an article that claimed workers abandoned their posts during the Fukushima nuclear disaster.Asahi’s publisher Tadakazu Kimura, speaking at a

DHAKA: Americans on Thursday marked the 13th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, with somber ceremonies of remembrance in New York and Washington.President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle and vice president Joe Biden observed a moment of silence on the White House south

DHAKA: Russia still has around 1,000 troops in eastern Ukraine, a Nato military officer said on Thursday, casting doubt on reports of a reduction in Russian forces there.Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday he had information that 70 percent of Russian troops who had

DHAKA: Hamas’s exiled deputy leader said Thursday the group could be forced to negotiate directly with Israel, ahead of planned talks in Cairo to consolidate a truce.But an Israeli minister dismissed any possibility of talking directly with the Islamist movement, whose charter calls

DHAKA: In another successful demonstration of the missile programme, the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) successfully fired the short range Agni-1 missile propelled by a solid rocket propellant system, from Wheeler’s Island, off Odisha’s coast, on Thursday.The missile, which has a

DHAKA: Myanmar on Thursday lifted a curfew imposed in June 2012 when clashes between Buddhists and minority Muslims erupted throughout western Rakhine state, killing at least 192 people that year.Most victims of the violence were Muslim Rohingyas, who live under apartheid-like

DHAKA: The Syrian rebel group the Nusra Front has released all UN peacekeepers from Fiji, Al Jazeera has learned. The 44 peacekeepers were expected to cross from Syria into the Israeli side of the Golan Heights. On Wednesday the group posted a video on its Twitter and YouTube accounts

DHAKA: Syria’s Western-backed National Coalition opposition  (SNC) on Thursday urged US Congress to approve as soon as possible president Barack Obama’s policy on Islamic State militants after he authorized US airstrikes for the first time in Syria.‘The Syrian Coalition ...

DHAKA: Saudi Arabia has indicated it would be willing to host a training program for moderate Syrian opposition fighters.American officials told the New York Times on Wednesday night, The Jerusalem Post publishes this report on Thursday.A senior State Department official told the Times

DHAKA: Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front has said it will free 45 Fijian UN peacekeepers whom it kidnapped after the capture of a border crossing with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. In a video released late Wednesday through its media wing, the group said it had consulted

DHAKA: Thailand’s military government has engaged in ‘widespread’ human rights violations since the May coup.Amnesty International says, reports the BBC.In a report, the rights group cited arbitrary detentions, a clampdown on free speech, allegations of beatings and unfair trials

DHAKA: Emergency teams in the Pakistani city of Lahore said that they recovered 24 bodies from rubble at a mosque a day after its roof collapsed. BBC reports.  At least seven others were rescued from the building, and rescuers are still searching debris. The disaster in the low-income,

DHAKA: At least 11 Afghan civilians including women and children have been killed and 16 injured in a Nato airstrike in the eastern province of Kunar, in Afghanistan, BBC reports.  The airstrike took place in Narang district after local police and soldiers came under attack, they said.

DHAKA: US President Barack Obama says he will not hesitate to take action against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria as well as Iraq. In a nationally televised speech outlining his strategy against IS, he said that any group that threatened America would "find no safe heaven". He

DHAKA: At least five people have been killed after parts of a wall collapsed in the western Saudi city of Makkah on Wednesday. ‘The rescue teams are still deploying efforts to make sure there are no more victims at the site,’ Jameel Arbaeen, the general director of Makkah civil