DHAKA: Russian president Vladimir Putin has said he is hoping for a peace agreement to be reached between Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels by Friday.Putin urged both sides to stop military action in eastern Ukraine, adding that his views and those of his Ukrainian counterpart were very

DHAKA: President Barack Obama has vowed the US will not be intimidated, after Islamic State militants released a video showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff.Obama warned, ‘Our reach is long and justice will be served’, reports the BBC.Another US journalist,

DHAKA: Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko says he has agreed with Russian president Putin by phone on a ‘ceasefire process’ for the east. His office initially reported that a ‘permanent ceasefire’ had been agreed but later revised its statement, reports the BBC. The Kremlin

DHAKA: Boko Haram insurgents overran most of a north-eastern Nigerian town on Tuesday after hours of fighting that killed scores and displaced thousands of residents, security sources said.The Islamists launched an attack on the town of Bama, 70km from the Borno state capital of

DHAKA: The United Nations said on Wednesday it was ‘seriously concerned’ about growing restrictions on human rights activists in Thailand after a string of curbs on freedom of expression in the junta-ruled nation.Since seizing power from the elected government in May, the Thai army

DHAKA: A statement issued by the military on Wednesday put the official number of ‘terrorists’ killed in Operation Zarb-i-Azb at 910 and added that 82 Pakistani soldiers had also lost their lives during the North Waziristan offensive.The death tolls and their breakdowns could not

DHAKA: U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday authorized additional troops be deployed to Iraq to protect American diplomatic facilities and personnel in Baghdad.The 350 troops are being sent at the request of the U.S. Department of State to beef up security, an appeal that comes as

DHAKA: An estimated $1tn (£600bn) a year is being taken out of poor countries and millions of lives are lost because of corruption, according to campaigners.A report by the US-based anti-poverty organisation One says much of the progress made over the past two decades in tackling

DHAKA: The Islamic State has released a video of the purported murder of the US journalist Steven Sotloff, days after his mother pleaded with the group's leader to spare his life.The armed group released the video what it said was the 31-year-old's death on Tuesday. Internet monitors

DHAKA: Police arrested at least 22 people during a series of protests targeting a senior Chinese official visiting the city.The police authorities said on Tuesday.The city has been plunged into political crisis after pro-democracy activists vowed to take over the streets of the city’s

DHAKA: Russia is to alter its military strategy as a result of the Ukraine crisis and Nato’s presence in eastern Europe.A top Russian official said this which reports the BBC.Mikhail Popov, a Kremlin adviser, said that deteriorating relations with the US and Nato would be reflected in

DHAKA: Amnesty International says it has new evidence Islamic State militants are carrying out "a wave of ethnic cleansing" against minorities in northern Iraq, BBC reports on Tuesday. The human rights group said IS had turned the region into "blood-soaked killing fields".Earlier,

DHAKA: Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a joint session of parliament on Tuesday as a deepening crisis over mass protests demanding his resignation prompted fears of an army intervention.Sharif had called the session and he had been expected to address it on Tuesday but

DHAKA: Japanese space scientists have unveiled the asteroid hunting space probe they hope to launch later this year on a mission to mine a celestial body.The probe, named ‘Hayabusa-2’, is expected to be flung into space on a rocket for a mammoth four-year voyage to the

DHAKA: Hearing a set of petitions against sit-ins by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) on the Constitution Avenue, the Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notices to all parliamentary parties as well as the PAT. The notices were issued after petitioner

DHAKA: Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif voiced optimism after talks with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton that a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program can be resolved by a November 24 deadline. ‘I am quite optimistic after discussions with Lady Ashton

DHAKA: Nurses at Liberia’s largest hospital went on strike, demanding better pay and equipment to protect them against a deadly Ebola epidemic which has killed hundreds in the west African nation. John Tugbeh, spokesman for the strikers at Monrovia’s John F Kennedy hospital, said the

DHAKA: US military forces conducted an operation Monday against the Al-Shabaab network in Somalia, CNN reports.  No other information was immediately available. The Pentagon did not say who was targeted, where in Somalia the operation took place nor why the operation was happening now.

DHAKA: Hundreds of anti-government protestors stormed the headquarters of state-owned Pakistan Television on Monday, forcing the channel briefly off air, as fresh clashes erupted and the army gave the government an ultimatum to end the impasse soon.Prime minister Nawaz Sharif met

DHAKA: In the wake of ongoing anti-government protests in Islamabad, a group of hackers calling themselves ‘Anonymous Op Pakistan’ temporarily brought down numerous government portals in a bid to remove, ‘every vestige of the Pakistan government from the Internet’.The group