DHAKA: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has stepped aside, ending political deadlock in Baghdad as the government struggles against insurgents.He resigned on state TV to make way for Haider al-Abadi, who was asked by Iraq's president to form a government.Maliki had been under intense

DHAKA: Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday launched a blistering new assault on social media, comparing the likes of Twitter to a ‘scalpel in the hand of a surgeon’ and a ‘knife in the hand of a murderer’.Although many other world leaders are enthusiastic

DHAKA: India prime minister Narendra Modi is expected to unveil an ambitious financial inclusion scheme on Independence Day on Friday to provide bank accounts to 15 crore poor persons with an overdraft facility of Rs 5,000 and accident insurance of Rs 1 lakh.The-two phase

DHAKA: Raking up the Kashmir issue, Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said it is the ‘main source of tension’ in India-Pakistan relations and sought its peaceful resolution to explore new ways to bolster bilateral ties. ‘We want peaceful resolution of Kashmir with

DHAKA: Malaysia has declared August 22 as a national day of mourning for victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, when the remains of 15 victims will be brought back to Malaysia on a special flight.Making the announcement Thursday, deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin said,

DHAKA: A fiery Pakistani cleric Tahir ul-Qadri has will be allowed to lead his supporters on an anti-government protest march to the capital.A senior policeman said on Thursday, reversing an earlier government decision, reports The Straits Times.Tahir ul-Qadri has spent the last week

DHAKA: While the plane they were flying plunged 5,000 feet, a Jet Airways pilot was asleep and the co-pilot was busy on an iPad checking out flight information.Both have been suspended by aviation regulator DGCA which is now investigating the incident, reports NDTV.A total of 280

DHAKA: Israel and the Palestinians have begun a fresh five-day ceasefire in Gaza, agreed at the end of a three-day truce.As the ceasefire was announced, Israel launched air strikes in response to alleged rocket fire from Gaza.There were no more reports of violence overnight, and the two

DHAKA: Pope Francis has landed in South Korea, beginning his first visit to Asia since he took over the papacy in March 2013. During his trip, he will beatify Korean Catholics who died for their faith and attend a Catholic youth festival. The South Korean Catholic Church is one of the

DHAKA: Saudi Arabia has handed over a check for $100m to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to help finance the UN's centre to combat global terrorism. The UN chief welcomed the gift at a ceremony in his office and said the recent upsurge in terrorism in a number of countries and regions -

DHAKA: Fire erupted in right engine of Jet Airways flight headed to Bhopal from Delhi. All passengers evacuated safely, reports TOI BDST: 0944 HRS, AUG 14, 2014

DHAKA: A mass evacuation of Yazidis hiding from extremist fighters on Iraq's Sinjar Mountains is unlikely following an assessment by the U.S. State Department and military that found far fewer people trapped than previously feared. Once believed to be in the tens of thousands, the number

DHAKA: Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos died Wednesday when a small plane carrying him to a campaign stop crashed into a residential neighborhood, state media reported. All seven people aboard the the Cessna 560XL were killed when the aircraft crashed in the coastal city

DHAKA: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken an initiative to push for Parliamentary approval of the Land Boundary Agreement between India and Bangladesh before December 16, the victory day of the neighbouring country.The central leadership of the BJP has asked the party's West

DHAKA: Israel has launched air strikes on Gaza early Thursday after being targeted by rocket fire, just as agreement had been reached on extending a truce by five days.Israel's military said it was targeting "terror sites" after at least five rockets were launched from Gaza.The

DHAKA: Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia have come out belatedly against Israel’s attacks against Hamas in Gaza in response to rocket fire, as their antipathy to Hamas has been overshadowed, as of late, by anti-Israel rhetoric meant for the masses. As the war against Hamas began, Jordan,

DHAKA: Edward Snowden says dishonest comments to Congress by the US chief of national intelligence pushed him over the edge and prompted him to leak a trove of national security documents. In a wide-ranging interview with Wired magazine over several days from Moscow, Snowden said he had

DHAKA: Six people were killed in the Gaza Strip when an Israeli missile exploded amid attempts to dismantle it. The dead included two journalists, an Italian and a Palestinian, and a number of bomb disposal officers. The incident happened in the town of Beit Lahiya, in the north of the

DHAKA: France will deliver weapons to Kurdish forces fighting Islamic extremists in Iraq, French president Francois Hollande announced on Wednesday. ‘In order to respond to the urgent need expressed by the Kurdistan regional authorities, the president has decided, in agreement with

DHAKA: Taiwan’s science and technology minister said Wednesday that China is launching frequent cyber attacks on the island despite warming ties between the two former rivals.‘The Chinese cyberwar units have been engaging with Taiwan units almost every day, with some severe