DHAKA: Thailand’s military government gave preliminary approval on Wednesday for a draft law to make commercial surrogacy a criminal offence, following a spate of dramatic surrogacy scandals in the past two weeks. The case of an Australian couple accused of abandoning their Down

DHAKA: Iraq’s caretaker prime minister Nuri al-Maliki said Wednesday that it will take a federal court ruling for him to leave power, defying president Fuad Masum’s decision to task a rival with forming the next government. ‘I confirm that the government will continue and there

LONDON: A Bangladeshi born ‘jihadist’ has died while fighting in Syria.  The deceased jihadist (in Islamic term ‘mujahid’) Muhammad Hamidur Rahman, 25, is a British citizen, used to live at Portsmouth. He left the UK last October after telling his family he was going to deliver

DHAKA: The outlook for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is poor despite conservation efforts, with further deterioration expected in coming years, a report says. The bleak forecast came in a five-yearly report released by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Climate change

DHAKA: A Thai Airways plane flying from Sydney to Bangkok was forced to make an emergency landing in Bali on Tuesday after a broken cockpit window caused the cabin pressure to drop, according to reports.Flight TG467 was carrying 272 passengers when it touched down at Bali’s Ngurah Rai

DHAKA: US president Barack Obama has appealed for calm in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting of a black teenager by police sparked two nights of violence. He described the death on Saturday of Michael Brown as heartbreaking and added: ‘Remember this young man through reflection and

DHAKA: Egypt presented a proposed cease-fire to Israel and Hamas aimed at ending the monthlong war, Palestinian officials said early Wednesday after negotiators huddled for a second day of Egyptian-mediated talks meant to resolve the crisis and bring relief to the embattled Gaza

DHAKA: Indian President Pranab Mukherjee has from a public stage reminded the country's lawmakers that they must uphold Parliament's dignity, after members of the Trinamool Congress and the Telugu Desam Party or TDP engaged in an unseemly squabble over a room in Parliament."Please,

DHAKA: The Ebola virus has killed 1,013 people and infected another 1,848, latest World Health Organisation data showed.The fatalities include 52 deaths recorded between August 7-9 in the three West African countries at the centre of the epidemic - Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone -

DHAKA: The skies over Gaza remained calm on the second day Tuesday of a 72-hour truce as negotiators in Cairo prepared to tackle the thorny issue of the Israeli blockade. As Gaza’s residents ventured out to try to piece together their battered lives, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators

DHAKA: South Africa plans to evacuate hundreds of rhinos from the famed Kruger National Park to safe havens out of horn smugglers’ reach.The environment minister announced Tuesday, reports The Straits Times.‘A decision has been made on this issue of translocation,’ said Edna

DHAKA: A Turkish aid group said it would send ships again to challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza, four years after Israeli commandos stormed its flotilla bound for the Palestinian territory and killed 10 people.The incident wrecked diplomatic ties between Turkey and Israel, once

DHAKA: India prime minister Narendra Modi accused Pakistan of waging a proxy war in Kashmir on Tuesday as he became the first Indian prime minister to visit the town of Kargil since more than 1,000 died in a battle fought there 15 years ago.Modi landed in the remote Himalayan town a

DHAKA: More than 300 illegal residents were arrested during June and July as part of a police campaign launched in the emirate to stem loitering in public places.Sharjah Police said, gulfnews.com reports.The 370 suspects were of various nationalities. The police said those caught had

DHAKA: Egypt is considering granting citizenship to stateless people living in the Persian Gulf countries in an effort to attract investments into the country.Under the economic citizenship proposal, an investment fund would be set up and its capital would be collected from the

DHAKA: At least 137 Taliban insurgents and three Afghan soldiers were killed in an Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) operation in eastern Nangarhar province in the past week. Local officials said, tolonews.com reports. Fifty-three other insurgents were injured in the operation.

DHAKA: Almost 300 lorries of humanitarian aid have left the Moscow area bound for eastern Ukraine. Russia has said, reports the BBC. Russian media said the cargo, including hundreds of tonnes of grain, baby food, power generators and medicine, will go to civilians trapped by fighting in

DHAKA: The United States has no plans to expand its air campaign in Iraq beyond protecting American personnel in the city of Arbil and besieged Yazidi refugees.The Pentagon said on Monday, The Straits Times publishes this report on Tuesday.‘There are no plans to expand the current

DHAKA: Liberia will receive an untested experimental drug, Zmapp, to treat people infected with Ebola, the Liberian government says. The move came after a request to the US from Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, reports BBC. The news came as medical ethics specialists met in

DHAKA: At least three workers died and 17 others were injured when a six-storey building under construction collapsed just outside Bangkok, police said Monday, as rescuers searched for an unknown number of missing people.The planned student accommodation block crashed down at around