DHAKA: At least 15 people have been killed and 10 severely burnt in an explosion at a gas pipeline at the site of the Indian state-owned Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) in Andhra Pradesh early Friday. The blast took place at around 5:30 am in Nagaram, around 560 km from Hyderabad,

DHAKA: US President Barack Obama has called on Congress to approve $500 million to train and equip vetted Syrian rebels, in what would be a significant escalation of US involvement in the conflict. Following several signals in recent weeks by the Obama administration - and months of

DHAKA: Myanmar and Thailand incinerated some US$400 million worth of narcotics on Thursday to mark World Drugs Day, but the UN warned opium production was on the rise in the region. In Myanmar, which has long struggled to control illegal drug production, some 1.3 tons of opium, 225

DHAKA: Iraq prime minister Nouri Maliki has told the BBC he supports an air strike on Islamist militants at a border crossing between Iraq and Syria. Military and rebel sources say the strike took place inside Iraq, at the Qaim crossing, although Maliki said it was carried out on the

DHAKA: Thousands of Muslims in India have signed up to defend Iraq’s holy shrines and, if need be, fight Sunni Islamist militants in the country where the civilian death toll from the Sunni insurgents’ advance is estimated at least 1,300. Denouncing the militants of the Islamic State

DHAKA: Nepalese prime minister Sushil Koirala is suffering from lung cancer, the country’s information minister said on Thursday, contradicting earlier claims by his party that doctors had ruled out the illness.Koirala, 75, travelled to New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer

DHAKA: A suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into the entrance of an army base in the central Yemeni city of Seiyun, killing two soldiers on Thursday, security officials said. At the same time, soldiers clashed with suspected Al-Qaeda militants at the city’s nearby airport,

DHAKA: Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, the top two leaders of the Congress, have been asked to appear in a Delhi court on August 7 in a case that accuses them of cheating and criminal breach of trust. The case has been filed by the BJP’s Subramanian Swamy who claims that the

DHAKA: Iraq’s presidency issued a decree on Thursday for a parliament session on July 1, state TV said, starting the process of forming a new government amid an insurgency that threatens the country’s unity. Iraq’s vice-president Khudair al-Khuzai, who is acting president and a

DHAKA: News Corporation executive chairman Rupert Murdoch was in London on Thursday, amid reports that police want to question him in the wake of the phone-hacking trial. The 83-year-old US-based media mogul flew into London, after the high-profile trial concluded with the conviction of

DHAKA: Iraqi security officials said that fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were advancing on the Haditha Dam, the second-largest in Iraq, raising the possibility of catastrophic damage and flooding. Worries about the dam came as prime minister Nouri al-Maliki

DHAKA: Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was almost certainly on autopilot when it ran out of fuel and crashed, Australian officials said Thursday as they announced their search will shift further south. Investigators have been grappling with the mystery of the Boeing 777’s disappearance

DHAKA: Kenyan police have arrested the governor of the coastal Lamu district in connection with three recent massacres in which over 60 people were killed. Officers said on Thursday, reports The Straits Times. Governor Issa Timamy was arrested late on Wednesday in connection with

DHAKA: A senior Thai general has told the BBC that last month’s military coup had not been planned in advance. It comes after an opposition leader claimed the army had been discussing overthrowing the government for years. Lt Gen Chatchalerm Chalermsukh also said those detained by the

DHAKA: The underwater search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is moving to an area farther south in the southern Indian Ocean, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said Thursday. Describing the next phase of the hunt for the missing plane as a "very challenging and complex

DHAKA: Australian authorities most likely will announce the next search area for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on Thursday, a senior Malaysian official told CNN on condition of anonymity. The search area will be "refined," rather than brand new, and still will be in the southern Indian

DHAKA: An explosion rocked a parking lot at a crowded plaza in Nigeria's capital, killing 21 people and injuring 17 others, authorities said. The blast happened about 4pm Wednesday in Abuja's "ever-busy Emab Plaza ... at the peak of business," said Ezekiel Manzo, spokesman for Nigeria's

DHAKA: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the fourth most "followed" world leader on Twitter, has overtaken the White House in terms of number of followers on the microblogging site, an annual global study of world leaders Thursday revealed. According to Twiplomacy, a study conducted

DHAKA: India external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday spoke to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee about Sushma’s two-day trip in Bangladesh. According to official sources, Swaraj made a call to Mamata to ‘touch-base’ and tell her about the visit during which the

DHAKA: An earthquake of magnitude 5.6 struck off the coast of the Philippine island of Luzon on Wednesday, around 400km from Manila, the capital. The United States Geological Survey said, reports The Straits Times. The quake at a depth of 77km, hit at 1152 GMT. There were no immediate