DHAKA: Tension was running at fever pitch in eastern Ukraine on Saturday on the eve of an independence referendum, as rebels briefly held several Red Cross staff on suspicion of espionage. While preparations were in full swing for the disputed vote in the two eastern regions of Donetsk

DHAKA: US First Lady Michelle Obama is to deliver her husband’s weekly presidential address to condemn last month’s abduction of Nigerian girls. First ladies normally refrain from outspoken foreign policy remarks, but Michelle has been a vocal campaigner for the release of more than

DHAKA: Thailand’s pro-government Red Shirts began massing on Saturday in Bangkok to challenge a bid by opposition protesters to install an unelected regime in power after the removal of the prime minister. The dismissal of premier Yingluck Shinawatra and nine ministers by the

DHAKA: The UN Security Council strongly condemned the abduction of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls, as the world body’s secretary general dispatched an envoy to help find them. The diplomatic moves came after Amnesty International said that Nigeria’s military had been warned of an

DHAKA: US embassy officers shot and killed two armed Yemeni civilians who tried to kidnap them in the capital Sanaa, a State Department official has said. Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson at the department, said in a statement to news agency AFP on Friday: "We can confirm that, last

DHAKA: US First Lady Michelle Obama is to deliver her husband's weekly presidential address to condemn last month's abduction of Nigerian girls. First ladies normally refrain from outspoken foreign policy remarks, but Mrs Obama has been a vocal campaigner for the release of more than 200

DHAKA: A hot air balloon burst into flames and crashed in Virginia on Friday night, prompting a search for the wreckage and the three people believed to be on board. The incident happened over Doswell, 25 miles north of Richmond, said Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation

DHAKA: The Nigerian military was given up to four hours' advance notice of the Boko Haram attack on the boarding school in Chibok from where more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped, according to sources independently verified by Al Jazeera and Amnesty International. Two politicians from

DHAKA: South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar have agreed a peace deal after a five-month conflict. The deal calls for an immediate truce and the formation of a transitional government ahead of the drafting of a new constitution and new elections. The conflict

DHAKA: President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Crimea, his first visit to the peninsula since Russia annexed it from Ukraine in March. He addressed sailors in Sevastopol harbour as part of celebrations marking the 1945 Soviet victory over the Nazis. The Kiev government protested at the

DHAKA: Thousands of protesters have surrounded Bangkok's Government House seeking the removal of Thailand's embattled caretaker government, amid soaring political tensions in the wake of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra's ouster. The People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC),

DHAKA: Nigeria's president said that his country will win its "war on terror", despite another attack by armed fighters in the northeast that reportedly killed hundreds. Speaking at the World Ecomomic Forum in Abuja on Thursday, Goodluck Jonathan thanked foreign nations for their support

DHAKA: Thirteen people were on Friday killed and three others seriously injured when a train rammed into a jeep at an unmanned railway crossing in Kothipur area, Uttar Pradesh of India. The incident took place at 1 am Friday when the jeep carrying 16 persons was returning from a marriage

DHAKA: A strong earthquake of 6.8-magnitude has shaken parts of Mexico, causing buildings to sway in the capital.The US Geological Survey (USGS) said it was centered near the town of Tecpan de Galeana in southern Guerrero state, about 190 miles (300km) south-west of Mexico City.It was

DHAKA: A global team of experts reviewing data relating to the missing Malaysia Airlines jet will need at least two weeks to complete the task, an official said Thursday. “They are following best practice and they need to be thorough,” a spokeswoman for Australia’s Joint Agency

DHAKA: The head of general intelligence in eastern Libya was gunned down in the flashpoint city of Benghazi on Thursday. An intelligence source said, reports The Straits Times. Colonel Ibrahim al-Senussi Akila was shot dead near the Medical Centre in the city centre, the source told

DHAKA: A court in Pakistan has granted bail to an agent with the US FBI who was arrested for carrying ammunition while trying to board a flight in Karachi. The agent was released after paying a bail bond of 1 million rupees and handed to the US consulate. He was held under

DHAKA: India’s state air monitoring centre made a rare admission on Thursday that pollution in New Delhi was comparable with Beijing, but disputed a WHO finding that the Indian capital had the dirtiest atmosphere in the world. A study of 1,600 cities across 91 countries released on

DHAKA: Thailand’s former caretaker prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was on Thursday indicted by the nation’s anti-graft body for negligence in a state rice purchase scheme, putting her at risk of impeachment by the Senate. Yingluck was on Wednesday forced out of office by the

DHAKA: Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan pledged on Thursday to find more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist rebels, saying their rescue would mark ‘the beginning of the end of terrorism’ in the country. Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) being hosted in the capital