DHAKA: Russia’s navy said on Friday fighter jets had started training exercises over the Mediterranean Sea, an announcement that is likely to raise tensions in the stand-off with Ukraine over the future of Crimea.Navy spokesman Vadim Serga told Interfax news agency sorties had begun

DHAKA: The Philippines and Muslim rebels are to sign a treaty on March 27 to end one of Asia’s longest and deadliest rebellions.A senior aide to Philippines president Benigno Aquino said on Friday, reports The Straits Times.The terms of the deal, completed in January after drawn-out

DHAKA: A bomb blast on Friday killed 10 people and wounded 31 others in Pakistan’s restive south-western city of Quetta.Pakistan officials said, reports The Straits Times.City police chief Abdul Razzaq Cheema said a vehicle carrying security forces appeared to have been the target of

DHAKA: Hackers knocked out the Russian presidency’s website several times on Friday and brought down the central bank website.The Kremlin press service said, reports The Jerusalem Post.‘A powerful cyber attack is under way on the (Kremlin) site,’ a Kremlin spokeswoman said, adding

DHAKA: A special tribunal hearing a landmark treason case against Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf on Friday ordered him to appear in person on March 31 or face arrest.The court was due to indict Musharraf on Friday over his 2007 imposition of emergency rule, but

DHAKA: Interim president Adly Mansour said Egypt will have an elected leader in 21/2 months, in an interview published on Friday by the state-owned Al-Ahram daily.The presidential election is seen as a major milestone in a transitional roadmap outlined by the military-installed

DHAKA: Russia has blocked three major opposition news websites as well as the popular blog of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the latest in a media crackdown that comes amid Moscow’s standoff with the West over Ukraine.The government’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor said late Thursday

DHAKA: Rescuers scouring the rubble of two Manhattan apartment buildings levelled in a gas explosion found the body of an eighth victim on Thursday, nearly 36 hours after the disaster.An unspecified number of people remain missing after Wednesday’s building collapse in East Harlem,

DHAKA: A knife attack in China`s southern Hunan province has killed at least three people, Chinese state media say.Men armed with knives attacked civilians on Friday morning on a street in Changsha, Hunan`s provincial capital, the media said.One attacker was shot dead by police, it was

DHAKA: The US has circulated a draft resolution to the UN Security Council that would declare Sunday`s planned referendum on independence for Ukraine`s Crimea region illegal but Russia has pledged to veto it, council diplomats said on Thursday.Diplomats said the one-page resolution would

DHAKA: A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck early Friday in the sea that separates three of Japan`s main islands, about 100 miles southwest of Hiroshima, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.The quake happened at 2:07 a.m. and was centered in the Inland Sea at a depth of 80 kilometers, the

DHAKA: US officials helping with the search for Flight MH370 were shifting focus to the "Indian Ocean region".However, one official told the BBC that this did not necessary mean specific new leads.White House spokesman Jay Carney said fresh lines of investigation were the reason why the

DHAKA: Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia was not to blame for the crisis over Ukraine’s Crimea region.At a meeting with paralympic delegations in the Black Sea city of Sochi, Putin thanked officials for keeping politics out of the Winter Paralympics being

DHAKA: Pope Francis is celebrating his first year in office.The Argentinean-born pontiff is currently on a week-long spiritual retreat with cardinals and bishops in the Alban Hills near Rome.Italian opinion polls give Pope Francis the highest popularity rating of any recent

DHAKA: Two Muslim Brotherhood leaders, wanted in Egypt for allegedly inciting deadly violence, have been arrested in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.Judicial sources have said, reports gulfnews.com.The International Police (Interpol) arrested Akram Al Shaer, a former Egyptian lawmaker, in Saudi

DHAKA: Russia said on Thursday it was stepping up field training for tank, artillery and infantry units in three regions next to the Ukrainian border in a powerful display of military might.The move came as thousands of paratroopers also began exercises close to Ukraine on Thursday, while

DHAKA: Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday voted unanimously to create a new National Guard of 60,000 volunteers who could stand up in the face of Russia’s expansionist threat.The 262-0 vote in the Verkhovna Rada parliament came ahead of Sunday’s disputed referendum in Crimea, now

DHAKA: Thai police have discovered about 200 suspected Turkish refugees at a secret camp in the kingdom’s deep south, officials said on Thursday, describing the case as ‘unprecedented’.Thailand has long been a hub for people trafficking, with thousands of Rohingya boat people from

DHAKA: Four men convicted of raping and murdering a woman in New Delhi had their death sentences upheld on Thursday for a crime that caused a huge public backlash against an entrenched culture of violence against women in India.The Delhi High court upheld the order to hang the four handed

DHAKA: German chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday that Russia risked ‘massive’ political and economic damage if it refused to change course on Ukraine.‘Ladies and gentlemen, if Russia continues on its course of the past weeks, it will not only be a catastrophe for Ukraine,’