DHAKA: The two rival delegations at the Geneva peace talks have reportedly made first steps towards discussing a transitional government in the war-torn country.Syria’s opposition National Coalition spokesman Louay Safi said on Wednesday, reports The Voice of Russia.Safi called

DHAKA: At least 37 Philippine rebels have been killed in a two-day offensive in the south.Philippines military says, reports the BBC.President Benigno Aquino said the offensive would protect villages from rebels in Maguindanao province.The insurgents involved in fighting oppose a recent

DHAKA: Libya’s interior minister escaped unscathed from an assassination attempt in Tripoli on Wednesday.The Lana news agency reported, says The Straits Times.Seddik Abdelkarim, who is also deputy prime minister, was in his car when ‘unknown gunmen fired a barrage of bullets’ at the

DHAKA: Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said he still wants to hold peace talks with the Taliban, despite a wave of deadly attacks in recent months.Sharif named a four-member team to pursue negotiations with the militants.In a rare address to the National Assembly, he said

DHAKA: An Indian female politician and activist has said rape victims may have invited attacks by their clothes and behaviour, fuelling a national debate over a series of incidents of sexual violence against women.Asha Mirje, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader in western

DHAKA: Israeli soldiers shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian north of the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday.Palestinian medical and security sources said, reports The Straits Times.The shooting, which took place just north of the Ofra settlement, was confirmed by the Israeli army in

DHAKA: A former Norwegian minister nominated fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize in a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.‘He has contributed to revealing the extreme level of surveillance by nations against other nations and of citizens,’

DHAKA: Ukraine’s first post-independence president has warned the country is on the ‘brink of civil War’ as parliament debates an amnesty for protesters.Leonid Kravchuk, president from 1991 to 1994, opened the debate in parliament by urging everyone involved to ‘act with the

DHAKA: A final nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers can be achieved in a short period of time.Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday, Tehran Times publishes this report on Wednesday.He made the remarks during a meeting with former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who

DHAKA: A launch ceremony for education activist Malala Yousafzai’s book at a university in her native Pakistan was cancelled after pressure from the provincial government.Organisers and officials said on Tuesday, reports gulfnews.com.Malala, now 16, survived a Taliban assassination

DHAKA: Besieged since June, nearly 20,000 people in Damascus’ Yarmuk Palestinian camp are so desperate for food that many eat stray animals, and some women have resorted to prostitution, according to residents reached via the Internet.‘Many here have slaughtered and eaten cats and

DHAKA: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has said an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory should take place within a three-year period under any final Middle East peace deal.His remarks came as an April deadline loomed for faltering US-backed peace talks, which have been in

DHAKA: A Yale University study has found national capital Delhi the world’s most polluted city.It beats China’s Beijing, where pollution alerts prompted immediate government intervention.Delhi’s rising levels of pollution seem to have so far been ignored by government agencies.India

DHAKA: The United Nations Security Council voted Tuesday to not only continue its peacekeepers` mission in the tumultuous Central African Republic but to authorize the use of force by European Union troops there, the world body said.The decision came just over a week after the nation

DHAKA: A crisis in global education is costing governments $129bn a year, while 10 percent of spending on primary learning is lost on poor quality education that is failing children, a new report by UNESCO has said.The report, Teaching and learning: Achieving quality for all, released on

DHAKA: New Zealand prime minister John Key said on Wednesday he supported changing the national flag, but would hold a referendum before any decision was made to ditch the existing banner.The current flag has attracted criticism because one corner features the Union Jack, the symbol of

DHAKA: Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has criticised national broadcaster ABC for ‘taking everyone’s side but Australia’s’.Abbott said the publicly-funded broadcaster should show ‘some basic affection for the home team’, reports the BBC.The ABC has been at the forefront

DHAKA: President Barack Obama told Americans that 2014 should be the year to finally close the US prison at Guantanamo Bay as the United States winds down its military role in Afghanistan and shifts away from a "permanent war footing".In his annual State of the Union address on Wednesday,

DHAKA: Seven people were killed in Maharashtra when a luxury bus caught fire after colliding with a diesel tanker on the highway, late on Tuesday night.Fourteen others were injured in the accident, which took place at around 1 am near Manor on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, when most

DHAKA: India’s opposition criticised ruling party leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday for avoiding any expression of regret for the killings of Sikhs in riots three decades ago, a sensitive issue that threatens to dog him in a tight election due by May.Gandhi said the government led by his