DHAKA: Floods in Malaysia this year are shaping up to be one of the worst since 2007, with more than 34,000 people evacuated so far and water levels continuing to rise in Johor, Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan.By Wednesday evening, the Johor authorities had evacuated 8,402 people from

DHAKA: At least 20 people were killed and dozens wounded on Thursday in a bomb attack and gun battles at Yemen’s defence ministry compound in Sanaa.A military source told media, reports The Jerusalem Post.Those killed include a number of militants who stormed the compound after a bomb

DHAKA: A US-based thinktank has claimed that India is expanding its ability to produce highly enriched uranium for military purposes, including more powerful nuclear weapons, citing satellite imagery of an under construction gas centrifuge facility near Mysore.In their latest report,

DHAKA: Dangerous radioactive medical material taken when a truck was stolen in Mexico has been found, local officials say.The material, cobalt-60, was removed from a protective casing and then abandoned nearby.The thieves may have been exposed to life-threatening radiation levels, but

DHAKA: Thailand’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej asked the nation to work together for ‘stability’, speaking at an event to mark his 86th birthday during a lull in political tensions after violent anti-government protests.The monarch, who is treated as a near-deity by many Thais,

DHAKA: An explosion and fighting have been reported near Yemen`s defence ministry building in the capital Sanaa.Smoke was seen rising from the complex in Bab al-Yaman district, at the entrance to the old city, reports the BBC.Witnesses heard gunshots as an ambulance rushed to the scene.

DHAKA: US President Barack Obama has called for action to remedy what he described as profound income inequality and a lack of social mobility in the United States of America.He called for a rise in the minimum wage and for stronger collective bargaining laws, among other measures,

DHAKA: Venezuela’s embassy in Kenya used diplomatic bags to smuggle drugs, a witness in a trial over the murder of the mission’s ambassador told a Nairobi court Wednesday.‘I am aware that the embassy was used to traffic drugs using the diplomatic bag,’ former embassy driver Kevin

DHAKA: Iraq’s prime minister has arrived in Iran’s capital for a three-day visit that will focus on the civil war in Syria and bilateral ties.Iranian state television says Nouri al-Maliki will hold talks with Iran’s top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, president Hassan Rouhani and

DHAKA: An Indonesian court on Wednesday jailed 14 Muslim Rohingya men from Myanmar for nine months each for bludgeoning eight Buddhists from their country to death in an Indonesian detention centre.The Rohingya asylum-seekers in April killed the Buddhist men, who had been detained for

DHAKA: Rocket fire against government-held areas of Syria’s main northern city of Aleppo killed at least 18 people on Wednesday, a monitoring group said.Among the dead were ‘five regime troops, including an officer’, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, reports The Straits

DHAKA: The widow of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said on Wednesday she was still convinced he was poisoned, after French experts ruled out the theory that he had been assassinated.‘I’m still completely convinced that the martyr Arafat did not die a natural death, and I will

DHAKA: Negative feelings in Hong Kong towards mainland Chinese are at their highest for some years, while sentiment about Japanese people remains comparatively warm, a poll shows.The Hong Kong University survey conducted in November showed 31.8 percent of Hong Kong people have

DHAKA: Thailand prime minister Yinlguck Shinawatra returned to her office on Wednesday for the first time in five days but her effort to show that normalcy was returning to Thailand after days of violent protests was upstaged by another rowdy rally at the national police

DHAKA: Russia’s foreign minister says an international deal aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons will in the long run eliminate any need for a missile defence system in Europe.American officials have said the missile defences it wants to install in Europe will

DHAKA: A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency has praised Japan for making progress in stabilising the Fukushima nuclear plant.However the team, which has spent 10 days inspecting the plant, also said the process of decommissioning Fukushima is ‘extremely complicated’.It

DHAKA: Americans take a positive view of the interim nuclear accord between the Western powers and Iran, according to poll results reported by the Politico news site.The survey, which was commissioned by a liberal organisation aligned with the Democratic Party, showed that 34 percent of

DHAKA: US vice president Joe Biden told Chinese president Xi Jinping on Wednesday that relations between the two countries must be built on trust.Biden, speaking in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, added that Xi is a candid person, and that candour generates trust which is the basis

DHAKA: Russia wants ‘stability and order’ in neighbouring Ukraine, where protests have erupted over a decision to spurn a trade pact with the European Union.Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev told a visiting Ukrainian official on Wednesday.Medvedev told Ukrainian deputy prime

DHAKA: Turkey’s popularity in the Middle East has dropped sharply over the past two years, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday, reflecting Ankara’s sometimes controversial foreign policy strategy.The biggest decline was registered in Egypt and war-ravaged Syria, where Turkey is