DHAKA: Thousands of illegal foreigners, mostly unskilled workers from Asia, are rushing to leave Saudi Arabia before an amnesty expires on Sunday as they risk being fined or even jailed.Nearly a million Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis, among others, have

DHAKA: The Pakistani Taliban voted on Saturday to promote their No 2 commander, Khan Said, also known as Sajna, to replace leader Hakimullah Mehsud, who was killed in a strike by a US drone.Militant commanders and security sources said, reports The Straits Times.Said is believed to have

DHAKA: Syrian government forces Friday took control of a key town in the north after several weeks of heavy fighting and a rebel withdrawal.Syrian state television said government forces had taken full control of the town of Safira, southeast of Aleppo, ‘after a series of strategic

DHAKA: US president Barack Obama on Saturday called for an end to ‘manufactured crises and self-inflicted wounds’ as he urged Republicans and Democrats in Congress to approve a new federal budget.Obama, speaking in his weekly radio address, said that what most people hear out of

DHAKA: A United States businessman says he told federal investigators the location of Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan years before his killing and is seeking a US$25 million reward.A letter obtained Friday by media from a Chicago-based law firm representing Tom Lee says the

DHAKA: An act of love between Martin the zebra and Giada the donkey in the romantic Italian city of Florence has produced a rare ‘zonkey’ baby that is drawing crowds to an exotic animal shelter.Three-month-old Ippo is already a star, and the owners of the farm say they have received

DHAKA: Two Bangladeshi shopkeepers were beaten to death in South Africa on Thursday, the latest in a series of violent attacks against immigrants.A police spokesman said the men, aged 26 and 27, were found dead in the back room of their shop near the casino resort of Sun City, north-west

DHAKA: At least two men have been shot dead in a drive-by shooting outside Greece`s Golden Dawn party office in Athens, police said.Two attackers on a motorbike seriously injured one more man in Friday`s incident in the Iraklio neighbourhood, according to information published on the

DHAKA: China and Indonesia demanded explanations from Australia on Friday over reports that Canberra`s missions were involved in a vast US-led surveillance network, as the row souring US-Europe relations spread in Asia.US Secretary of State John Kerry admitted US spying had sometimes gone

DHAKA: Niger says it will close illegal migrant camps in the north of the country after 92 people who died of thirst were found in the Sahara.All those involved in trafficking migrants would be "severely punished", the government said.The bodies of 52 children, 33 women and seven men were

DHAKA: Pirates operating off the Horn of Africa netted more than $400m (£251m) in ransom money between 2005 and 2012, a new World Bank and UN report says.It says the financiers behind the piracy, and not the pirates themselves, collect most of the cash.The money is then used to fund

other people wounded in a shooting at Los Angeles International Airport, officials say.The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said three of its staff had been injured, one fatally.The suspect - named by the FBI as 23-year-old Los Angeles resident Paul Anthony Ciancia - was

DHAKA: Germany and Brazil have asked the UN General Assembly to adopt a draft resolution calling for the right to privacy in the digital age.The draft calls for an end to excessive electronic surveillance, noting that the illegal collection of personal data "constitutes a highly intrusive

DHAKA: A US drone strike has killed Hakimullah Mehsud, the head of the Pakistani Taliban, in North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan, Pakistani sources have told Al Jazeera."We can confirm Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in the drone strike," said the source on Friday.Al Jazeera`s Kamal

DHAKA: UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said that a proposed Geneva peace conference to end the war in Syria could not be held without the participation of the opposition."If the opposition does not participate there will be no Geneva conference," Brahimi said at a news conference

DHAKA: Thailand`s parliament has moved another step closer to passing controversial political amnesty legislation that opponents fear would allow ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to return.Thousands took to the streets on Friday to protest against the draft bill, raising fears of

DHAKA: Israeli artillery fire in the southern Gaza Strip has killed four Palestinian fighters and wounded others, officials from both sides said.The local commanders of Hamas` military wing were killed by tank fire, Palestinian officials said on Friday, while the Israeli army said five of

DHAKA: US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that in some cases, US spying has gone too far.Mr Kerry is the most senior Obama administration official to have commented directly on an issue that has upset America`s European allies.He said he will work with the president to prevent

DHAKA: Syria has destroyed all of its declared chemical weapons production and mixing facilities, meeting a major deadline in an ambitious disarmament programme, the international chemical weapons watchdog said in a document.The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)

DHAKA: Stranded in the unforgiving expanses of Niger`s Sahara Desert after their vehicles broke down, 90 of people, almost all of them women and children, slowly died of thirst.The migrants had been trying to reach Algeria, Azaoua Mahaman of the Synergie nongovernmental organization said