DHAKA: Iran has installed hundreds more centrifuges that could enable it to enrich uranium faster since May, a UN atomic watchdog report showed on Wednesday, as long-stalled talks were due to resume.‘Iran has continued to install IR-2m centrifuges in one of the units’ at the Natanz

DHAKA: The UK prime minister David Cameron has held an emergency meeting on Syria, after Britain drafted a UN Security Council resolution authorising ‘necessary measures’ to protect civilians in the country.David Cameron said the resolution condemned the ‘chemical weapons attack by

DHAKA: Pope Francis has phoned an Argentine woman to comfort her and tell her she is not alone after she wrote a letter to him saying she was raped by a policeman.Pope Francis has brought an informal, friendly style to the papacy since his election in March, including a habit of

DHAKA: United Nations inspectors, in Syria to determine whether forces have used chemical weapons in the civil war, need four days to conclude their investigation and time to analyse the findings.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday, reports The Straits Times.‘They are

DHAKA: Israel is deploying all of its missile defences as a precaution against possible Syrian retaliatory attacks should Western powers carry out threatened strikes on Syria.Israeli Army Radio said on Wednesday, reports The Straits Times.Citing secrecy requirements, it did not give

DHAKA: Best-selling Indian novelist Chetan Bhagat faced nationwide anger on social media sites on Wednesday after tweeting that the country’s plunging currency had been ‘raped’.The comments by Bhagat, known for his romantic, funny novels which are popular with India`s middle-class

DHAKA: The UN atomic agency and Iran will hold a new round of talks in late September over Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.This will be the first such meeting since relative moderate Hassan Rouhani took office as Iranian president.The meeting has been set for September 27, a

DHAKA: Any US military action taken in response to apparent chemical weapons attacks in Syria would need to be approved by the UN Security Council.Syria international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said on Wednesday, reports The Jerusalem Post.‘I think international law is clear on this.

DHAKA: Germany on Wednesday urged states, especially Russia, to support a British draft resolution to the UN Security Council condemning attacks by Syrian president Bashar Assad and authorising ‘necessary measures’ to protect civilians.‘We welcome the British initiative to get the

DHAKA: The French parliament will hold an extraordinary session on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Syria.French government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said, reports The Jerusalem Post.‘The president has taken the decision to summon parliament on Wednesday to assess the

DHAKA: Egypt’s interim cabinet will approve a plan on Wednesday to stimulate the economy over the next nine months.Al-Ahram newspaper quoted Egypt’s planning minister Ashraf al-Arabi as saying, reports The Straits Times.The government has said it plans to avoid raising taxes or

DHAKA: Coordinated bombings ripped through mostly Shia neighbourhoods in the Baghdad area during rush hour on Wednesday, killing at least 65 people, the latest in spiralling violence in recent months.More than a dozen explosions-most of them car bombs, but also at least two suicide

DHAKA: China has confirmed its police conducted a raid last week on an alleged terrorist cell in the restive north-western region of Xinjiang.Officials have refused to discuss the bloody August 20 incident. Details about the death toll and identities of those killed remain

DHAKA: The UK is to put a resolution to the UN Security Council later on Wednesday ‘authorising necessary measures to protect civilians’ in Syria.The resolution will be put forward at a meeting of the five permanent members of the council, UK prime minister David Cameron said on

DHAKA: An Al-Qaeda affiliate threatened a ‘Volcano of Revenge’ against Syrian government security and military targets in retaliation for a suspected poison attack near Damascus, the SITE Monitoring Group reported late on Tuesday.A branch of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant

DHAKA: Syrian president Bashar Assad’s regime forces bombed the Jobar neighbourhood in eastern Damascus with toxic chemicals in a mortar attack.Activists reported on Wednesday, according to The Jerusalem Post.The Syrian Support Group tweeted the use of poisonous gases on Free Syrian

DHAKA: A series of co-ordinated bombings in the Iraqi capital Baghdad has killed at least 44 people and wounded dozens more.Police and medical sources say, reports the BBC.The bombs targeted mainly Shia neighbourhoods during the rush hour.Several blasts in the northern district of

DHAKA: Russia told UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi that attacking Syria to punish the government for the alleged use of poison gas would destabilise the country and the region.Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday, reports The Jerusalem Post.In a telephone call on Tuesday,

DHAKA: Authorities say a small plane crashed in western Germany, killing four adults and one child and injuring three other children.The dpa news agency reported on Wednesday that the single-engine Piper crashed on Tuesday evening in a field in the Dortmund area, reports The Straits

DHAKA: A series of bombings across Baghdad killed 16 people and wounded 85 on Wednesday.Police and medical sources said, reports The Jerusalem Post.The worst attack was in Kadhimiya, a district in the northwest of the capital, where several explosions killed five people and wounded nearly