ELYAKIM TRAINING BASE: Four years after its devastating war in south Lebanon, Israel says it hopes peace will hold but keeps its troops at the ready, claiming Hezbollah is stockpiling weapons in villages.At the Elyakim army base in northern Israel, a "village" of concrete structures, done

SYDNEY: Australia`s new prime minister Julia Gillard appeared Friday to be backing away from a controversial proposal to process asylum seekers bound for its shores in impoverished East Timor. Gillard Tuesday launched her bid for a regional processing centre with assurances she had

International Deskbanglanews24.com.bd/AFP UNITED NATIONS:  The UN Security Council was set to condemn the sinking of a South Korean warship but stop short of strongly censuring North Korea as demanded by Seoul and Washington, a draft statement said. The text, expected to be adopted by

PESHAWAR: A suicide attacker and suspected car bomb caused carnage in a busy Pakistani market outside a goverment office on Friday, killing 55 people and burying victims under pulverised shops. The devastation struck Yakaghund town in the district of Mohmand, one of seven that make up

SRINAGAR:  Indian security forces widened a curfew in Kashmir on Friday, the Muslim day of prayers, after anti-India separatists threatened fresh protests against the killing of locals. "We have widened the curfew to ensure a violence-free Friday," a police officer, who declined to be

SREBRENICA: Bosnians will mark Sunday 15 years since the darkest episode of the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia, the Srebrenica massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslims by Serbs. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the commemoration, including Serbian President Boris Tadic, who also

KABUL: A Taliban-style bomb has killed another NATO soldier in Afghanistan, the military NATO said Friday.The soldier, whose identity was not revealed, died after an attack with an improvised explosive device, or IED, in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, NATO`s International Security

LONDON: Iran has announced that a woman will not be stoned to death after being convicted of adultery following an international outcry, a paper reported Friday. The Islamic republic`s London embassy issued a statement, saying "according to information from the relevant judicial

ABUJA: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that new sanctions slapped on his country will not alter Tehran`s nuclear drive, remaining defiant in the face of growing Western pressure.Speaking on Thursday after meeting fellow Muslim leaders at a summit in Nigeria, the Iranian

WASHINGTON: General James Mattis was named Thursday as the new head of US Central Command, or CENTCOM, which has overall control of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mattis, whose appointment must be confirmed by the Senate, replaces General David Petraeus, who took over direct command

NEW YORK: Ten Russian spies headed for home Friday after being released by the United States in a sensational Cold War-style exchange for four Western agents. The 10 pleaded guilty in a New York federal court to acting as illegal agents for Moscow and were ordered expelled from the

JAKARTA: US and Indonesian scientists on Thursday launched a joint expedition to map some of the deepest oceanic trenches in the world for clues on biodiversity and volcanic vents, officials said.The US embassy in Jakarta said the first joint expedition by Indonesia and the United States

BEIJING: A Catholic priest and a nun were murdered in northern China this week, but the motive was not immediately clear, police said Thursday.AsiaNews, a Vatican-based news service, said Joseph Shulai Zhang and Sister Mary Wei Yanhui were apparently stabbed to death at the nursing home

BEIJING: An explosion at a mine in central China on Thursday killed at least six people and left 34 others injured, many of them residents living near the pit, local authorities said.The blast took place in Henan province`s Pingdingshan city, according to a report on the city`s official

GUWAHATI: A bomb planted on railway tracks in India`s restive northeast ripped through the engine and coach of a passenger train on Thursday, killing one and injuring seven, officials said.Police blamed the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) for the blast in the early

TOKYO: More than 100 people showed up and thousands more listened via the Internet to a recent suicide prevention workshop in Japan, a country where over 30,000 people kill themselves every year."Please, wait a minute before you hang yourself or start mixing chemicals and pills," Koji

SHAMWARI GAME RESERVE: Darting an African elephant is no easy task: its herd will try to revive it. A drugged lion will be killed by its pride. And a furious rhino can simply storm through sedation.Such situations are all in a day`s work in the South African bush for veterinarian Johan

NEW YORK: US prosecutors named top Al-Qaeda leaders Wednesday in an alleged attempt to bomb New York`s subway, saying their failed plot was part of a Pakistan-based campaign against US and British cities.The indictment dramatically broadened the case in which Afghan immigrant and Colorado

ATHENS: Greece faced a general strike Thursday after deputies approved a bill on the reform of the private-sector pension system, voting to raise the retirement age from 60 to 65.Socialist deputies and two independents late Wednesday backed the measure, considered a key plank of the

HAVANA: Cuba agreed to release 52 political prisoners Wednesday, in a breakthrough church-state deal set to yield the biggest prisoner release since President Raul Castro formally took the reins of power in 2008.The release, to include five dissidents, exceeds a bold demand by a