DHAKA: The leader of a banned Pakistani sectarian militant group who was set to walk free from jail is being held for two more weeks in a murder case.Officials said on Thursday, reports The Straits Times.Malik Ishaq, the head of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) which is dedicated to killing

DHAKA: Pope Francis led Christmas Eve mass in the Vatican calling for ‘tenderness’ and ‘warmth’ after a violence-plagued year as millions of Christians began marking the holiday. The Argentine pontiff’s brief homily was replete with Gospel references in his Christmas Eve mass,

DHAKA: More than 2,000 people have fled their homes in the restive Indian state of Assam after separatist rebels killed dozens of villagers, some of them children.An Indian official said Thursday, reports The Straits Times.Residents sought shelter in makeshift camps set up by the state

DHAKA: In a squalid camp in eastern Lebanon, a school in a tent with a chalkboard and brightly coloured desks offers children who fled Syria’s war a chance of an education. Thousands of child refugees are studying at dozens of makeshift schools across Lebanon, including 11-year-old

DHAKA: Christians from across the world have gathered in the West Bank town of Bethlehem to mark Christmas Eve in the place they believe Jesus was born. Celebrations culminated with midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity. In a homily, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, called on Jews,

DHAKA: The Sierra Leone government has declared a five-day lockdown in the country's north to step up efforts to contain the Ebola epidemic, while making an exception for Christmas. The lockdown is designed to intensify the containment of the Ebola virus, the government said on

DHAKA: Sony Pictures is distributing its film The Interview online, after a cyber-attack and a row over its release. The film is being offered through a dedicated website - seetheinterview.com - as well as via Google and Microsoft but is only available in the US. Sony had previously

DHAKA: Indian government on Wednesday announced the prestigious Bharat Ratna, neighboring country's highest civilian honour, for their former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and a freedom fighter Madan Mohan Malaviya.A meeting of the Union Cabinet was convened in New Delhi on

DHAKA: Islamic State (IS) militants have shot down a US-led coalition warplane over northern Syria.The activists said this which reposts the BBC.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the aircraft, believed to be from an Arab state, went down near Raqqa.The UK-based group said the

DHAKA: At least 55 people, including 20 children, were killed in a series of coordinated attacks by suspected militants in Assam on Tuesday. Here are 10 developments in this big story:     Men, women and children were shot dead with AK-47 bullets in five attacks within the space of an

DHAKA: Former US President George Bush Senior has been taken to hospital after suffering from a shortness of breath, his spokesman says.Bush, 90, was taken to the Houston Methodist Hospital as a precaution, and "will be held for observation, again as a precaution", said Jim McGrath.Two

DHAKA: A global arms trade treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar business has come into force - a move hailed as "a new chapter" by UN chief Ban Ki-moon. He said he hoped the treaty would help prevent the transfer of weapons to "warlords, human rights abusers, terrorists and criminal

DHAKA: A comedy film about North Korea that had its Christmas Day launch cancelled after a major cyber attack and threats against US cinema-goers is now to get a limited theatrical release, Sony says. The Interview will be shown in some independent US cinemas on Thursday, reports the BBC

DHAKA: At least 10 children have been killed after two schools were hit in a series of air strikes carried out by the Syrian government in Damascus and villages in the Idlib province, sources say. Military jets dropped barrel bombs on a school in the town of Safohan in Idlib province on

DHAKA: Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand assembly polls came out on Tuesday with the PDP emerging as the single-largest party in Jammu and Kashmir and the BJP with its ally the AJSU getting simple majority in Jharkhand.Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP got 28 seats in Jammu and Kashmir with the BJP

DHAKA: At least 20 people were killed Monday when an explosion rocked a bus station in the northeast Nigerian city of Gombe, which has recently come under repeated attacks blamed on Boko Haram insurgents, officials said.The incident happened when a homemade bomb planted near a bus

DHAKA: Thirteen Taliban fighters have been killed in a shootout with police forces in the Pakistani city of Karachi, according to the police.A police official has said those killed belonged to the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, and were in police

DHAKA: Some internet services have been restored in North Korea after an almost unprecedented internet outage, amid a cyber security row with the US. Though there has been no comment from the authorities in Pyongyang, US experts reported the restoration, reports BBC. Some analysts say

DHAKA: Hong Kong property tycoon Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong on Tuesday was locked up for five years and fined HK$500,000 for his part in Hong Kong's biggest ever graft trial. Before sending him to prison Mr Justice Andrew Macrae said there was "absolutely no doubt Mr Kwok is at heart a good

DHAKA: Pakistan plans to execute around 500 militants in coming weeks, officials said Monday, after the government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in terror cases following a Taliban school massacre. Six militants have been hanged since Friday amid rising public anger over