DHAKA: The Syrian government reiterated its rejection on Saturday of a proposal to form a transitional ruling body as part of a political solution to the country’s nearly three-year conflict.‘We have complete reservations regarding it,’ Syria information minister Omran Zoabi told

DHAKA: India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looks set to form the next government in looming elections, while the ruling Congress is headed for its worst-ever defeat.Polls published on Saturday suggested, reports The Straits Times.The BJP-led National Democratic

DHAKA: A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia`s main island of Java on Saturday, the US Geological Survey reported, sending panicked residents running from their homes.People in the town of Adipala near the epicentre said they felt the ground shaking hard for up to 20 seconds, as

DHAKA: Popular Gmail service went offline just after 2 p.m. ET on Friday. Eighteen minutes later, some functionality appeared to be restored though the service was still having trouble sending messages.Google Inc suffered a service outage on Friday that briefly took down Gmail, the email

DHAKA: A Texas judge ordered a Fort Worth hospital to remove a pregnant and brain-dead woman from respirators and ventilators on Friday, perhaps ending a wrenching legal debate about who is alive, who is dead and how the presence of a fetus changes the equation. Erick Munoz, husband of

DHAKA: Search teams combed ice-covered debris for dozens of elderly people reported missing in the aftermath of a fire at a senior retirement complex in a small town in Canada`s Quebec province, a police official said Friday.At least eight people died in the fire that swept through the

DHAKA: Syria`s opposition and government will meet "in the same room" in Geneva on Saturday after the first day of a peace conference ended with no direct talks.UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who held talks with both sides on Friday, said they all understood that the conference was trying to

DHAKA: Syria threatened to quit peace talks in Geneva by Saturday, criticising the opposition delegation as "not serious," state television said.Foreign Minister Walid "Muallem has told (UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar) Brahimi that should serious sessions fail to take place by

DHAKA: North Korea has sent an open letter to the South calling for reconciliation and an end to "hostile military acts".The letter, published in North Korea`s state media, comes weeks before South Korea is due to hold joint military drills with the US.South Korea dismissed the letter as

DHAKA: A plume of black smoke rose over Cairo early Friday after a powerful explosion hit the city`s police headquarters, killing at least four people and wounding more than 50 others, Egyptian authorities said.The blast struck a key symbol of authority in a country that has been shaken

DHAKA: Interim President Catherine Samba-Panza urged fighters to put down their arms as she took the oath of office, even as looters pillaged Muslim neighbourhoods and sectarian tensions escalated in the anarchic Central African Republic.Samba-Panza, the nation`s first female leader, was

DHAKA: South Sudan`s government and rebels have signed a ceasefire agreement after talks in Ethiopia.Under the deal, signed in a hotel in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the fighting is due to come to an end within 24 hours.In the past week, government forces have recaptured the two

DHAKA: As many as 31 elderly Canadians are unaccounted for and five are confirmed dead after a fire destroyed an old people`s home in Quebec of Cananda.Prime Minister Stephen Harper said there was little doubt the loss of life at Residence du Havre in L`Isle-Verte would be

DHAKA: Egyptian interim prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi said on Thursday he backed General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for president, one of the highest-level endorsements for a widely expected presidential bid by the army chief.General Sisi, who deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July

DHAKA: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said after international talks in Switzerland that the rival Syrian delegations said they would sit down for direct talks on Friday and that they should start with confidence-building measures.Lavrov, who said he held talks with Syrian foreign

DHAKA: Ukrainian opposition leaders have issued an ultimatum to president Viktor Yanukovych, after talks failed to resolve the political stalemate.Vitali Klitschko said he would lead pro-EU protesters ‘on the attack’ in the capital, Kiev, if the government refused to call snap

DHAKA: Thailand’s Constitutional Court said it would decide on Thursday whether to accept a case against holding February 2 election that would almost certainly extend the government’s shaky grip on power as protesters try to force it from office. The government declared a 60-day

DHAKA: Five policemen have been killed in Egypt in an armed attack on a checkpoint south of Cairo.Egypt interior ministry has said, reports the BBC.Two others were injured, one seriously, in the attack in Beni Suef province, some 100km from the capital.Two men riding motorcycles ‘opened

DHAKA: Police in India`s West Bengal have held 13 people in connection with a gang rape of a woman allegedly on orders of village elders who objected to her relationship with a man.The 20-year-old woman has been admitted to a hospital in a critical condition, reports BBC.Unofficial courts

DHAKA: The biggest union in South Africa`s platinum sector has called a strike over pay, the biggest in the sector since the 2012 Marikana massacre.On that occasion 34 protesting miners taking part in an illegal wage protest were gunned down by police, reports BBC.Thursday`s strike over