DHAKA: Myanmar on Tuesday announced there were ‘no more political prisoners’ after issuing’a sweeping amnesty order aimed at fulfilling a presidential pledge to free all dissidents by the end of the year.The country has released scores of prisoners of conscience as part of dramatic

DHAKA: As the 74 people on a climate change research ship stuck in the ice in Antarctica readied for New Year`s Eve festivities, authorities revealed plans to send in a rescue helicopter.The Russian-flagged MV Akademik Shokalskiy has not moved in a week since getting stuck in unusually

DHAKA: Israeli authorities have freed a group of 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of a US-brokered agreement to resume direct peace talks.The prisoners were greeted by cheering crowds on their return to the West Bank and Gaza, reports BBC.Israel approved the releases on Saturday, but they

DHAKA: Wagons from a mile-long train carrying crude oil have burst into flames as they derailed after a collision in the US state of North Dakota.A plume of thick black smoke could be seen many miles away and explosions were heard, reports BBC.The incident occurred about a mile outside

DHAKA: At least 10 people have been killed in violence as Iraqi security forces dismantled an anti-government protest camp in the western city of Ramadi.A defence ministry spokesman said local Sunni leaders and clerics had agreed to end the 12-month sit-in peacefully, reports BBC.But

DHAKA: Gunfire has been heard at several locations in Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, including the state TV and radio headquarters and the airport.Youths armed with machetes and guns have taken reporters hostage, a police spokesman has told media, reports the BBC.A customs

DHAKA: Saudi Arabia is to give Lebanon’s army a grant of $3bn.Lebanese president Michel Sleiman made the announcement in a televised address after the funeral of a senior Lebanese politician killed in a car bomb attack.He said it would help fight terrorism, reports the BBC.Mohamad

DHAKA: Egyptian police have arrested three journalists working for the Al-Jazeera broadcaster in the capital Cairo.They include the TV network’s Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and former BBC correspondent Peter Greste.The interior ministry said the journalists had held illegal

DHAKA: A ship stranded in East Antarctica since Tuesday remained stuck as the latest rescue efforts were thwarted by fierce winds and poor visibility.An Australian icebreaker trying to reach the Russian scientific mission ship was forced to turn back, reports BBC.Earlier attempts by

DHAKA: At least 15 people have been killed and 23 others hurt in a suspected terrorist attack on a trolleybus in the Russian city of Volgograd, officials say.The blast comes a day after 17 people died in a suicide bombing at the central station in the city, reports BBC.Security has been

DHAKA: The Syrian government has evacuated about 5,000 people from an embattled industrial town near the capital Damascus, where rebels linked to al-Qaeda have been battling government troops for more than two weeks.The evacuation on Sunday comes as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

DHAKA: A suicide attack on a train station in Russia`s southern city of Volgograd has killed 16 people, officials say.Initial official claims that the bomber was a lone woman have been replaced by uncertainty about who carried it out, reports BBC.President Vladimir Putin has ordered

DHAKA: Barrels packed with explosives and dropped from Syrian aircraft have killed 517 people in the northern province of Aleppo since 15 December, activists say.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 151 were children and 46 women, reports the BBC.The city of Aleppo has been the

DHAKA: Iranian state TV is quoting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear chief as saying the country has not put into operation a new generation of centrifuges for enriching uranium.The Sunday report quoted Ali Akbar Salehi as saying that Iran decided because of a November deal with world

DHAKA: A bomb targeting an Egyptian military intelligence building in the Nile Delta wounded four people on Sunday, an army official said.Two security officials said the blast in Belbeis in Sharkiya province had been caused by a bomb.The state-run Nile News TV station said it had been

DHAKA: Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf on Sunday denounced treason charges against him as a ‘vendetta’, and said he had the backing of the country’s powerful army.The 70-year-old told reporters the ‘whole army’ was upset with the treason allegations, in his

DHAKA: A female suicide bomber set off a blast on Sunday in a train station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd that killed at least 18 people.News reports and officials said, according to The Straits Times.A National Anti-Terror Committee official told the RIA Novosti news agency

DHAKA: Tens of thousands of Cambodian opposition supporters, backed by striking garment-factory workers, rallied on Sunday to demand long-serving prime minister Hun Sen step down and call an election.The garment workers have in recent days joined the opposition protests to press their

DHAKA: Israel has announced the names of 26 long-serving Palestinian prisoners it will release this week.Israel released the list late Saturday. All were convicted in connection to the killing of Israelis.The Israeli government said the crimes were committed prior to the beginning of the

DHAKA: Bahrain freed opposition leader Ali Salman on Sunday, a day after his arrest, although it slapped a travel ban on the head of the Shia Al-Wefaq bloc.The prosecution said, reports The Straits Times.Salman, head of the opposition Al-Wefaq bloc, had been questioned over accusations of