DHAKA: US president Barack Obama pressured Republican lawmakers on Saturday to agree to raise the US debt ceiling for longer than they would prefer, as their fiscal impasse dragged into the weekend with five days left to find a deal.The budget battle between Obama and Republicans who

DHAKA: At least seven people died in an explosion at a fireworks factory within a military complex, state media reported.The explosion on Saturday prompted the evacuation of some 2,000 people living near the Z121 military facility, around 120 kilometres north of Hanoi, police said, adding

DHAKA: North Korea on Saturday issued a fresh warning of an ‘all-out war’, urging the United States to stop military drills and what it described as ‘nuclear blackmail’.In a thinly veiled threat to strike the United States, the North’s National Defence Commission (NDC), chaired

DHAKA: One of the world’s leading medical journals has supported the possibility that Yasser Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader, was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium 210.The British ‘The Lancet’ journal has published a peer review of last year’s research by

DHAKA: Typhoon Nari pummelled the northern Philippines early Saturday, ripping roofs off buildings, killing 12 people and leaving more than two million people without electricity.Nari slammed into the country’s east coast around midnight local time, toppling trees and pylons as it cut a

DHAKA: More than 140 survivors, plucked from the sea after their overloaded boat sank in the latest deadly migrant tragedy to hit the Mediterranean, arrived in Malta on Saturday.The sinking killed more than 30, most of them women and children, when the boat packed with people desperate to

DHAKA: The strongest cyclone to threaten India in more than a decade bore down on its east coast on Saturday as authorities bused and trucked tens of thousands of villagers from their mud and thatch coastal homes to government shelters inland.With Cyclone Phailin apprehended to hit the

DHAKA: High wind and heavy rain lashed the coastal belt of Odisha on Saturday disrupting normal life, as `very severe` cyclonic storm Phailin advances from the Bay of Bengal. The cyclone is expected to make landfall by Saturday evening, officials said.Authorities continued their efforts

DHAKA: US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have met Pakistani schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousafzai in the Oval Office.The Obamas thanked Malala, 16, who was shot in the head last year by the Taliban, for her "inspiring and passionate work" for girls` education.The

DHAKA: The government of Guyana says the Venezuelan navy has entered its territorial waters and detained a US-operated ship.Guyana said the Venezuelan actions in the disputed Essequibo region constituted "a serious threat to peace in the region".The ship belongs to Texas-based Company

DHAKA: Preparations are under way on India`s east coast ahead of Saturday`s expected landfall of a massive cyclone now gathering strength in the Bay of Bengal.Tropical Cyclone Phailin is expected to make landfall somewhere near the border of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh states in India.The

DHAKA: Pakistani Taliban commander Latif Mehsud in Sararogha in south A top-level Pakistani Taliban leader was captured by U.S. forces in military operation, a State Department spokesman said Friday.The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), confirmed Friday that its

DHAKA: For the second time in a week, a smugglers` boat overloaded with migrants capsized in the Canal of Sicily on Friday as it made the perilous crossing from Africa to Europe. At least 31 people drowned, but 221 people were rescued in a joint Italian-Maltese operation, officials

DHAKA: At least 12 migrants drowned and some 116 were rescued after their boat capsized near the Egyptian port of Alexandria.The boat sank early on Friday. The survivors, mostly Palestinians and Syrians, were taken to a naval base.The incident comes a week after at least 311 migrants died

DHAKA: The OPCW, the body overseeing destruction of Syria`s chemical weapons, has won the Nobel Peace Prize.The Nobel Committee said it was in honour of the OPCW`s "extensive work to eliminate chemical weapons".The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was

DHAKA: Cyclonic storm "Phailin", classified as "very severe", is heading for coastal Odisha and Andhra Pradesh at wind speeds averaging 200 km per hour and is expected to hit the states on Saturday evening. Some weathermen are describing it as potentially India`s version of `hurricane

DHAKA: Asian stock markets have risen on hopes the US will reach a deal on raising its debt ceiling, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street.This was after US Republicans offered President Obama a short-term increase in the debt limit to stave off default.Stock indexes in Japan,

DHAKA: The very severe cyclonic storm “Phailin” (with estimated central pressure 960 hPa) over west central bay and adjoining east central bay moved slightly northwestwards over the same area.It was centered at 9 am Friday about 790 kms southwest of Chittagong port, 715 kms southwest

DHAKA: A fire broke out Friday at a hospital in Fukuoka, Japan, killing 10 people and injuring five, a fire department spokesman said.The fire at the orthopedics hospital started early in the morning and burned for roughly 2 1/2 hours.Four of the injured suffered serious injuries, the

DHAKA: Pakistani schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousafzai and a Congolese doctor who helped rape victims are among this year`s Nobel Peace Prize favourites.The winner of the most coveted of the Nobel honours will be revealed in Olso at 11:00 local time (0900 GMT) Friday.This year`s record