DHAKA: Saying the United States government shutdown was having a ‘heartbreaking’ impact on ordinary Americans, president Barack Obama on Saturday renewed his call on congressional Republicans to end the five-day stalemate and pass a funding Bill without conditions.Republicans in the

DHAKA: At least five civilians, including three children, were killed overnight in a NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan after they went hunting for birds with air guns.Angry locals at the scene of the strike near Jalalabad city, the capital of Nangarhar province, shouted ‘Death to

DHAKA: Gunmen killed at least 12 Libyan soldiers in an attack on a checkpoint near the city of Bani Walid, a former stronghold of supporters of Muammar Gadhafi.Libya security officials said on Saturday, reports TDS.Two years after Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in a civil war, the

DHAKA: Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday he supported moderate president Hassan Rohani’s diplomatic initiative at the UN General Assembly last week but that some of what occurred there was ‘not proper’.In his first comments since Rohani, committed to

DHAKA: Unidentified foreign forces have launched a night-time raid on a militant base in the south Somali town of Barawe from the sea, reports say.A spokesman for the al-Shabab Islamist group told media that a fighter had been killed in the raid, reports the BBC.Reports speak of residents

DHAKA: Negotiations on a sweeping free trade pact between the US and the EU have been postponed because of a partial government shutdown in America.US officials had been due in Brussels next week to discuss the deal aimed at boosting bilateral ties.US President Barack Obama earlier

DHAKA: Clashes have erupted between supporters of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi, opponents and security forces in the capital, Cairo, and Alexandria.The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in Cairo said there had been heavy gunfire and explosions in the city centre.State TV reported

DHAKA: Vo Nguyen Giap, the Vietnamese general who masterminded victories against France and the US, has died aged 102.His defeat of French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1953 made him the first military commander to defeat a major Western power in Asia.He went on to oversee the Tet Offensive

DHAKA: A church has been set on fire in the Kenyan port of Mombasa as rioters protest against killing of Muslim cleric Ibrahim “Rogo” Omar.“They have burnt the Salvation Army church and we are now trying to repulse them with tear gas,” AFP quotes a senior police officer as

DHAKA: Israel’s prime minister says Iranians “deserve better” than their current government and that their lives could get worse if it gains nuclear weapons.In an interview with BBC Persian, Benjamin Netanyahu warned: “If they get nuclear weapons this brutal regime will be

DHAKA: A cross-party panel of the Italian Senate has gathered to decide whether to expel Silvio Berlusconi over his conviction for tax fraud.The former prime minister, who dominated the country’s politics for nearly two decades, is expected to lose his seat in the Senate.He threatened

DHAKA: The first cyclone to threaten the US coast this year has formed over the Gulf of Mexico and was forecast to sweep through offshore oil installations before hitting the mainland between Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle, the US National Hurricane Centre said.Some energy companies

DHAKA: Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who took on the Taliban, and Russian human rights activists are seen as top contenders for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the International Peace Research Institute said.Sister Mary Tarcisia Lakot is also a potential winner for her work

DHAKA: Japan`s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has a new leak of radioactive water after workers overfilled a storage tank, its operator says.The workers miscalculated the tank`s capacity as it was tilted on unlevel ground, plant operator Tepco said.It said around 430 litres (100

DHAKA: US President Barack Obama has canceled a trip to Indonesia and Brunei due to the government shutdown, the White House announced Thursday night."The president made this decision based on the difficulty in moving forward with foreign travel in the face of a shutdown, and his

DHAKA: Italy is holding a day of national mourning, after a boat carrying about 500 African migrants sank off the island of Lampedusa.At least 103 bodies were recovered and scores more are trapped in the vessel, which sank less than 1 km (half-a-mile) offshore.More than 150 people were

DHAKA: The United States would be prepared to consider relaxing certain sanctions on Iran if it engaged in confidence-building steps to prove its sincerity to negotiate over its disputed nuclear program, a top State Department official said Thursday."There may be some elements that we can

DHAKA: A police chase in Washington DC has ended in gunfire, sparking panic at the White House and US Capitol and leaving a woman dead and two officers injured.The chase and wreck that preceded the shooting were neither an act of terrorism nor an accident, police said.A female driver was

DHAKA: At least 94 people have died and scores are missing after a boat carrying African migrants, mostly from Eritrea, sank off the island of Lampedusa.Officials and rescuers said, reports Al Jazeera.Passengers on a boat that sank off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa were all believed to

DHAKA: A disgruntled former Maoist who rose to fame in Nepal after slapping the country’s leading leftwing politician announced plans on Thursday to fight him in upcoming elections.Padam Kunwar, a 26-year-old chef who assaulted Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal last November,