Peace talks to end the war in Syria entered their second week yesterday, with Damascus under UN pressure to meet a looming target date for making a concrete proposal on political transition.

The Government has decided to appoint Vice President of Chittagong (South) Awami League SM Abul Kalam as the next Ambassador of Bangladesh to Kuwait.

Three Royal Brunei Airlines pilots have made history by being the company's first all-female flight crew, making their first journey to Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive.

Russia will continue air strikes in Syria despite the withdrawal of most of its forces, a senior official has said.

At least 17 suspected al-Qaeda members and two policemen have been killed in two days of clashes in Yemen's Aden, security sources said yesterday. More

The Islamic State group on Sunday pulled its fighters out of Rutba, a desert town in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, an army general and the mayor said.

The wife of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday hailed the harem of the Ottoman sultans as "a school for preparing

Qatar has sought Bangladesh's support for its nominee and Qatar Emir's Cultural Adviser Dr Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari who will contest for the next director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

Gunmen attacked a care home run by missionaries in Yemen's jihadist-plagued southern city of Aden yesterday, killing 16 workers

Allies of Iran's reformist president, Hassan Rouhani, win a landslide victory in Tehran, in the first elections since Iran signed a nuclear deal with world powers.

A Saudi-led air coalition air strike on a market northeast of the rebel-held Yemeni capital Sanaa killed at least 30 rebels and civilians,

The first major truce in Syria's five-year civil war comes into effect, but Syrian TV says shells hit residential areas of the capital, Damascus.

US President Barack Obama has warned Damascus and key ally Moscow that the "world will be watching" their commitment to a

Cessation of hostilities, ceasefire or truce: these terms, all used in attempts to resolve the conflict in Syria, are similar and often used

Iranians voted yesterday in a major test for President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate who hopes to curb conservative dominance and

Iranians are voting in elections for their country's parliament and the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body that appoints the supreme leader.

Family members of a 3-year-old Egyptian boy who was sentenced last week to life in prison say they feel relieved after receiving assurances from officials that neither the boy nor his father will be arrested,.

Syria's regime yesterday agreed to a ceasefire deal announced by the United States and Russia, but there were widespread doubts it could take effect by the weekend as hoped.

President Bashar al-Assad says he wants to be remembered 10 years from now as the person who saved Syria, according to an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais published on Saturday.

Fighting raged on in Syria yesterday, as a hoped-for ceasefire failed to materialise and Turkey intensified its shelling of Kurdish-led