DHAKA: For the first time in Myanmar’s history, its defence ministry is inviting women to join the army.An advertisement in the Myanmar Ahlin newspaper says the new cadets must be single, at least 160cm tall, between 25 and 30 years of age, and weigh no more than 59kg, reports The

DHAKA: Britain’s national security was damaged by the Guardian newspaper’s publication of intelligence documents supplied by US whistleblower Edward Snowden.UK prime minister David Cameron said on Wednesday, reports The Voice of Russia.‘The plain fact is that what has happened has

DHAKA: Russia’s foreign ministry has expressed regret after a Dutch diplomat was beaten up in Moscow.The Dutch foreign ministry has summoned Russia`s ambassador to explain, after the diplomat was attacked in his flat.The incident comes amid rising tensions between the two countries,

DHAKA: Relations between the United States and Egypt are now in turmoil and the entire Middle East could suffer, the Egyptian foreign minister said in remarks made a week after Washington moved to curtail military aid to Cairo.Nabil Fahmy told state-run Al-Ahram newspaper that Egypt had

DHAKA: Survivors of a huge earthquake that killed more than 150 people in the Philippines rummaged hopelessly on Wednesday through ruins for friends and relatives, as rescue workers struggled to reach isolated communities.The 7.1-magnitude earthquake smashed the central island of Bohol on

DHAKA: At least 21 people have been killed by an explosion that struck a bus in the southern Syrian province of Deraa, say activist groups.‘Four children and six women [were killed] in a blast that detonated as their vehicle went past Tal al-Jumua’ in the Nawa area, said the UK-based

DHAKA: Israel kept up its alarmist rhetoric on talks between world powers and Iran Wednesday, with a cabinet minister comparing the situation to pre-war Europe and the appeasement of Nazi Germany.‘We view the nuclear talks in Geneva with hope and with concern. We see the worrying signs

DHAKA: Iran’s top negotiator said on Wednesday a nuclear proposal presented to major powers in Geneva does allow for snap inspections of the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities, clarifying earlier remarks.‘None of these issues exist in the first step, but they are part of our last

DHAKA: At least 17 people died as a powerful typhoon lashed Japan’s Pacific coast on Wednesday, media reports said, with the death toll likely to rise.Typhoon Wipha, dubbed the strongest in a decade, caused landslides that buried houses as it churned past an island just south of

DHAKA: Eleanor Catton has become the youngest writer to win the Man Booker Prize, with the longest novel to triumph in the award.Catton, 28, beat competition from Colm Tóibín, NoViolet Bulawayo, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ruth Ozeki and the favourite, Jim Crace, to be awarded the £50,000 prize by

DHAKA: Frantic US political attempts to avert a federal debt default have pivoted back to the Senate after plans in the House of Representatives collapsed.Upper chamber leaders were said to be working through the night on a deal to raise the US borrowing limit and end a partial government

DHAKA: Thousands of people marched in Paris on Tuesday to protest against a revamp of the debt-ridden pension system just ahead of a vote on the controversial measure in the National Assembly.Similar rallies were held in other cities including Marseille, Toulouse and Lyon, reports The

DHAKA: Iran said its hotly awaited proposal to break the deadlock with world powers over its nuclear programme earned a good reception on Tuesday, in talks seen as a test of a thaw under new president Hassan Rouhani.The hour-long PowerPoint presentation by foreign minister Mohammad Javad

DHAKA: The death toll from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck the central Philippine island of Bohol on Wednesday rose to 99, as rescuers struggled to reach patients in a collapsed hospital.Centuries-old stone churches crumbled and wide areas were without power.Bohol police chief

DHAKA: A senior Chinese government official has secretly visited Japan for talks with Japanese officials aimed at improving bilateral relations damaged by an ongoing territorial row, a report said on Tuesday.The talks involving a high-ranking official from the Chinese foreign ministry’s

DHAKA: The operator of Japan`s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, under fire to put right repeated contamination mishaps, promised on Tuesday to draft in extra workers and improve equipment as part of plans to make the site safe and keep the company solvent.Tokyo Electric Power Company, or

DHAKA: The Russian agency involved in studying the remains of Yasser Arafat on Tuesday denied issuing any conclusions about the death of the Palestinian leader, after a report cited its chief as saying he could not have died from polonium poisoning.Russia’s Federal Medical-Biological

DHAKA: Ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor has arrived in the UK to serve the remainder of his 50-year prison sentence for war crimes.He had asked the UN-backed special court in The Hague to serve his jail term in Rwanda instead.Taylor was handed over to UK prison service representatives

DHAKA: Iran on Tuesday laid out a hotly-awaited proposal to break the deadlock in talks with world powers over its nuclear programme, diplomats said, in a test of a thaw under new president Hassan Rouhani.The hour-long PowerPoint presentation by foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and

DHAKA: Britain’s Prince Charles will tour India for nine days next month ahead of the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka.Prince’s office said on Tuesday, reports The Straits Times.It will be the heir to the throne’s eighth official visit to the Commonwealth’s most populous country