DHAKA: Bangladesh's top court on Tuesday sentenced to death a senior Islamist opposition official for murder during the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

LONDON: J K Rowling is all set to make her screenwriting debut in a new Harry Potter spin-off. Warner Bros announced on Thursday that Rowling would be making her screenwriting debut with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them—the first in a new film series.

GENEVA/UNITED NATIONS: The United States and Russia began high-stakes talks on Thursday on Moscow's plan for Syria to surrender its chemical weapons as Damascus formally applied to join a global poison gas ban, but Secretary of State John Kerry underscored that US military force may still be necessary if diplomacy fails.

MOSCOW: Thirty-seven people were missing after a fire raged through a psychiatric hospital in northwestern Russia early on Friday, an emergency situations ministry official said.

BEIRUT: Washington and Moscow are taking applause for a possible diplomatic bargain to have Syria hand over its chemical arsenal.

WASHINGTON: Russian President Vladimir Putin is using an opinion piece in The New York Times to assert that it's alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States.

BEIJING: A Chinese cargo ship crossed the Arctic Ocean for the first time reaching Rotterdam in the Netherlands on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama is pledging that he won't deploy ground combat troops or wage a prolonged air campaign against Syria.

SEOUL: North and South Korea agreed on Wednesday to reopen their Kaesong joint industrial park next week, five months after it was shut during soaring military tensions.

WASHINGTON: The White House says President Barack Obama's national security team is taking steps to prevent terrorist attacks related to the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on Wednesday.