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According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale struck some 300 km south-east of Kodiak at a depth of 10 km at 09:31 GMT. ... Read more
The embassy is to be opened in an existing U.S. facility that will be “retrofitted” to meet safety and security requirements, Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein told reporters in Washington. ... Read more
Shakil Afridi has languished in jail for years — since 2011, when the Pakistani doctor used a vaccination scam in an attempt to identify Osama bin Laden's home, aiding US Navy Seals who tracked and killed the al-Qaida leader. ... Read more
Le Drian on Sunday said he would travel to Iran in March and that France had begun talks with Tehran to discuss its missile programme and regional activities. ... Read more
Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the 18 killed included 14 foreigners and a telecommunications official from the western Farah province who was attending a conference. ... Read more
Terrorists stormed the upscale Intercontinental Hotel here, triggering heavy fighting with security forces that ended on Sunday leaving 10 persons including all four attackers dead. ... Read more
Najib Danish, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed that a five star hotel is under attack by gunmen. ... Read more
A new national defense strategy says that competition with China and Russia has threatened America’s military advantage around the world. And it will require increased investment to make U.S. forces more lethal, agile and ready for war. ... Read more
"I don't know who offers such kind of photos. I don't know the detailed information," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said when asked about the satellite images. ... Read more
Several parts of western Europe are facing a powerful storm. Life has been disrupted in parts of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain. ... Read more
The authorities have advised the public to maintain all preliminary precautions. Heavy rain, strong winds and storm surge may affect the islands of Rodrigues and Mauritius. ... Read more
Saudi Arabia said in a statement that the funds would be deposited in Yemen’s Central Bank to help address the “deteriorating economic situation faced by the Yemeni people.” ... Read more
Nuclear-armed Pyongyang agreed last week to take part in next month’s Pyeongchang Games which are taking place just 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides the peninsula. ... Read more
Rodong Sinmun, the ruling party newspaper, lashed out at Trump in a commentary on Tuesday that took issue with the U.S. commander in chief’s Jan. 3 tweet that “I too have a Nuclear Button". ... Read more
After the collapse of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, the issue of Palestine has regained its importance for the Muslims, Xinhua quoted Rouhani as saying. ... Read more
"Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting," Trump tweeted, using a nickname to needle the Illinois senator. ... Read more
Lieberman told Israel’s Army Radio that Abbas’ address symbolized his giving up on the prospect of peace negotiations and opting instead for a confrontation with both Israel and the United States. ... Read more
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology increased the alert level for Mount Mayon late Sunday to three on a scale of five, indicating an increased tendency toward a hazardous eruption. ... Read more
A cascade of glass, metal and other material crashed onto the ground floor when part of the mezzanine level gave way. ... Read more
This is the second such attack in the Iraqi capital in a span of three days. The deadly incident that shook the capital was reported from Tayeran Square. ... Read more
The incident late Saturday created panic among the 162 passengers and crew on board the Pegasus Airlines flight, but they were all evacuated safely. ... Read more
The Army's response came days after Army Chief General Bipin Rawat's recent remark that the force was ready to call Pakistan's "nuclear bluff" and cross the border to carry out any operation if asked by the government. ... Read more
There have been no immediate reports of casualties or damage. ... Read more
The US Treasury on Friday announced sanctions on 14 Iranian individuals and entities, including the head of Iran's judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, for human rights abuses and supporting Tehran's ballistic missile programme. ... Read more
In a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, the Foreign Ministry said Iran “will not accept any change in the deal, neither now nor in future,” adding that it will “not take any action beyond its commitments.” ... Read more
Mawlawi Abdul Khaleq, according to the official, had served as shadow district governor of Taliban in Qarqin district of the neighbouring Jawzjan province and obviously visited Shortepa district to regroup Taliban fighters in Balkh province. ... Read more
The White House did not deny his remark but issued a statement saying Trump supports immigration policies that welcome "those who can contribute to our society." ... Read more
Some British lawmakers questioned whether Trump would be welcome in London because of previous tweets and criticism of Muslims and his sniping at London Mayor Sadiq Khan in the aftermath of a terror attack in that city last year. ... Read more
The US Geological Survey said seven of the quakes struck near the Iraqi city of Mandali and an eighth struck near Mehran in western Iran. All struck within an hour of each other, beginning at 0659 GMT. ... Read more
Vietnam’s Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh said Vietnam welcomes Indian investments in the oil and natural gas sector in its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea. ... Read more
32 crew members, including 30 Iranians and 2 Bangladeshis, went missing after the tanker collided with a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter and caught fire. ... Read more
White House said Trump and Moon Jae-in still underscored the importance of continuing maximum pressure campaign against North Korea over its development of nuclear weapons. ... Read more
The 2015 recording, aired Monday night on Israel's top-rated news broadcast, sparked public outrage over its misogynistic content and raised questions over why a state-funded bodyguard and driver were necessary to facilitate such debauchery. ... Read more
Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said there was an 85 percent chance of finding the debris in a new 25,000 square kilometers (9,653 square miles) area — roughly the size of Vermont — identified by experts. ... Read more
The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed that the drones were from Muazar settlement in ldlib, the de-escalation zone controlled by the moderate opposition. ... Read more
President Moon Jae-in has previously floated the idea of a summit with Kim under conditions. ... Read more
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services had yesterday said it was not considering any proposal that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the country. ... Read more
Though there are no early reports of damage on land, but the US National Tsunami Warning Center warns of tsunami dangers. ... Read more
The site of blast, which is said to be on Zarghoon road, is 300 meters away from the Assembly building. ... Read more
Trump administration had yesterday expressed hope that being an all weather ally of Pakistan, China could help convince the country to dismantle terror safe havens. ... Read more
The raid left “at least 21 dead, including eight children and 11 members of the same family” west of the town of Sinjar in the southeast of the province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. ... Read more
The official said that dismantling terrorist safe havens in Pakistan is key to bring stability in Afghanistan and in the region. ... Read more
The blast occurred mid-morning at the Varby gard station in Huddinge, a southern suburb of the Swedish capital. ... Read more
Donald Trump said that some dialogue or direct conversation with Kim Jong Un was not beyond the realm of possibility. ... Read more
Citing unnamed sources, Japan’s Kyodo News service and broadcaster NHK said Chang was headed to Switzerland, where he could meet with International Olympic Committee officials. ... Read more
The state broadcaster showed the pro-government rally in the city of Amol, in the northern province of Mazandaram, with hundreds of people waving the Iranian flag and chanting slogans against the U.S. and Israel. ... Read more
A US-based company early this week dispatched the search vessel Seabed Constructor to look for debris in the southern Indian Ocean, three and half years after the Boeing 777 disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew. ... Read more
The US called the meeting after giving moral support to the anti-government protesters in a week of demonstrations and counter-demonstrations. ... Read more
Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said he expects the two Koreas will use a recently restored cross-border communication channel to try to determine who will head their respective delegations next week. ... Read more
On Monday, Trump said the U.S. had “foolishly” given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid in the last 15 years and had gotten nothing in return but “lies & deceit.” ... Read more
"The security and integrity of the technology systems at the White House is a top priority for the Trump administration," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. ... Read more
Tehran said US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in "numerous absurd tweets, (had) incited Iranians to engage in disruptive acts" which violated international law. ... Read more
Pakistan said that there is no proposal of building any Chinese military base near Gwadar. ... Read more
Shinzo Abe told reporters Japan was watching to see the impact of sanctions against North Korea, especially at this coldest time of the year. Coal and oil are among the items targeted, making heating supplies scarce in the winter. ... Read more
Relations between the Koreas soured under Moon’s conservative predecessors, who responded to the North’s expanding nuclear program with hard-line measures. ... Read more
Some unidentified miscreants had gathered at the tomb of a local hero, Govind Gopal Mahar (Gaikwad), and defiled a worn nameplate at the site. ... Read more
China came to Islamabad's rescue saying that the world community should acknowledge its all-weather ally's "outstanding contribution" to counter terrorism. ... Read more
Ambedkar, the grandson of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar, has appealed for peace during the bandh period. ... Read more
The protesters blocked roads in several areas of Mumbai, forced shops to shut down and also attacked a journalist of a television news channel. ... Read more
Regardless, Iraqi government bureaucracy, inefficiency and neglect have left thousands of families across Iraq hanging as the country’s leadership celebrates the defeat of IS. ... Read more
The Public Safety Ministry posted photographs and video of the crash site showing burning wreckage of the plane in Guanacaste, northwest Costa Rica. ... Read more
Iran cuts social media access in bid to quell protests, interior minister says agitators will 'pay the price' ... Read more
This is the second case of a ship being investigated by South Korea for supplying crude oil on the high seas to North Korea after Seoul announced on Friday that it had seized a vessel sailing under a Hong Kong flag. ... Read more
The Kremlin said Saturday that Putin emphasized in his Seasons Greetings to Trump that Russia and the US could develop a “pragmatic cooperation aimed at long-term perspective” on the basis of “equality and mutual respect.” ... Read more
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency took the oft-repeated stance as it reviewed the country’s major nuclear weapons and missile tests this year. ... Read more
James Mattis comments to reporters at the Pentagon followed a U.N. report on Thursday that said more than 100 civilians had been killed in airstrikes in Yemen in just the past 10 days. ... Read more
On the outskirts of Pyongyang, surrounded by snow-covered farms and greenhouses, stands one of Kim's latest pet projects, the Ryugyong Kimchi Factory, which produces 4,200 tons of the iconic Korean pickled vegetable dish a year. ... Read more
Long Beach police on Friday called the shooting "workplace violence." They said on Twitter that it has become a murder investigation, and that the suspect is also dead at the scene. ... Read more
The attack took place when gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire outside Mar Mina church. ... Read more
King Salman and his ambitious 32-year-old son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have upended decades of royal family protocol, social norms and traditional ways of doing business. ... Read more
South Korean customs authorities boarded the ship and interviewed crew members after they returned to Yeosu on Nov. 24. ... Read more
Ties between Moscow and Washington soured to reach a post-Cold War low following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and allegations of election meddling in 2016. ... Read more
The city remained under Ottoman rule for 400 years, until British Gen. Edmund Allenby marched through the Jaffa Gate on Dec. 11, 1917, the start of 30 years of British rule. ... Read more
The dead included a child around a year old, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a briefing outside the building. ... Read more
Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif rejected Indian allegations and stated that the meeting of Jadhav with his wife and mother on December 25 was permitted on humanitarian grounds. ... Read more
When asked how Chinese military view its relations with its Indian counterpart in 2018 in the backdrop of the Doklam standoff, Col Ren said India should implement the border agreements and control its troops. ... Read more
The explosion took place around 10.30 am in the Qala-e-Nazar area, Nasrat Rahimi, the ministry said, adding that the victims included women and children. ... Read more
At least 40 people were killed and several others injured in n multiple blasts near a media outlet and mosque in Kabul on Thursday, Afghanistan media reported. ... Read more
At least 13 people were injured on Wednesday evening when an improvised explosive device went off at a storage area for customers' bags at the supermarket in St. Petersburg. ... Read more
A blast at a supermarket in Russia's Saint Petersburg has left several people injured.
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Transportation Ministry spokesman Avner Ovadia said Wednesday the project is estimated to cost more than $700 million and, if approved, would take four years to complete. ... Read more
Stores, gyms and other retailers are trying to make the most of the remaining tax-free days in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, encouraging buyers to stock up before the VAT is rolled out on Jan. 1, 2018. ... Read more
The FO said that Pakistan does not wish to indulge in a "meaningless battle of words" and categorically rejects India's baseless "allegations and twists" about attitude of authorities. ... Read more
In a series of statements Tuesday, 40 rebel groups, including some of Syria’s most prominent, as well as political opposition umbrella groups, said Moscow’s proposed talks are an attempt to “circumvent” the United Nations-led process. ... Read more
North Korea’s envoy in charge of U.S. affairs at the United Nations demanded Washington provide evidence to back up its claim Pyongyang was behind the Wannacry ransomware attack. ... Read more
The Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court handed down the sentence after finding activist Wu Gan guilty of subverting state power. Wu will appeal the sentence, his lawyer Ge Yongxi said. ... Read more
Navalny, 41 is the most serious challenger that Putin has faced in all his years in power, and the court cases against him have been widely seen as a tool to keep him from running for office. ... Read more
Guatemala was one of nine nations that voted with the United States and Israel on Thursday when the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution denouncing Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. ... Read more
In a statement issued through the group's Amaq news agency, Islamic State said it was also behind Monday's attack. ... Read more
"We see Jesus in the children of the Middle East who continue to suffer because of growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians," Pope Francis said in his address. ... Read more
A curfew has been imposed in the area as security forces search for the suspected militants who planted the bomb. ... Read more
A December 6 announcement by President Donald Trump has unleashed demonstrations and clashes, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city Bethlehem, where Christians will mark the birth of Jesus in a midnight mass. ... Read more
At least 37 people may have died in the massive fire that ravaged a shopping mall here on Saturday, authorities said on Sunday as firefighters continued battling pockets of flames 16 hours after the blaze broke. ... Read more
Robart ordered the federal government to process certain refugee applications for people “with a bona fide relationship to a person or entity within the United States.” ... Read more
A tropical storm in the southern Philippines unleashed flash floods that swept away people and houses and set off landslides. ... Read more
The sanctions have been imposed in response to North Korea's latest launch of a ballistic missile that Pyongyang says is capable of reaching anywhere on the US mainland. ... Read more
The UNGA on Thursday adopted by a decisive vote of 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions, a motion rejecting the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. ... Read more
Seoul's Defence Ministry says the shootout happened after a North Korean soldier safely arrived at a front-line South Korean guard post. ... Read more
The Philippine Coast Guard did not provide details on the number of people who have been rescued or were still missing. ... Read more
Commander Russell Barrett told media that while the motive of the incident was not immediately clear, "at this stage we believe it was a deliberate act." ... Read more
On Monday, US vetoed the Council resolution introduced by Egypt seeking to express "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem". ... Read more
The number of migrants from all countries living in India now is 5.2 million, a fall of 1.22 million from 2000, the UN report said. ... Read more
Iraqi or coalition forces are responsible for at least 3,200 civilian deaths between October 2016 and the fall of IS in July 2017. ... Read more
Belgium will become the first nation to send a female ambassador to Saudi Arabia next year, with the government telling public broadcaster VRT that appointing a woman to be its top diplomatic representative in the conservative country will send a “clear signal” about its ideals. ... Read more
Thirteen cars jumped the track. The train had 14 cars, including two engines, said Brook Bova of the Washington State Patrol. ... Read more
The use of yuan was not against the interest of Pakistan and would rather "benefit" the country, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said. ... Read more
Islamic State attacks intelligence training centre in Kabul; militants engaged in gun battle with Afghan Police. ... Read more
A military official, on condition of anonymity, said several strikes hit an Al-Shabaab base in Berhani location, some 60 kilometre south of Kismayo, killing several senior terrorists, Xinhua reported. ... Read more
The attack targeted the church where prayers of Christian community were being held, the Express Tribune newspaper reported quoting Balochistan’s Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti. ... Read more
New satellite imagery shows China has built infrastructure covering 72 acres (28 hectares) in the Spratly and Paracel islands during 2017 to equip its larger outposts to be air and naval bases. ... Read more
Panicking people ran out of buildings in many areas and roads were clogged with motorbikes, cars and trucks as people fled coastal areas. ... Read more
Pyongyang: In a challenge to the global order, North Korea has issued a threat that it will become "world's most powerful nuclear and military state". ... Read more
Tokyo: The Japanese government on Friday imposed new unilateral sanctions on North Korea, which include freezing the assets of Pyongyang-based companies, in response to the launch of the country's latest ballistic missile. ... Read more
Washington: Flanked by singed missile remnants, President Donald Trump’s envoy to the United Nations declared Thursday that “undeniable” evidence proves Iran is arming Houthi rebels in Yemen, the latest bid by the Trump administration to rally the world against the Persian Gulf nation. ... Read more
United Nations: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that Iran may be defying a U.N. call to halt ballistic missile development even as it complies with the nuclear deal with six world powers. ... Read more
London: British lawmakers have delivered a defeat to Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plans by giving Parliament the final say on any exit agreement with the European Union. ... Read more
Moscow: Allegations of collusion between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia have been “invented” by his political foes to undermine his legitimacy, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, adding that the reports have undermined the U.S. political system. ... Read more
Washington: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's surprising diplomatic offer of unconditional talks with North Korea hinges on two big X factors: Does the North even want talks, and is President Donald Trump fully behind his top diplomat? ... Read more
Istanbul: Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said that the only reason US President Donald Trump “dared” recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was because some in the region sought to establish ties to Israel. ... Read more
Ankara (Turkey): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin warned that the US move on Jerusalem destabilizes the Middle East and will not help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ... Read more
Istanbul: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinians won’t accept any role for the United States in a peace process with Israel “from now on” after the Trump administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state. ... Read more
Paris: Former UN chiefs Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon have lashed out at the state of global leadership in the age of Donald Trump, warning a nuclear war could be triggered by accident. ... Read more
Washington: Transgender recruits will be allowed to enlist in the military beginning January 1, the Pentagon said, as President Donald Trump’s ordered ban suffered more legal setbacks. ... Read more
Washington: A would-be suicide bomber’s rush-hour blast in the heart of the New York City subway system failed to cause the bloodshed he intended, authorities said, but it gave new fuel to President Donald Trump’s push to limit immigration. ... Read more
Moscow: Declaring a victory in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday visited a Russian military air base in the country and announced a partial pullout of Russian forces from the Mideast nation. ... Read more
Baghdad: As Iraq emerges from three years of war with the Islamic State group, the US is looking to roll back the influence of neighboring Iran and help the central government resolve its dispute with the Kurdish region, American envoy to Iraq Douglas Silliman said. ... Read more
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia said that it will allow movie theaters to open in the conservative kingdom next year, for the first time in more than 35 years. It’s the latest move as part of the young crown prince’s efforts to socially reform the country. ... Read more
The use of rape by Myanmar's armed forces has been sweeping and methodical, The Associated Press found in interviews with 29 Rohingya Muslim women and girls now in Bangladesh. ... Read more
Baghdad: After more than three years of combat operations, Iraq announced Saturday that the fight against the Islamic State group is over after the country’s security forces drove the extremists from all of the territory they once held. Iraqi and American officials warned, however, that key challenges remain despite the military victory. ... Read more
Jerusalem: Arab foreign ministers today demanded that the United States rescind President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, calling it a "grave" development that puts Washington on the same side as "occupation" and the violation of international law. ... Read more
Colombo: Sri Lanka on Saturday formally handed over the southern sea port of Hambantota to China on a 99-year lease. ... Read more
Brussels: Britain and the European Union made a significant step forward Friday in Brexit talks, officials said, after a flurry of overnight diplomacy by phone bridged differences over the Irish border. ... Read more
Mexico City: Students hid in their classrooms, some behind locked doors or in closets, as a gunman opened fire on Thursday inside a New Mexico high school, killing two classmates before he ended up dead. ... Read more
Seoul: North Korea says a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula has become a matter of when, not if, as it continued to lash out at a massive joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea involving hundreds of advanced warplanes. ... Read more
Kathmandu: Millions of people were voting in southern Nepal on Thursday in the final phase of mostly peaceful elections for members of the national and provincial assemblies. ... Read more
New York: Muslims across the Middle East on Wednesday warned of disastrous consequences after US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital, but in a region more divided than ever, many asked what leaders can do beyond the vehement rhetoric. Countries with Muslim population have warned that such an announcement could harm fragile Mideast peace efforts. ... Read more
Jerusalem: President Donald Trump’s move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Wednesday could have deep repercussions across the region. ... Read more
Tel Aviv: Israel’s justice minister Ayelet Shaked has said that US President Donald Trump’s decision that he will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is a welcome move and that the Jewish nation encourages him to ‘move the embassy de facto’ to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. ... Read more
Jerusalem: US officials say President Donald Trump will recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital on Wednesday and instruct the State Department to begin the multi-year process of moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city. ... Read more
Pyongyang: A senior United Nations official met with North Korea's vice foreign minister today, the first full day of a four-day trip to Pyongyang. ... Read more
Sanaa (Yemen): Yemeni rebels on Monday killed their onetime ally Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country’s former president, as they gained the upper hand in days of fighting with his forces for control of the capital, Sanaa. The tumult threw the country’s three-year civil war into an unpredictable new chapter just as Yemen’s Saudi-backed government had hoped the Shiite rebels would be decisively weakened. ... Read more
Washington: The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to fully enforce a ban on travel to the United States by residents of six mostly Muslim countries. ... Read more
Tehran: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday inaugurated a newly built extension to the country's main Arabian Sea outlet, the strategic Chabahar Port on the Gulf of Oman, which more than triples its capacity and poses a challenge for a port under construction in neighbouring Pakistan. ... Read more
Seoul: The US and South Korea today kicked off their largest ever joint air exercise, an operation North Korea has labelled an "all-out provocation", days after Pyongyang fired its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile. ... Read more
Tangerang, Indonesia: A volcano gushing towering columns of ash closed the airport on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali for a second day on Tuesday, disrupting travel for tens of thousands, as authorities renewed their warnings for villagers to evacuate. ... Read more
Baghdad: Iraqi police and hospital officials say a bombing in southeast Baghdad has killed 11 people. ... Read more
Moscow: At least 53 civilians, including 21 children, were killed and 18 others were wounded when Russian air strikes hit residential buildings in a village held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria today morning. ... Read more
Islamabad: The protesters belonging to the hardline religious groups today called off the sit-in in Islamabad and several other cities after Pakistan law minister Zahid Hamid resigned, meeting one of their key demands. ... Read more
Bali: Indonesian authorities raised the alert for a rumbling volcano to the highest level on Monday and closed the international airport on the tourist island of Bali, stranding thousands of travellers. ... Read more
Islamabad: The Pakistan government on Saturday launched a cracked down on protesters from hardline religious groups in Islamabad seeking resignation of Law Minister Zahid Hamid. The crackdown left at least 10 dead and more than 250 injured. ... Read more
Islamabad: At least five people were killed and another 20 were wounded in a suicide bomb attack targetting a security forces vehicle in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta on Saturday. ... Read more
Ankara (Turkey): The United States will cut off its supply of arms to Kurdish fighters in Syria, President Donald Trump told the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, in a move sure to please Turkey but further alienate Syrian Kurds who bore much of the fight against the Islamic State group. ... Read more
United Nations: The UN Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have condemned the deadly attack on a mosque in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in “the strongest terms” and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. ... Read more
Washington: The Trump administration backtracked Friday on its decision to order the Palestinians’ office in Washington to close, instead saying it would merely impose limitations on the office that it expected would be lifted after 90 days. ... Read more
Brussels: British Prime Minister Theresa May failed on Friday to make any breakthrough in Brexit talks with the European Union, as time runs out to move the negotiations into a critical second phase before the end of the year. ... Read more
Cairo: Militants attacked a crowded mosque during Friday prayers in the Sinai Peninsula, setting off explosives, spraying worshippers with gunfire and killing at least 235 people in the deadliest ever attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt. ... Read more
Harare: Poised to become Zimbabwe's next president, a former confidant of ousted leader Robert Mugabe on Wednesday promised "a new, unfolding democracy" and reached out to the world, saying international help is needed to rebuild the shattered economy. ... Read more
Seoul: North Korea has called U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to relist it as a state sponsor of terrorism a “serious provocation” that justifies its development of nuclear weapons. ... Read more
Bangkok: Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement on Thursday covering the return of Rohingya Muslims who fled across their mutual border to escape violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. ... Read more
United Nations: Widespread atrocities against Rohingya Muslim women and girls have been orchestrated and perpetrated by Myanmar's military and may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the UN envoy on sexual violence in conflict said on Wednesday. ... Read more
Tokyo: An aircraft carrying 11 crew and passengers crashed into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday while on the way to the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, the Navy said. ... Read more
Washington: The Trump administration readied new sanctions Tuesday on North Korea, a day after declaring it a state sponsor of terrorism in a move to put additional pressure on Pyongyang’s nuclear program. ... Read more
Washington: The White House says President Donald Trump has spoken on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. ... Read more
Lagos (Nigeria): A teenage suicide bomber detonated as worshippers gathered for morning prayers at a mosque in northeastern Nigeria, killing at least 50 people, police said Tuesday, in one of the region’s deadliest attacks in years. ... Read more
Moscow: Russia is about to end its military operation in Syria that tipped the scales in the devastating war in favour of government forces, President Vladimir Putin said at surprise talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad. ... Read more
Bangkok: Amnesty International says Myanmar has subjected Rohingya Muslims to long-term discrimination that amounts to "dehumanising apartheid," in an investigative report that raises questions about what those who've fled violence would face if they returned home. ... Read more
Beijing: China on Monday dismissed a top Pakistani Army General's allegation that India has established a special intelligence cell at a cost of USD 500 million to sabotage the strategic China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), saying it does not have any such report. ... Read more
Harare: Giddy with joy and finally free to speak out, vast throngs of demonstrators turned Zimbabwe’s capital into a carnival ground on Saturday in a peaceful outpouring of disdain for President Robert Mugabe and calls for him to quit immediately. ... Read more
Paris: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri arrived in France on Saturday from Saudi Arabia, seeking to dismiss fears that he had been held against his will and forced to resign by Saudi authorities. ... Read more
Washington: The Trump administration put the Palestinians on notice Friday that it will shutter their office in Washington unless they’ve entered serious peace talks with Israel, US officials said, potentially giving President Donald Trump more leverage as he seeks an elusive Mideast peace deal. ... Read more
Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt): Egypt’s president said the defeat of the extremist Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria was likely to have forced militants to seek a safe haven in neighboring Libya, from which they will later cross into his country where his security forces have been battling militants in the Sinai peninsula and, more recently, in its vast western desert. ... Read more
United Nations: Yemen is facing a mass famine that will affect millions of lives unless the Saudi-led coalition ends its blockade and allows aid deliveries into the country, the UN aid chief warned. ... Read more
Beirut: Syrian troops and allied militiamen on Thursday expelled Islamic State group fighters from Albu Kamal, the last significant town the jihadists still held in their disintegrating "caliphate". ... Read more
Beijing: US President Donald Trump will push China on trade and North Korea during a two-day visit in which he will cajole, flatter and scold the rising Asian power. ... Read more
United Nations: India has demanded transparency in the UN Security Council reform process so that the people could know what is preventing the members from translating discussions into a negotiating text for the much-needed revamping of the world body's top organ. ... Read more
Sanaa (Yemen): At least 50 people, including civilians, were killed and injured in fresh Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on a village in Yemen's northwest province of Hajjah on Tuesday, a provincial security official and medics said. ... Read more
London: Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that war is not an option with India and that only talks can resolve all outstanding issues including Kashmir. ... Read more
Tokyo: President Donald Trump praised Japan as a “treasured partner” and “crucial ally” Sunday, as he kicked off a grueling and consequential first trip to Asia. ... Read more
Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said that 622,000 Rohingyas have already arrived in the country and urged Myanmar to repatriate them immediately. ... Read more
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia said its forces intercepted a ballistic missile fired Saturday from Yemen toward one of the kingdom's major international airports on the outskirts of the capital, Riyadh. ... Read more
Beirut: Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned from his post today during a trip to Saudi Arabia in a surprise move that plunged the country into uncertainty amid heightened regional tensions. ... Read more
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii: President Donald Trump paid a solemn visit to the memorial at Pearl Harbor, a sacred journey for a commander-in-chief about to depart on an Asia trip that will be shadowed by fears of another international conflict. ... Read more
Beijing: For Yu Kaiguang, harsh new United Nations sanctions on North Korea are a disaster. The trader in the Chinese border city of Dandong has seen business all but dry up, and he spends his days scrambling to obtain payment from the suddenly broke North Korean state companies to whom he sold on credit. ... Read more
Washington: US President Donald Trump can expect a friendly reception in Japan, his first stop on a five-nation Asia trip that kicks off Sunday. ... Read more
Damascus: The Syrian army announced on Friday it liberated the long-contested eastern city of Deir el-Zour from the Islamic State group — a largely symbolic victory in the military’s bigger fight to capture the last remaining ISIS strongholds in the oil-rich province along the border with Iraq. ... Read more
Washington: President Donald Trump's national security adviser says North Korea could be returned to the list of countries the US believes sponsor terrorism, as part of Trump's strategy to counter the North's growing nuclear threat. ... Read more
Yangon (Myanmar): Aung San Suu Kyi made her first visit as Myanmar’s leader on Thursday to the conflict-torn region where more than half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled state-led violence that has spiraled into Asia’s worst refugee crisis in decades. ... Read more
New York: A man in a rented pickup truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists along a busy bike path near the World Trade Center memorial on Tuesday, killing at least eight and seriously injuring 11 in what the mayor called "a particularly cowardly act of terror." ... Read more
Tokyo: Japan's lower house of parliament re-elected Shinzo Abe as prime minister on Wednesday after his party won a resounding victory in a snap election last month. ... Read more
Stockholm: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says a man in a rented pickup who mowed down pedestrians and bicyclists along a bike path near the World Trade Center memorial Tuesday was a "lone wolf." The attack killed at least eight and injured 11 others. ... Read more
Washington: At least eight people were killed and eleven seriously injured after a man in a rented pickup truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists along a busy bike path near the World Trade Center memorial today. ... Read more
New York: A man in a rented truck drove onto a busy bicycle path near the World Trade Center memorial Tuesday, killing at least six people and injuring at leatst nine other others, police said. The driver was then shot by police after jumping out with what turned out to be two fake guns. ... Read more
Washington: US special operations forces have captured a militant who was instrumental in the 2012 attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, officials said today. ... Read more
Dubai: The man who may soon be king of Saudi Arabia is charting a new, more modern course for a country so conservative that for decades there were no concerts or film screenings and women who attempted to drive were arrested. ... Read more
Mogadishu: A suicide truck bomb exploded outside a popular hotel in Somalia's capital on Saturday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 30, and gunfire continued as security forces pursued other attackers inside the building, police said. Two more blasts were heard, one when an attacker detonated a suicide vest. ... Read more
Barcelona: Spain has taken direct control of Catalonia and sacked the region’s defiant separatist government by publishing special measures overnight in an official gazette online. ... Read more
Barcelona: In one of the most momentous days in recent Spanish history, Spain fired Catalonia's regional government and dissolved its parliament on Friday after a defiant Catalan declaration of independence that flouted the country's constitution. ... Read more
Seoul: US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said on Saturday the threat of nuclear missile attack by North Korea is accelerating. ... Read more
Baghdad: Iraq’s Prime Minister on Friday issued a 24-hour suspension of the movement of troops who are deployed in Iraq’s north to bring territory held by Kurdish forces back under federal control. ... Read more
Moscow: President Vladimir Putin has taken part in major military drills of Russian nuclear forces and personally directed the test-firing of four intercontinental ballistic missiles as part of the exercises, the Kremlin said Friday. ... Read more
Tangerang: Investigators on Friday were trying to determine the cause of an explosion and fire at a fireworks factory near Indonesia’s capital that killed at least 47 people, mostly young female workers unable to escape. ... Read more
Bangkok: With solemn faces and outright tears, black-clad Thais said farewell to their king and longtime father figure Thursday on Bangkok’s streets and at viewing areas around the nation, capping a year of mourning with funeral ceremonies steeped in centuries of tradition. ... Read more
New York: Russia has vetoed a US-sponsored UN resolution that would extend the work of inspectors seeking to determine who is responsible for chemical weapons attacks in Syria, accusing the United States of calling the vote "to show up and dishonour Russia." ... Read more
Tokyo: At least seven persons were killed and over 90 injured as typhoon Lan lashed wide swathes of Japan after making landfall in central Japan early on Monday. ... Read more
Tokyo: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition won a resounding victory in Sunday’s snap election, securing two-thirds majority in the Lower House that raises his chances of achieving a historic third term and his longtime ambition of revising the pacifist Constitution. ... Read more
Washington: President Donald Trump is portraying the Islamic State group’s ouster from its Syrian stronghold as a milestone in the U.S. fight against terrorism and a step toward a political transition and lasting peace in Syria. ... Read more
Beirut: US-allied forces said Sunday they have captured Syria’s largest oil field from the Islamic State group. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who are in a race with Russian-backed Syrian troops to seize parts of the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province, said they are in full control of the Al-Omar field. ... Read more
Austin (Texas): The five living former presidents put aside politics and appeared together for the first time since 2013 at a concert on Saturday to raise money for victims of devastating hurricanes in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. ... Read more
Cairo: At least 54 policemen, including 20 officers and 34 conscripts, were killed when a raid on a militant hideout southwest of Cairo was ambushed, officials said Saturday. The ensuing firefight was one of the deadliest for Egyptian security forces in recent years. ... Read more
Kabul: The Islamic State group is claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing attack on a Shiite mosque in Kabul that killed at least 39 and injured at least 41. ... Read more
Kabul: An Afghan official at the Interior Ministry says suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in western Kabul has killed at least 30 people and wounded 45. ... Read more
Washington: CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Thursday that North Korea is months away from perfecting its nuclear weapons capabilities. ... Read more
New Delhi: Environmental pollution — from filthy air to contaminated water — is killing more people every year than all war and violence in the world. More than smoking, hunger or natural disasters. More than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. ... Read more
Beijing: China's ruling Communist Party is expanding its role in business even as it promises freer markets and support for entrepreneurs on the eve of President Xi Jinping’s second five-year term as leader. ... Read more
Kabul: The Taliban have killed at least 43 Afghan soldiers in an attack that wiped out an army camp in the southern Kandahar province, the Defence Ministry said today. ... Read more
Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday urged a reinvigorated Communist Party to take on a more forceful role in society and economic development to better address "grim" challenges facing the country as he opened a twice-a-decade national congress. ... Read more
Valletta (Malta): Maltese investigative journalist who exposed the island nation’s links to offshore tax havens through the leaked Panama Papers was killed Monday when a bomb exploded in her car, the prime minister said. ... Read more
Seoul: North Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador warned Monday that the situation on the Korean peninsula “has reached the touch-and-go point and a nuclear war may break out any moment.” ... Read more
Baghdad: Two weeks after fighting together against the Islamic State, Iraqi forces pushed their Kurdish allies out of the disputed city of Kirkuk on Monday, seizing oil fields and other facilities amid soaring tensions over last month’s Kurdish vote for independence. ... Read more
Mogadishu (Somalia): The most powerful bomb blast ever witnessed in Somalia's capital killed 276 people with around 300 others injured, the country's information minister said early today, making it the deadliest single attack in this Horn of Africa nation. ... Read more
Sonoma (California): The California wildfires raced toward wineries and the historic town of Sonoma on Saturday, chasing hundreds more people from their homes and threatening to roll back firefighters’ modest gains against fires that stretched across a 100-mile swath of Northern California. ... Read more
Beirut: The US-backed Kurdish-led forces fighting Islamic State militants in Syria said on Saturday that they are waging the “final” battle to uproot the extremists from the northern city of Raqqa, once the de facto capital of the militant group. ... Read more
California: California Governor Jerry Brown on Friday declared a state of emergency to combat a hepatitis A outbreak that has claimed 18 lives in San Diego. ... Read more
Washington: President Donald Trump on Friday angrily accused Iran of violating the landmark 2015 international nuclear accord, blaming the Iranians for a litany of sinister behavior and hitting their main military wing with anti-terror penalties. But Trump, breaking his campaign pledge to rip up the agreement, did not pull the US out or re-impose nuclear sanctions. ... Read more
Toronto: Former hostage Joshua Boyle said upon arriving back in Canada that the Haqqani network in Afghanistan had killed his infant daughter and raped his wife during the years they were held in captivity. ... Read more
Sonoma (California): Twitter has handed over to Senate investigators the profile names, or "handles," of 201 accounts linked to Russian attempts at influencing the 2016 presidential election. The company has stepped up its efforts to cooperate with investigators after it was criticised for not taking congressional probes seriously enough. ... Read more
Baghdad: Kurdish media says Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region has sent 6,000 reinforcements to the disputed, oil-rich city of Kirkuk. ... Read more
Paris: In the future, the noise of car engines revving around the streets of Paris might become just a memory. ... Read more
Washington: US officials said that the United States is pulling out of UNESCO, after repeated criticism of resolutions by the UN cultural agency that Washington sees as anti-Israel. ... Read more
San Francisco: Wildfires whipped by powerful winds swept through California wine country on Monday, killing at least 10 people, destroying 1,500 homes and businesses and sending thousands fleeing as flames raged unchecked through high-end resorts, grocery stores and tree-lined neighborhoods. ... Read more
Istanbul: The US said Sunday it was suspending non-immigrant visa services at its diplomatic facilities in Turkey following the arrest of a consulate employee, prompting Turkey to halt visa services in the US. ... Read more
London: A car crash that injured 11 people outside a major London tourist attraction Saturday sparked fears of a terrorist attack but turned out to be simply a traffic accident, London police said. ... Read more
Tehran: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani today defended the 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers, saying “not even 10 Donald Trumps can roll back its benefits to his country”. ... Read more
Dubai: The US military has halted some exercises with its Gulf Arab allies over the ongoing diplomatic crisis targeting Qatar, trying to use its influence to end the monthslong dispute, authorities told The Associated Press on Friday. ... Read more
Managua: Newly formed Tropical Storm Nate was blamed on Thursday for at least 22 deaths in Central America as it dumped rain across the region on a path that would carry it toward a potential landfall on the US Gulf Coast as a hurricane over the weekend. ... Read more
Las Vegas: Solemn in the face of tragedy, President Donald Trump visited hospital bedsides and a vital police base in stricken Las Vegas on Wednesday, offering prayers and condolences to the victims of Sunday night’s shooting massacre, along with the nation’s thanks to first responders and doctors who rushed to save lives. ... Read more
Washington: US officials have said that three Army special operations commandos were killed on Wednesday and two others were wounded when they came under fire in southwest Niger. ... Read more
Paris: Iraq’s prime minister today said Thursday that troops have retaken the northern town of Hawija from the Islamic State group, driving the extremists from one of their last strongholds in the country. Haider al-Abadi declared victory during a press conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron, who offered to help mediate between Iraq’s government and the autonomous Kurdish region, which voted for independence last week in a move that was rejected by Baghdad and neighboring Turkey and Iran. ... Read more
Washington: The Pentagon is injecting $440 million more into missile defence, including yet another expansion of its fleet of missile interceptors, to counter North Korea’s accelerating push for a nuclear-armed missile capable of hitting the United States. ... Read more
Washington: The Trump administration is preparing to ask Cuba to withdraw 60 per cent of its diplomats from Washington, US officials said on Monday, in response to last week's US move to cut its own embassy staff in Havana by a similar amount. ... Read more
Las Vegas: Stephen Paddock lived in a tidy Nevada retirement community where the amenities include golf, tennis and bocce. He was a multimillionaire real-estate investor, recently shipped his 90-year-old mother a walker and liked to travel to Las Vegas to play high-stakes video poker. ... Read more
Las Vegas: At least 50 people were killed and more than 200 wounded when a gunman opened fire on an outdoor music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. ... Read more
Washington: Social media giant Facebook is expected to provide Congress on Monday with more than 3,000 ads that ran around the time of the 2016 presidential election and are linked to a Russian ad agency. ... Read more
Barcelona: Catalonia’s regional government declared a landslide win for the “yes” side in a disputed referendum on independence from Spain that degenerated into ugly scenes of mayhem on Sunday, with more than 800 people injured as riot police attacked peaceful protesters and unarmed civilians gathered to cast their ballots. ... Read more
Ottawa (Canada): An Air France flight to Los Angeles from Paris was forced to land in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador following “serious damage” to one of the plane’s four engines on Saturday. The airline said the plane landed safely in the afternoon after being diverted to Goose Bay airport as a precaution. ... Read more
Washington: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged on Saturday that the United State is maintaining direct channels of communications with North Korea even as tensions rise over the North's nuclear and missile programs and the countries' leaders spar through bellicose name-calling. ... Read more
Irbil (Iraq): Iraq’s military prepared Saturday to take control of the international borders of the northern Kurdish region. The move is part of the central government’s stepped-up efforts to isolate the Kurds following their vote on independence earlier this week. ... Read more
Beijing: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson today met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials on issues including trade, North Korea and preparations for an anticipated visit by President Donald Trump to China in November. Tillerson told top Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi that Trump and Xi had developed a "very regular and close working relationship". ... Read more
Washington: The United States is warning Americans against visiting Cuba and ordering more than half of U.S. personnel to leave the island, senior officials said Friday, in a dramatic response to what they described as "specific attacks" on diplomats. ... Read more
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has announced that women will be allowed to drive for the first time in the ultra-conservative kingdom next summer, fulfilling a key demand of women's rights activists who faced detention for defying the ban. ... Read more
Washington: US President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are rolling out a wide-ranging plan to cut taxes for individuals and corporations, simplify the tax system, and likely double the standard deduction used by most Americans. Months in the making, the plan meets a political imperative for Republicans to deliver an overhaul of the US tax code after the failure of the health care repeal. ... Read more
Bangkok: A Thai court on Wednesday sentenced former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was ousted in a 2014 military coup, to five years in prison in absentia for alleged negligence in a money-losing rice subsidy program. ... Read more
Jerusalem: A Palestinian attacker opened fire early on Tuesday at the entrance to a settlement outside Jerusalem, killing three Israeli security men and critically wounding a fourth, Israeli police and medical services said, in one of the deadliest attacks in a two-year spate of violence. ... Read more
United Nations: Myanmar's UN ambassador insisted on Monday that there is no "ethnic cleansing" or genocide taking place against Muslims and objected "in the strongest terms" to countries that used those words to describe the situation in Rakhine State. ... Read more
Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Monday he will call an early election for parliament's more powerful lower house for next month. ... Read more
Washington: President Donald Trump is expected to announce new restrictions on travel to the United States as his ban on visitors from six Muslim-majority countries expires today, 90 days after it went into effect. ... Read more
Mexico City: A strong new earthquake shook Mexico on Saturday, causing new alarm in a country reeling from two still-more-powerful quakes this month that have killed nearly 400 people. ... Read more
San Juan: Puerto Rican officials could not communicate with more than half the towns in the US territory as they rushed to evacuate tens of thousands of people downstream of a failing dam and the massive scale of the disaster wrought by Hurricane Maria started to become clear. ... Read more
Beirut: Iran is working to restore a lost link in its network of alliances in the Middle East, trying to bring Hamas fully back into the fold after the Palestinian militant group had a bitter fall-out with Iranian ally Syria over that country’s civil war. ... Read more
Seoul: Will North Korea’s next nuclear test involve a thermonuclear missile screaming over Japan? That’s a question being asked after North Korea’s foreign minister said his country may test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean. ... Read more
Washington: US President Donald Trump on Friday renewed his rhetorical offensive against North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, calling the reclusive leader ‘obviously a madman’. Terming North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile development a grave threat to peace and security, he said, “It is unacceptable that others financially support this criminal, rogue regime.” ... Read more
Tehran: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has unveiled its latest ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometres, about 1,250 miles capable of reaching much of the Middle East, including Israel. ... Read more
Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in an extraordinary and direct rebuke, called President Donald Trump "deranged" and said he will "pay dearly" for his threats, a possible indication of more powerful weapons tests on the horizon. ... Read more
New York: President Donald Trump today met his Afghanistan counterpart Ashraf Ghani on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. During the brief meet here, Trump praised the combat efforts to drive the Taliban and terror groups out of the land-locked nation. ... Read more
United Nations: South Korean President Moon Jae-in today urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and come to negotiation table. ... Read more
San Juan: The strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in more than 80 years destroyed hundreds of homes, knocked out power across the entire island and turned some streets into raging rivers on Wednesday in an onslaught that could plunge the U.S. territory deeper into financial crisis. ... Read more
Mexico City: A magnitude 7.1 earthquake stunned central Mexico on Tuesday, killing at least 226 people as buildings collapsed in plumes of dust. Thousands fled into the streets in panic, and many stayed to help rescue those trapped. ... Read more
Tokyo: Japan on Tuesday moved a mobile missile-defense system on the northern island of Hokkaido to a base near recent North Korean missile flyover routes. Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor unit was deployed at the Hakodate base on southern Hokkaido “as a precaution” as part of government preparations for a possible emergency. ... Read more
United Nations: U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the world’s leaders Tuesday that the threat of a nuclear attack is at its highest level since the end of the Cold War and “fiery talk can lead to fatal misunderstandings.” ... Read more
United Nations: President Donald Trump used his United Nations debut on Monday to prod the international organisation to cut its bloated bureaucracy and fulfill its mission. But he pledged U.S. support for the world body he had excoriated as a candidate, and his criticisms were more restrained than in years past. ... Read more
San Juan: Hurricane Maria intensified into a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm on Monday as it surged toward islands in the eastern Caribbean, and forecasters warned it might become even stronger. ... Read more
Washington: Chinese ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai, has asked the Trump administration to stop threatening North Korea over its weapons program and asked it to make efforts to help resume dialog over the crisis. Tiankai also said that Washington should immediately stop putting pressure on Beijing over the issue. ... Read more
Seoul: The US military flew advanced bombers and stealth jets over the Korean Peninsula and near Japan in drills with South Korean and Japanese warplanes on Monday, three days after North Korea fired a missile over Japan. ... Read more
Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says the fate of 39 Indians captured by the Islamic State group when the extremists initially overran Mosul three years ago is still unknown. ... Read more
Islamabad: Thousands of Shiite Muslims from Afghanistan and Pakistan are being recruited by Iran to fight with President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria, lured by promises of housing, a monthly salary of up to $600 and the possibility of employment in Iran when they return, say counterterrorism officials and analysts. ... Read more
Seoul: North Korea leader Kim Jong Un said his country is nearing its goal of "equilibrium" in military force with the United States, as the United Nations Security Council strongly condemned the North's "highly provocative" ballistic missile test on Friday. ... Read more
London: Hundreds of London police embarked on a massive manhunt Friday, racing to find out who placed a homemade bomb on a packed London subway train during the morning rush hour. The explosion wounded 22 people and ignited a panicked stampede to safety. ... Read more
London: London police and ambulances descended upon a subway station on Friday after a reported explosion on a train standing at the platform, and a witness said commuters stampeded down the stairs to escape. ... Read more
Cox's Bazar: Nearly three weeks into a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar, thousands were still flooding across the border Thursday in search of help and safety in teeming refugee settlements in Bangladesh. ... Read more
Moscow: Russia's military said that has fired seven cruise missiles at Islamic State targets in the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour. The Defense Ministry said the Kalibr cruise missiles were launched from two submarines in the Mediterranean on Thursday. ... Read more
Washington: Irma, which flattened some Caribbean islands and enveloped nearly all of Florida in its fury, no longer exists. The open Atlantic’s most powerful hurricane on record finally sputtered out as an ordinary rainstorm over Ohio and Indiana. ... Read more
Washington: The top House and Senate Democrats said Wednesday they had reached agreement with President Donald Trump to protect thousands of younger immigrants from deportation and fund some border security enhancements — not including Trump’s long-sought border wall. ... Read more
Kuala Lumpur: A fire killed 24 people, mostly teenagers, trapped behind barred windows and a blocked exit in an Islamic school dormitory on the outskirts of Malaysia's capital early Thursday, officials said. ... Read more
Washington: A student who opened fire in a hallway at a Washington state high school killed a classmate who confronted him Wednesday and wounded three others before being stopped by a staff member, authorities said. ... Read more
Bangkok: With Myanmar drawing condemnation for violence that has driven at least 370,000 Rohingya to flee the country, the government said Wednesday its leader Aung San Suu Kyi would skip this week’s U.N. General Assembly. ... Read more
Hemeimeem Air Base (Syria): Russia’s military on Tuesday said that Syrian troops have liberated about 85 percent of the war-torn country’s territory from militants, a major turn-around two years after Moscow intervened to lend a hand to its embattled long-time ally. ... Read more
Cox's Bazar (Bangladesh): Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina lambasted Myanmar for ‘atrocities’ against Rohingya Muslims that she said has reached a level beyond description. ... Read more
Washington: Leading his first commemoration of the solemn 9/11 anniversary, President Donald Trump said today that "the living, breathing soul of America wept with grief" for each of the nearly 3,000 lives that were lost on that day 16 years ago. ... Read more
Seoul: North Korea says it will make the United States pay a heavy price if a proposal Washington is backing to impose the toughest sanctions ever on Pyongyang is approved by the UN Security Council this week. ... Read more
Miami: Hurricane Irma which made landfall in Florida on Sunday as Category 4 storm with winds up to 130 mph (209 kmph) has come down to a Category 2 with winds of 105 mph (177 kmph). The Hurricane on Sunday gave Florida a coast-to-coast pummeling, swamping homes and boats, toppling massive construction cranes over the Miami skyline and causing power outages affecting at least 3.3 million homes and businesses across the state. ... Read more
Mexico City: Government cargo planes flew in supplies and troops began distributing boxes of food to jittery survivors of an earthquake that destroyed a large part of Juchitan and killed at least 37 people here, even as officials today raised the nationwide death toll to 90. ... Read more
Mexico City: Amid the sounds of snare drums, saxophones and sobbing, Mexicans today began mourning some of the 66 dead after a one-two punch from a monster earthquake and a Gulf coast hurricane. ... Read more
St Lucia: Hurricane Irma snapped the Caribbean islands' links to the outside world by pounding their small airports, decapitating cellphone towers, filling harbors with overturned, crushed boats. ... Read more
Beijing: China and Pakistan today took swipes at President Donald Trump's newly unveiled Afghanistan policy as they called for new talks with the Taliban to resolve the 16-year conflict in the land-locked nation. ... Read more
Cox's Bazar (Bangladesh): The United Nations refugee agency is reporting a surge in the number of Rohingya Muslims who have crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar, with an estimated 2,70,000 arriving in the last two weeks. ... Read more
Seoul: South Korea is closely watching North Korea over the possibility it may launch another intercontinental ballistic missile as soon as Saturday when it celebrates its founding anniversary. ... Read more
Mexico City: One of the most powerful earthquakes ever to strike Mexico has hit off its southern Pacific coast, killing at least 32 people, toppling houses, government offices and businesses while sending panicked people into the streets more than 1,000 kms away. ... Read more
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia said today it is reopening its border with Qatar to allow Qataris to attend the hajj amid a month long rift between the neighbouring countries that led to both sides trading accusations of politicising the ritual. The decision came after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held a surprise meeting with a Qatari royal family member whose branch of the family was ousted in a palace coup in 1972. ... Read more
Beijing: A military solution to the North Korean missile threat would be “horrific” but allowing Pyongyang to develop the capability to launch a nuclear attack on the United States is “unimaginable,” the top U.S. military officer said Thursday in Beijing. ... Read more
Caracas: At least 37 people were killed and 14 law enforcement personnel wounded when armed inmates resisted authorities' attempt to impose order at a prison in the Venezuelan state of Amazonas, officials said. ... Read more
Freetown: Some bodies were swept into the sea off the coast of the West African nation and have begun washing back ashore. ... Read more
Kabul: The Afghan Taliban on Tuesday released an "open letter" to President Donald Trump, reiterating their calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan after 16 years of war. ... Read more
Lisbon: Around 3,000 firefighters in Portugal were struggling to put out more than 150 wildfires raging across the country Tuesday, as persistent hot and dry weather stoked the flames, officials said. ... Read more
Tehran: Iran's president issued a direct threat to the West on Tuesday, claiming his country is capable of revitalizing its nuclear program within hours and quickly bringing it to even more advanced levels than when Iran reached a deal with world powers that limited its ability to produce nuclear weapons. ... Read more
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia and Iraq plan to open the Arar border crossing for trade for the first time since 1990, when it was closed after the countries cut ties following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, Saudi local media reported on Tuesday. ... Read more
Ouagadougou: The spokesman for the Burkina Faso government said that the country’s special forces have ended an attack by suspected Islamic extremists on an upscale Turkish restaurant in the West African country’s capital, Ouagadougou. ... Read more
Beijing: China will halt iron, iron ore and seafood imports from North Korea starting Monday, following through on new UN sanctions after US pressure for Beijing to strong arm Pyongyang over its ally’s nuclear programme. ... Read more
Washington: At least three people died and 19 others were injured after violent clashes erupted between white supremacists and counter demonstrators in a rally in the US state of Virginia. ... Read more
At least 15 people, including 8 soldiers, were killed and 40 others injured after a suicide bomber targetted an army truck in Pakistan’s southwest Balochistan province Saturday night. The incident took place when the truck was passing through Quetta’s Pishin bus stop. ... Read more
Kathmandu: Nearly 600 tourists, including 200 Indians, have been stranded in central Nepal's popular tourist district Chitwan due to flooding triggered by heavy rains that have claimed 49 lives, officials said today. Heavy rains have lashed Nepal for the past three days causing flooding and landslides at several places in the Himalayan country. ... Read more
Washington: No need to duck and cover just yet. While U.S. intelligence officials are pretty sure North Korea can put a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental missile that could reach the United States, experts aren’t convinced the bomb could survive the flight to America. ... Read more
Seoul: Chinese President Xi Jinping today made a plea for cool-headedness over escalating tensions between the US and North Korea in a phone conversation with President Donald Trump, urging both sides to avoid words or actions that could worsen the situation. ... Read more
Nairobi: Kenyans waited anxiously on Friday for the results of a heated presidential election earlier in the week that has brought the country to a near standstill. ... Read more
Cairo: Two trains collided in Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria on Friday killing 36 people and injuring more than 100 others, a health ministry spokesman said. ... Read more
Karachi: Ruth Pfau, a German doctor and nun who dedicated her life to eradicating leprosy in Pakistan and has been described as the country's Mother Teresa, has died in Karachi aged 87. ... Read more
United Nations: Five migrants are dead and more than 50 are missing after smugglers forced them from a boat off the coast of Yemen in the second such drowning in two days, the U.N. migration agency said Thursday. The International Organization for Migration's statement came less than a day after it said up to 50 migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia were "deliberately drowned" by a smuggler in a separate boat off Yemen. ... Read more
Washington: A study conducted by Researchers at the Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point and Yale has revealed that the majority of suicide bombers used by the Nigeria-based terror group Boko Haram are women and children. ... Read more
Paris: French police are searching for a driver who slammed his BMW into a group of soldiers in a Paris suburb Wednesday, injuring six of them in what appeared to be a carefully timed ambush before speeding away, officials said. ... Read more
Seoul: Hours after US President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang that any threat would be met with “fire and fury like the world has never seen”, North Korea said on Wednesday it is considering plans for a missile attack on the US Pacific territory of Guam. ... Read more
Beijing: A powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake has jolted a popular tourist destination in China's southwest Sichuan province, killing 13 people and injuring 175 others, officials said today. ... Read more
Manila: Australia, Japan and the United States on Monday urged Southeast Asia and China to ensure that a South China Sea code of conduct they have committed to draw up will be legally binding and said they strongly opposed "coercive unilateral actions". ... Read more
London: British prime minister Theresa May's office on Monday denied weekend media claims that the UK government was reconciled to paying the European Union nearly € 40 billion as part of a so-called Brexit divorce bill. ... Read more
Seoul: North Korea today condemned the latest United Nations sanctions imposed in response to its weapons programmes, saying it would not negotiate over nuclear arms while threatened by the United States. ... Read more
Beijing: Senior Col Li Li of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) may be thousands of kilometres away from Doklam but has a stern message for the Indian Army -- withdraw from the Chinese territory to avoid confrontation. ... Read more
Kabul: The Taliban insurgents suffered heavy casualties after their coordinated attack was repulsed by the Afghan security forces in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan on Sunday. ... Read more
At least eight people have been killed in a gun attack on a church in southern Nigeria, police say. ... Read more
Beirut: Syrian government troops advanced overnight against the Islamic State group in the country's north and centre, drawing closer to the key battleground of Deir Ezzor, a monitor said. ... Read more
Tehran: Moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani was to be inaugurated for a second term as Iranian president in front of foreign guests on Saturday, but already faces criticism for reportedly bowing to conservatives in forming a new government. ... Read more
Kigali: Rwanda’s longtime President Paul Kagame has easily won a third term in office in what he had called “a formality.” He faces another seven years leading the small East African nation praised for its economic performance but criticized for its silencing of opponents. ... Read more
Manila: Southeast Asia’s top diplomats slammed North Korea with a sharp rebuke Saturday over its intercontinental ballistic missile tests and admonished Pyongyang to comply with its duty of helping avert conflicts as a member of Asia’s biggest security forum. ... Read more
Johannesburg: Ethiopia's government on Friday lifted a state of emergency imposed in October after hundreds of people were killed in anti-government protests demanding wider political freedoms. It was some of the country's worst violence since the ruling party came to power in 1991. ... Read more
Rome: Italy began a limited naval mission on Wednesday to help Libya's coastguard curb migrant flows, which have become a source of political friction before national elections expected early next year. ... Read more
Washington: President Donald Trump denied Wednesday that he called the White House a “dump”. ... Read more
Islamabad: Pakistan's Parliament on Tuesday elected PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the interim Prime Minister of the country following disqualification of Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court. Abbasi bagged 221 votes during the voting in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, to elect a short-term successor of Sharif, Dawn News reported. Besides Abbasi, Naveed Qamar, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Sahibzada Tariqullah were other three valid candidates competing for the office of the prime minister. ... Read more
Washington: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a bill imposing new sanctions on Russia, conceding under pressure from his own party that a warmer relationship with Moscow was not in the country’s best interest. ... Read more
Kabul: An explosion inside a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan's Herat province on Tuesday killed at least 20 people and injured nearly 30, a hospital official said. The official, Dr Mohammed Rafique Shehrzad, said 20 bodies were brought to his Main Hospital in Herat city, the capital of western Herat province tonight, soon after the blast shattered the late evening, AP reported. ... Read more
Moscow: Three people being taken to trial in a Moscow court for robbery and murder were shot dead after they grabbed side-arms from court security officers in an attempt to escape, Russian law enforcement officials said on Tuesday. ... Read more
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday the United States would have to cut its embassy and consulate staff in Russia by 755, heightening tensions between Washington and Moscow three days after the U.S. Congress approved sanctions against Russia. ... Read more
Washington: The US has said the time for talk over North Korea was "over," spurning a UN response to Pyongyang's latest ICBM launch in favour of bomber flights and missile defence system tests ... Read more
Caracas: A wave of bloodshed swept Venezuela as troops cracked down on violent protests against elections to choose the members of a powerful assembly that President Nicolas Maduro has tasked with writing a new constitution. ... Read more
Taipei: A strong typhoon swept across Taiwan on Sunday, injuring more than 80 people, forcing the capital to shut down essential services and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes. Forty people were trapped in the southern parts of the island, mainly due to floodwaters, the government said. Typhoon Nesat, a medium strength typhoon with wind speeds of around 119 km per hour (70 mph), made landfall on Saturday and is expected to lash the island over two days, affecting the south most heavily, according to the Central Weather Bureau. ... Read more
Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping today claimed that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has the confidence and capability to defeat all invading enemies as he inspected a massive military parade at the country's largest military base to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the 2.3-million strong army. ... Read more
Canberra: Police disrupted a terrorist plot to bring down an airplane and arrested four men in raids on homes in several Sydney suburbs, the prime minister said today. ... Read more
Colombo: After several months of delay caused by protests, Sri Lanka today finally signed a USD 1.1 billion deal with China to lease the southern Hambantota port to Beijing. Hambantota port, overlooking the Indian Ocean, is expected to play a key role in China's ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative, otherwise known as the new Silk Road, which will link ports and roads between China and Europe. ... Read more
Tokyo: North Korea fired a ballistic missile which landed in the ocean off Japan, Japanese officials said. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called a meeting of Japan's National Security Council. ... Read more
Jerusalem: Israeli police said they would bar men under 50 from Friday Muslim prayers at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site after clashes erupted as Palestinians ended a boycott of the compound the previous day. ... Read more
Islamabad: Beleaguered Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigned on Friday after the Supreme Court, accusing him of dishonesty, disqualified him from holding the post following a probe that exposed illegal family wealth stashed abroad. ... Read more
Tokyo: Japan's beleaguered defence minister resigned today over an alleged cover-up of military documents from UN peacekeeping operations, the latest blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's scandal-ridden government. ... Read more
Abu Dhabi: If banks, or any Indian institutions, demand that Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) produce Aadhaar for official transactions, simply inform them that NRIs are not eligible for the identity card issued to residents of India, a top Indian official told Gulf News on Tuesday. ... Read more
Paris: A French-led effort to reunify fractured Libya failed to consult powerful local forces and risks achieving little beyond boosting the legitimacy of a renegade general who has recently racked up significant battlefield gains. ... Read more
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