At least 26 Afghan soldiers have been killed in a Taliban attack on a military base in southern Kandahar province, the defence ministry said Wednesday, the latest blow to the country’s struggling security forces. The Afghan air force said it carried out strikes backing up soldiers on the ground

Jerusalem: Israel has decided to replace metal detectors with more advanced surveillance cameras at the entrance to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied East Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted to remove the metal detector gates after a meeting lasting several hours

Kabul [Afghanistan]: More than 20 people were killed in an explosion in western Kabul on Monday. The explosion occurred after a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in Kabul’s Gulaee Dawa Khana near the house of Mohammad Mohaqiq, the second deputy of Afghanistan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdull

Washington: The US has announced resuming faster processing of H-1B work visas, popular with Indian techies, for high skilled foreign professionals in categories exempt from Congress-mandated limit, which are mostly for higher education and scientific research institutions. The H1-B visa is a n

LAHORE: A powerful suicide blast near residence-cum-office of Pakistan’s Punjab province Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore today killed at least 20 people, including policemen, and wounded 30 others. Lahore police chief Capt (R) Amin Wains said the “target of blast was police”. He also c

Colombo : Condemning the shooting attack aimed at the Jaffna High Court Judge M. Illanchelian, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to initiate a special program to strengthen the security of judges. Expressing his condolences over the death of

A Cairo criminal court on Saturday sentenced to death 28 people over the 2015 killing of Egypt’s top prosecutor and handed 15 others jail sentences of 25 years each. The court had in June recommended passing the death penalty to Egypt’s top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, who can approve or re

A US airstrike killed 16 Afghan police and wounded two others in Helmand province, officials said Saturday. The incident took place Friday 5 pm as Afghan security forces were clearing a village of Taliban elements, Salam Afghan, Helmand police spokesman, told AFP. “In the strike, 16 Afghan pol

Washington: Embattled US Attorney General Jeff Sessions discussed campaign-related issues with the Russian ambassador to Washington during the presidential race — something Sessions has insisted he did not do, The Washington Post reported late Friday. The paper quoted current and former administr

Zhukovsky (Russia): India and Russia will soon sign a contract for jointly developing the much-delayed fifth-generation fighter aircraft, a top Russian official has said. Sergei Chemezov, the CEO of Rostec State Corporation, said that all decisions over the multi-billion dollar project to joint

For modern Olympic host cities, the twin threats of terrorism and financial ruin constantly loom. But spare a thought for Tokyo 2020 organisers, who face the added risk of a devastating earthquake or tsunami. Japan is already stepping up efforts to reassure top athletes and hundreds of thousan

Kabul [Afghanistan]: Around 18 Taliban insurgents killed in a massive air and ground operations by Afghanistan security forces in the Helmand province of Afghanistan early Thursday. The security forces started the operation after six policemen wounded in the explosions carried out by three Taliban

Sanaa’: According to a UK-based rights group, Yemen has been named the country where the risk of genocide or mass killing rose the most last year. In its annual “Peoples Under Threat” index released on Thursday, Minority Rights Group International (MRG) placed Syria at the top of the list for the

Donald Trump said he regretted his choice for attorney general Wednesday as he sought to protect himself from the growing firestorm over Russia’s alleged election meddling which is engulfing his presidency. On the eve of the six-month mark of Trump’s inauguration, it also emerged that senators wi

Embattled Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday contested the graft charges against him and his family in the Supreme Court, saying the Panama probe panel did not produce any document to prove that he was the owner of the posh London flats, which are at the centre of the high-profile cas

US President Donald Trump met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a second, previously undisclosed chat during the G20 summit in Germany this month, the White House confirmed today, raising new questions about their relationship. After his much-publicised two-and-a-quarter-hour meeting on July

At least 12 to 15 Indians recently fought alongside the Islamic State (IS) against Iraqi security forces, Iraqi envoy to India Fakhri H. Al Issa told journalists on Wednesday on the occasion of the commemoration of the victory of the Iraqi forces against the IS in the city of Mosul. Some of the I

London [U.K.]: According to newly released figures by the United Nations, the number of civilian deaths in the Afghan war has reached a record high. During the 16-year war, the number of deaths of women and children grew especially fast, mostly due to ‘homemade bombs’ by Taliban which caused 40%