MOUNTAIN VIEW, California: The two Swiss pilots taking turns to fly a solar-powered airplane around the world said Sunday the endeavor is not only a demonstration of the importance of renewable energy but also of the many challenges the human body can endure. Pilot Bertrand Piccard completed a ri

CAIRO: Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby called Thursday for a special criminal court to be set up for Israel, at a meeting to condemn an announcement that it will never return the Golan Heights. Delegates to the Arab bloc are expected to pass a resolution denouncing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya

PARIS: Students at an elite Paris university sparked bitter debate Wednesday by inviting classmates to wear the Muslim veil for a day in a bid to “demystify” a practice viewed as highly divisive in France. Students at Sciences Po urged women to take part in Hijab Day “if you too think all women sho

President Rafael Correa said on Twitter that the death toll on Sunday had risen to 233, up from an initial count of 77 dead and 600 injured. He added that Vice-President Jorge Glas was on his way to the hard-hit city of Portoviejo on the Pacific coast. Glas called it the "worst seismic movement w

BEIRUT: Syrian opposition activists say the Daesh group has captured several villages in the northern province of Aleppo during clashes with government forces. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the fighting is concentrated in areas east of the town of Khanaser, which has ex

ABU DHABI: The US Navy is leading a 30-nation maritime exercise across Middle Eastern waters, which it says will help protect international trade routes against possible threats, including from Daesh and Al-Qaeda. The exercise, partly being held in the Arabian Gulf, comes as tensions run high betwe

SEOUL: North Korea said on Saturday it has successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic rocket engine that will give it the ability to stage nuclear strikes on the United States. The engine's ground test, if true, would be a big step forward for the North's nuclear weapons programme, whic

Tripoli: Libya’s UN-backed unity government moved to cement control over the country’s finances and institutions Wednesday after the rival administration in Tripoli ceded power in a boost to efforts to end years of chaos. The concession late Tuesday by the militia-backed administration that had con

DUBAI: “Daddy, where are you now? In Turkey or Sweden?” a Syrian girl asks her father in her first voice message to him since he joined hundreds of thousands fleeing the war. The recording, sent by smartphone, is one of many messages between Syrians that Jordanian photographer Tanya Habjouqa has co

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama joined South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday, vowing to ramp up pressure on North Korea in response to its recent nuclear and missile tests. Meeting on the sidelines of a global nuclear security summit in Wash

Searches by Cyprus police found no explosives on the hijacker of an EgyptAir plane diverted to the island or inside the aircraft, a police source told AFP. The hijacker, who is in custody after surrendering to police following a six-hour standoff at Larnaca airport, had claimed to be wearing an e

LONDON: Even a Nobel Peace Prize isn't enough to curb the rising Islamophobia among the rank and file of global leadership. Forget Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and other assorted rightwingers from the Republican Party. This time it's the Lady of Burma who has raised the hackles for Islamophobes the wor

JERUSALEM: The UN condemned on Friday the “gruesome” killing of a wounded Palestinian assailant by an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank, after a video of the death spread widely online. “I strongly condemn yesterday’s apparent extra-judicial execution of a Palestinian assailant in Hebron

SEOUL: North Korea on Monday fired five short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast — the latest in a series of launches ordered by leader Kim Jong-Un amid rising military tensions. They came just days after the North test-fired two medium-range missiles in what the UN Security Council d

COLUMBUS OHIO: Ohio, the important swing state lived up to its reputation. It rejected Donald Trump stopping him for now, from clinching the Republican presidential nomination. It also embraced Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders, making her a clear choice for the Democratic presidential nominee for

CHICAGO: Donald Trump canceled a rally in Chicago Friday in the face of huge protests, which triggered scenes of chaos and prompted his presidential rivals to blame the violent outbreak on his incendiary rhetoric. Demonstrators scuffled with the Republican presidential frontrunner’s supporters and

KHARTOUM: Prominent Sudanese politician Hassan Al-Turabi, a veteran leader of the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP), has died at the age of 84, medical sources said on Saturday. Al-Turabi, one of the country’s most influential political figures, was rushed to hospital earlier on Saturday af

An egg that was harvested and fertilised more than a decade back, has finally seen the light of the day in the form of the longest-preserved test tube baby. A Chinese woman who suffered from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOD) and other fertility issues decided to have her embryos frozen way back in