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

GENEVA/BERLIN/BEIRUT: Peace talks aimed at ending the conflict in Syria will resume in Geneva on March 9, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura’s office said Tuesday, announcing a two-day postponement. “Intra-Syrian peace talks will resume in the afternoon of 9 March,” de Mistura’s office said in a stateme

BAGHDAD: The death toll from devastating back-to-back market bombings carried out by the Daesh group the previous day in eastern Baghdad climbed to 73 on Monday, officials said. Several of the critically wounded died overnight while 112 people remain in hospital, two police officials said. Also, at

BEIRUT: Most major armed opposition groups in Syria have indicated they are ready to participate in the plan to cease hostilities on Saturday, as long as the Syrian government upholds its obligations under the deal, a senior Obama administration official said on Friday. US President Barack Obama wa

ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers in Pakistan’s largest province on Wednesday gave unprecedented protection to female victims of violence, in a bid to stem a rising tide of gender-related abuse in a country ranked as the world’s third most dangerous place for women. The bill redefines “violence” to include “any

JERUSALEM: A report by two Israeli rights groups released Wednesday says dozens of Palestinian detainees at an Israeli detention facility are subjected to mistreatment, which in some cases amounts to torture. The report by B’Tselem and HaMoked presents accounts by 116 Palestinian detainees on condi

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Tuesday presented a long-awaited roadmap to close the controversial US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, saying it was time to shutter a facility that betrayed US interests and values. With less than a year left in office, Obama unveiled a plan that says the U

ANKARA, Turkey: A car bomb went off in the Turkish capital Wednesday near vehicles carrying military personnel, killing at least 28 people and wounding 61 others, officials said. The explosion occurred during evening rush hour in the heart of Ankara, in an area close to parliament and armed force

MUNICH: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev raised the specter of a “permanent war” or a “world war” if powers failed to negotiate an end to the conflict in Syria and warned against any ground operations by US and Arab forces. Medvedev, speaking to Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper on the eve o

PARIS: Outgoing French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Wednesday accused Russia and Iran of “complicity” in the “brutality” of the Syrian regime. “There is both the frightening brutality of Bashar Assad’s regime... and — I am going to name those responsible — there is complicity on the part of R