JEDDAH: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has appointed four Arab women to top positions in the 47-year-old organization. The OIC is the world’s second-largest international organization after the United Nations, consisting of 57 countries. Iyad Madani, the OIC’s secretary general, is

BEIJING: The Chinese capital Beijing will shut down 2,500 polluting firms in 2016 in its latest environmental protection efforts to reduce pollution as the city continues to be engulfed by smog most part of the year. The Fengtai, Fangshan, Tongzhou and Daxing districts are required to close 2,500

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: Condemning the Pathankot attack in one voice - for the first time following a terror strike in India, Pakistan's civilian and military leadership on Friday promised full cooperation with New Delhi in eradicating the menace of terrorism from the region, a denunciation that would

TRIPOLI, Libya: A truck bomb exploded in the western Libyan city of Zliten near a police base, killing at least 60 policemen and wounding 200 on Thursday, officials said. No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, but a local Daesh affiliate has been trying to gain a foothold in Zliten from its

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday described new steps his administration will take to tighten gun rules and urged Americans to vote for candidates who do more to prevent gun violence, wiping back tears as he remembered children who died in a mass shooting. As Obama delivered a powerf

BEIJING: China’s stock market lurched lower again Monday, triggering “circuit breakers” that halted trading. The slump was the latest episode in months of turmoil for Chinese investors. China’s market benchmark soared 150 percent between November 2014 and early June 2015, as cheerleading in the sta

COLOMBO: Up to 100,000 people still living in camps six years after the end of Sri Lanka’s brutal ethnic war will be given land to build homes within six months, President Maithripala Sirisena told AFP Sunday. “It is an ambitious target, but I will see that all the internally displaced people are g

China has commissioned its first nuclear power plant in one of its ethnic autonomous regions as it rapidly expands the country’s nuclear reactor network to cut down coal burning and CO2 emissions. The first reactor of the Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region can s

SANAA(Yemen): Pro-government fighters in Yemen attacked and killed a senior al-Qaida leader and three people traveling in his convoy near a security checkpoint in the southern Abyan province on Friday, Yemeni officials said. Ali Abed al-Rab bin Talab, better known as Abu Anwar, was the extremist

PARIS: More than 100,000 police will be deployed throughout France to guard New Year's Eve celebrations that come six weeks after the jihadist attacks in Paris, interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Thursday.  The minister said that while there was "no direct threat" of an attack, "all Europe

While the use of landmines planted by armies has fallen globally since the 1990s, the number of civilians hit by improvised explosive devices has skyrocketed, according to Action on Armed Violence. Peshawar: Pakistani teen Ali Shah was on his way to school when he lost half of his right han

YORK: Four months after images of his lifeless body on a Turkish beach sparked outrage around the world, Alan Kurdi's relatives have arrived in Canada, ready to start a new life and determined the child's death not be in vain. The three-year-old's uncle, Mohammed Kurdi, his wife, and their five c

MELBOURNE: More than 100 homes burned down in a leading Australian tourist area in bushfires on Christmas Day and the situation remained dangerous on Saturday, as officials predicted more blazes to come later in the hot southern summer. While around 500 firefighters and 13 firefighting aircraft bat

Zimbabwe has announced it will soon adopt the Chinese yuan as the main currency for use. Zimbabwe is the first country apart from China to use the yuan as its currency in the domestic market; it has been the legal tender along with the US dollar and South African Rand for the last couple of years.

Brazilian health authorities are sounding the alarm about a mosquito-borne virus that they believe may be the cause of thousands of infants being born with damaged brains. The pathogen, known as Zika and first discovered in forest monkeys in Africa over 70 years ago, is the new West Nile - a viru

MOSCOW: Russia plans to build at least six new nuclear power units in India in the next 20 years, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Speaking after talks with visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Putin also said that Moscow and New Delhi were successfully cooperating in productio

Afghan forces battled on Wednesday to push back Taliban fighters who have overrun Sangin in Helmand province and officials denied insurgents' claims that police and administrative buildings in the district centre had fallen. Earlier Acting Defence Minister Masoom Stanekzai said reinforcements had

HONOLULU: US President Barack Barack Obama said Daesh can’t destroy the United States. In a year-end interview with NPR News, Obama says he understands why people are worried. Earlier this month, a radicalized married couple who had pledged allegiance to Daesh opened fire on the husband’s co-worker