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

SIWA, Indonesia: Nearly 80 people are still missing nearly 24 hours after a ferry ran into trouble in rough seas off the coast of Indonesia’s Sulawesi, with authorities not ruling out the possibility of a sinking. ADVERTISING 5 The transport ministry has confirmed three peop

CAIRO: The World Bank Group has announced a $1 billion loan to Egypt, the first installment of an $8 billion financing plan to help the country carry out key economic reforms. Yesterday's statement says the $8 billion loan will be disbursed over a four-year period to support Egypt's efforts to "r

ADDIS ABABA: The United States government has announced $88 million to help feed hungry people in drought-stricken areas of Ethiopia, bringing the total amount of humanitarian aid to the country in 2015 to more than $435 million. The Ethiopian government is appealing for $1.4 billion from the int

The United States appears poised to lift at least some sanctions against Iran – possibly as early as January. The secretary of state, John Kerry, said in a letter on Wednesday to the Senate foreign relations committee that Iran is fulfilling its obligations under the international agreement in wh