MOSCOW: Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is ready to stand in a new presidential election, a Russian lawmaker told AFP from Damascus on Sunday. "He is ready to conduct elections with the participation of all political forces who want Syria to prosper," Russian lawmaker Alexander Yushchenko said

PUERTO VALLARTA: Hurricane Patricia, one of the most powerful storms on record, struck Mexico's Pacific coast on Friday, threatening to inflict catastrophic damage as emergency teams scrambled to evacuate thousands of people from homes and popular beach resorts. Blowing winds of almost 165 miles

MANILA: Two Chinese diplomats in the Philippines were killed and the consul-general was wounded Wednesday by a Chinese attacker armed with a pistol during a birthday celebration at a restaurant, police said. Two other Chinese at the lunch, a consular officer and her husband, were arrested on susp

WASHINGTON: The United States and Russia have signed a memorandum of understanding that establishes measures so their pilots steer clear of each other as they conduct separate bombing campaigns in Syria, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. It's a significant step that follows several instances in which

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has urged the US to play its role to ensure strategic stability in South Asia and in resolving the Kashmir issue. During Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to the US, we will talk about the tension with India on the Line of Control (LoC), foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhr

MADRID (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that a proposed international presence at the Jerusalem holy site at the center of escalating Israeli, Palestinian tension and violence is not needed. Instead, he said what is needed is clarity over pledges by Israel to maintain the statu

PESHAWAR: Pakistani authorities on Monday arrested a terrorist allegedly involved in a brazen attack on an air force base here last month that killed 42 people, including 23 air force personnel. The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police said they arrested the terrori

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama ordered the US government on Sunday to take steps towards lifting sanctions on Iran, in line with the nuclear deal struck between world powers and Tehran in July. Obama's directive comes 90 days after the UN security council endorsed the Iran accord -- formally

A powerful typhoon is battering the northern Philippines, with at least one person dead, several missing and thousands forced to flee their homes. Typhoon Koppu made landfall near the town of Casiguran on the island of Luzon on Sunday morning, bringing winds of close to 200km/h (124mph). The v

BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces and the Shia militias fighting alongside them announced on Friday that they had retaken the oil refinery at Beiji from Islamic State militants, in some of the first significant progress against the extremist group after months of stalled efforts. "Beiji refinery has been com

NEW YORK: A 6-month-old girl died on Thursday after being thrown out of the window of a New York City apartment building, the third such tragedy in three months, police said. Her mother was in custody, Police responding to a 911 call at about 2 p.m. found the baby unconscious and unresponsive lying

The United Nations refugee agency has been forced to step in to save scores of "orphan" children from detention in filthy police cells on the Greek island of Kos after its complaints at the squalid conditions went unheeded. Children as young as 11 who arrived by boat from Turkey without their par

NEW DELHI: India, Japan and the United States will hold joint naval exercises each year, Indian government sources said on Monday, as the three countries kicked off the first such drills in the Bay of Bengal in eight years, a move likely to concern China. The last time New Delhi hosted multilateral

JAKARTA: International help to assist Indonesia in combatting forest and agricultural fires cloaking Southeast Asia in haze has begun to arrive on Sumatra island, an official said on Saturday. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency, said a Bombardier amphibio

KATHMANDU: Nepal has issued a notice seeking suppliers to bring in fuel by air or by any other means to ease the situation ahead of the biggest festival celebrated in the Himalayan nation. The notice published by the state-run Nepal Oil Corp has asked suppliers to submit proposals to supply gasol

HONG KONG: A rare drawing of comic book hero Tintin by Belgian cartoonist Herge fetched over $1 million at auction in Hong Kong Monday as experts say comic art is becoming as collectible as paintings. The artwork is an illustration from the cartoonist's "The Blue Lotus" book, published in 1936, w

MOSCOW: Russian volunteers who have honed their combat skills in Ukraine are likely to travel to Syria to fight alongside the forces of president Bashar al-Assad, Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov, the head of the Russian parliament's defence committee, said on Monday. "It is likely that groups of Russi

ISLAMABAD: Mark Seigel, American journalist and a key witness in the murder case of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has recorded his statement before a Pakistan anti-terrorism court through video link that general Pervez Musharraf had warned that her safety would depend on the state o