BANGUI: Hundreds of people marched through the capital of Central African Republic on Wednesday, including members of the country’s transitional council, to press for the national army to be rearmed, a Reuters witness said. The march was guarded by security forces and UN peacekeepers and is the lat

JUBA, South Sudan: A Russian-built cargo plane with passengers on board crashed on Wednesday after taking off from the airport in South Sudan’s capital, killing at least 41 people on the flight and on the ground, an official and a Reuters witness said. A crew member and a child on board survived, p

LONDON: The Scottish government gave the go-ahead on Monday to Britain’s floating offshore wind farm project, which could power 19,000 households, saying it would be the “world’s largest.” The Norwegian energy company Statoil wants to locate five turbines — with a capacity of six megawatts each — 2

DHAKA: Angry publishers burnt books and closed their businesses in Bangladesh on Monday, in the third day of protests over the latest gruesome attacks on secular writers and publishers by suspected hardline Islamists. Hundreds of people, including book-shop owners, took to the streets of Dhaka to

YANGON: Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi addressed a huge rally on the outskirts of Myanmar's biggest city today, offering a message of reconciliation with political opponents if her party sweeps the upcoming general election. Suu Kyi also called for calm and stability as the campaign period ne

CAIRO: Several Egyptian military and security officials say there are no survivors from the Russian passenger plane carrying 224 people that crashed into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Mahmud Al-Zinati, the head of Egypt’s civil aviation authority, earlier said there were “many dead” including 17 childre

Nepalese motorists wait for their turn to fill fuel on their motorbikes at a fuel pump run by the Nepalese army in Kathmandu | AP China could well become a long-term fuel supplier to Nepal, undercutting IOC, which had been the sole supplier of fuel to Nepal for four decades. Chin

NEW YORK: The UN is estimating that 13.5 million people in Syria are now in need of humanitarian assistance and some form of protection, including more than six million children. UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that this represents an increase of some

KABUL/PESHAWAR (Pakistan): A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck a remote area of northeastern Afghanistan on Monday, shaking the capital Kabul and killing 180 people - 147 in Pakistan and 33 in Afghanistan - and injuring 1,000 others, officials said. The death toll could climb in coming days because

Tony Blair has made apologies about aspects of the Iraq War for the first time and has said there are 'elements of truth' in the theory that the invasion helped feed the rise of Isis. In a TV interview with CNN, the former British Prime Minister said he was sorry that the intelligence behind the

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