TAIPEI: More than 200 people were injured, over 80 of them seriously, in an explosion at a water park outside Taiwan’s capital Taipei Saturday after colored powder being sprayed onto a crowd ignited, officials said. “Our initial understanding is this explosion and fire... was caused by the powder s

KATHMANDU: Three mild aftershocks were felt within three hours in different areas in Nepal, two months after the deadly temblor jolted the Himalayan nation and claimed nearly 9,000 lives. The three aftershocks were felt on Thursday night, according to the National Seismological Centre. A 4.3-m

WASHINGTON: US and Chinese negotiators bridged some differences over economic policy in annual bilateral talks Wednesday, even as the two countries continue to wrestle with major strategic disagreements. Both sides suggested they closed gaps in talks on a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) followi

BEIJING: Almost half a billion dollars worth of smuggled frozen meat — some of it rotting and more than 40 years old — has been seized in China, reports said on Wednesday. More than 100,000 tonnes of chicken wings, beef and pork worth up to three billion yuan ($483 million) were seized in the nat

Saudi Arabia allegedly offered $10 billion to secure the release of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, according to documents released last week by WikiLeaks. Some of the several documents leaked by WikiLeaks quoted a Brotherhood leader as saying that the group could ensure Mr. Mubarak woul

ISLAMABAD: At least 136 people have died in a heatwave in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi and other districts of the Sindh province since Saturday, media reported on Monday. Saturday was the hottest day this year in Karachi, where the mercury had shot up to 45 degree Celsius, Dawn online repor

TRIPOLI: Dozens of fighters from ISIS were killed in Libya Saturday as militiamen sought to dislodge them from a neighbourhood in the eastern city of Derna, Libyan news agency Lana reported. For more than a week now, fighters belonging to a group known as the Mujahedeen Council of Derna have been

KATHMANDU: About USD 20 million is needed to support farmers in earthquake-hit Nepal so that they can resume agricultural activities and stave off the threat of prolonged food insecurity, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Saturday. For the current cropping season, FAO representative

David Cameron has warned parts of the Muslim community that “quietly condoning” anti-Western ideology is making it easier for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) to recruit in British cities. The Prime Minister issued a stark message to Muslim families and leaders that they must

Fatih Mehmet Karaca, the counselor of social and religious affairs in Stockholm, announced that in accordance with the Ramadan timetable prepared by Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs (DİB), the fasting period during the upcoming month of Ramadan in Sweden's northernmost cities of Kiruna and N

JAWARO (Khyber Agency, Pakistan): Chief of Army staff general Raheel Sharif has vowed to apprehend all terrorists, their facilitators and financiers in order to achieve the objective of a 'terror-free' Pakistan. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), general Sharif, who returned

WASHINGTON: A young white gunman opened fire in a historically black church in South Carolina on Wednesday night killing nine African-Americans in what was said to be hate crime, one of the worst in US history. The gunman, still at large at the time of writing, reportedly spared one woman so that sh

Nine people have been shot dead at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, and a hunt is under way for a white gunman. Police described the attack at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church as a "hate crime". They issued surveillance images of the suspect and s

SEOUL: North Korea says it has been hit by its worst drought in a century, resulting in extensive damage to agriculture. The official Korean Central News Agency said the drought has caused about 30 percent of its rice paddies to dry up. Rice plants normally need to be partially submerged in water d

JUBA: A quarter of a million children face starvation in war-torn South Sudan, with an end to the 18-month conflict as distant as ever, the expelled UN aid chief warned Tuesday. “Six months ago, we thought that violence and suffering had peaked and that peace was on the horizon. We were wrong,” sai

 Bangladesh's Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence against the second highest ranking leader of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami for war crimes, including massacre of intelligentsia whom he termed "agents of India", during the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan. Chief Justice Surendr

LONDON: Several primary schools in London are forbidding students from fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, because of concerns for the children’s health. The Barclay School and three other Lion Academy Trust schools sent a letter to parents saying Ramadan comes at the hottest time of the ye

BEIJING: China plans to drop the entry permit requirement for Taiwan residents visiting the mainland, the official Xinhua news agency cited a senior Chinese politician as saying on Sunday. Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of China's National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Confere