ATARA: Sri Lanka’s new president pledged his support for the military as he marked six years since the end of the civil war on Tuesday, a day after his predecessor accused him of forgetting the country’s “war heroes.” Maithripala Sirisena pledged to ensure that the Tamil Tigers, who waged a viole

BAGHDAD: Just last month Shia prime minister Haider al-Abadi visited the Habbaniya military base in Iraq's Sunni heartland hoping to fire up pro-government fighters seen as critical in the battle against Islamic State militants. But the group's seizure of provincial capital Ramadi in Anbar has fo

UNITED NATIONS: UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon expressed serious concern on Monday after an Egyptian court sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi to death. Morsi was among more than 100 defendants given the death penalty on Saturday for their role in a mass jailbreak during the 2011 uprising.

DOHUK (Iraq): A spokesman for the governor of Iraq's Anbar province said Monday that about 500 people - both civilians and Iraqi soldiers - are estimated to have been killed over the past few days as the city of Ramadi fell to the Islamic State group. The estimates follow a shocking defeat as Isl

In this April 3, 2007 file photo, President Bush speaks about the congressional debate on Iraq war spending, in Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. A dozen years later, American politics has finally reached a rough consensus about the Iraq War: It was a mistake. – AP file Washington - A

TOKYO: Thousands of people rallied in Okinawa in southern Japan on Sunday in protest against a controversial US airbase on the island, as a two-decade-old bitter row over the relocation of the site drags on. Okinawa is home to more than half of the 47,000 US service personnel stationed in Japan a

The United States voiced alarm Sunday at death sentences handed to Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi and dozens of others, a verdict experts called a declaration of "total war" on his Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi was among more than 100 defendants ordered by an Egyptian court on Saturday to face

CAIRO: An Egyptian court has sentenced ousted President Muhammad Mursi and more than 100 other defendants to death over jail breaks during the 2011 uprising. Mursi, sitting in a caged dock in the blue uniform of convicts having already been sentenced to 20 years for inciting violence, raised his fi

ALMATY: A Proton-M carrier rocket carrying a Mexican satellite malfunctioned and crashed in Siberia soon after launch on Saturday, the latest in a series of mishaps for Russia's space industry. The third stage of the rocket carrying the MexSat-1 communications satellite suffered a problem about 5

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his ancestral home province Thursday, highlighting ancient ties as the Asian giants reportedly discussed a simmering border dispute. Attempting to put their relationship on a more personal footing, Xi met his visi

DAMASCUS: A senior Iranian official branded Saudi Arabia's King Salman a traitor to Islam on Thursday and equated the Gulf state's military assault on Iranian-allied fighters in Yemen with Israeli actions against Palestinians. Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of Iran's national security and foreign poli

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Foreign SecretaryAizaz Ahmad Chaudhry today alleged that Indian external intelligence agency RAW was involved in different acts of terrorism in the country. In a chat with media here, he said that Pakistan had taken up the issue of "RAW's activities" with Indian authorities

KARACHI: At least 43 people were killed and 13 others wounded on Wednesday when armed men opened fire inside a bus carrying members of the Ismaili community near Safoora Chowk in Karachi. Sindh Police Inspector General Ghulam Haider Jamali said that 60 people were on board the bus when six gunmen

TOKYO: A magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit off the main Japanese island of Honshu, the US Geological Survey said on Tuesday. USGS originally reported the earthquake as 6.9 magnitude. The quake was centered 74 miles (119 km) southeast of Morioka, Japan, at a depth of 24 miles (39 km), it said. Th

JAKARTA: Hundreds of migrants abandoned at sea by smugglers in Southeast Asia have reached land and relative safety in the past two days. But an estimated 6,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar remain trapped in crowded, wooden boats, migrant officials and activists said. With food and

ORT ELIZABETH: South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, on Sunday elected its first black leader, a major step in its bid to present itself as an alternative to the ruling African National Congress (ANC). The DA, which has been widely seen as a party of middle-class whites, wo

LONDON: Britain awoke to a new political landscape on Saturday after a shock election victory for Prime Minister David Cameron that decapitated the opposition and bolstered secessionists in Scotland. Defying the opinion polls ahead of Thursday’s vote, Cameron’s Conservatives won 331 of the 650 seat

KATHMANDU: Days after a severe earthquake devastated Nepal, another tremor measuring a moderate 5.0 on the Richter scale rocked the Himalayan nation on Friday, the National Seismological Centre said. According to the centre, the quake's epicentre was recorded near the border area of Dolakha and S