Firefighters battle a blaze after an explosion at a plant producing paraxylene - a chemical commonly known as PX - in Zhangzhou, east China's Fujian province.- AFP Beijing: Almost 30,000 people living near a Chinese chemical plant where a huge fire blazed for a total of nearly 50 hours were evacu

In a major shot in the arm for the Modi administration, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has restored India's top aviation safety ranking. The FAA has restored the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) to the top ranking. The DGCA had been downgraded last January following majo

Over 540 people have been killed and 1,700 injured in the fierce fighting inYemen in the past few weeks with relief agencies on Tuesday warning of a dire situation due to dwindling supplies in the strife-torn Arabian Peninsula state. "More than 540 people have been killed and 1,700 injured in the

NEW YORK: Describing nuclear-armed Pakistan as "unquestionably the biggest concern" to stability in South Asia, a leading US daily today said the world powers that worked on the Iran deal should now turn their attention to the "troubled region with growing nuclear risks of its own". "The world's

DHAKA, Bangladesh: Separate tropical storms that have swept through parts of Bangladesh have left at least 36 people dead and scores injured. Media reports on Monday said that the casualties have been recorded since Saturday and that most deaths took place in the northern district of Bogra. Th

LONDON: The Indian community in Scotland has emerged as the country's most educated and qualified ethnic community. For people aged 16 to 74 in employment, a high proportion of Indians have been found to be managers and directors. Nearly half (48%) of people from India were in these high occup

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman has told US President Barack Obama that he hoped a final nuclear deal between world powers and Iran would strengthen regional and world security, official media said. In a phone call with Obama, King Salman “expressed his hope that a final binding deal

A pilot and three passengers died when the helicopter they were travelling in crashed onto the roof of a condominium in Sao Paulo, south eastern Brazil. The son of the city’s governor is said to be among those killed. The building’s inhabitants were much luckier. No one was at home at the time

BAGHDAD: Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered Iraqi forces to oppose vandalism in the city of Tikrit, retaken from the Islamic State group this week, and arrest those responsible, his office said on Friday. Security and military forces were ordered to "deal with cases of vandalism" carried out

NEW YORK: Over the next four decades, Islam is expected to grow faster than any other major religion worldwide, with the Muslim population nearly matching Christians in both number and share of the global population, according to projections released on Thursday. Christians will remain the larges

ADEN(AFP): Al-Qaida militants stormed a prison in southeastern Yemen on Thursday, freeing several hundred inmates including one of their leaders, a security official said. Khalid Batarfi, a senior Al-Qaida figure who had been held for more than four years, was among more than 300 prisoners who es

TOKYO: The world's oldest person, Misao Okawa, died in Japan on Wednesday, a month after celebrating her 117th birthday. The nursing home where she lived in Osaka said she breathed her last around 7am. On the occasion of her birthday early last month, Okawa, a mother of three, grandmother of f

CAIRO: The agreement at a weekend Arab summit to establish a joint military force has raised serious doubts about prospects of such a force becoming a reality on the ground, experts say. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced the accord on Sunday at the end of the summit he hosted in t

(CNN)An Air Canada jet touched down short of the runway at an airport in Halifax early Sunday, hitting an antenna, severing a power line and losing its landing gear before skidding to a stop. The aircraft, an Airbus A320, touched down about 1,100 feet short of the runway, said Mike Cunningh

WASHINGTON: A third of Republicans believe President Barack Obama poses an imminent threat to the United States, outranking concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A Reuters/Ipsos online poll this month asked 2,809 Americans to rate how much of a thre

MONTREAL: An Air Canada jet came off the runway after landing at the Halifax airport in Nova Scotia on Sunday, sending at least 23 people to hospital, officials said. The airline said earlier on Twitter that flight AC624 from Toronto "exited runway upon landing at Halifax." It did not say what

LAUSANNE, Switzerland: Negotiations between six world powers and Iran over its nuclear programme have been "tough and very serious" and the next few days will show whether Tehran is ready to make the necessary hard decisions, a senior US official said on Friday. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's

Seyne-les-Alpes, France: The young copilot of the doomed Germanwings flight appears to have “deliberately” crashed the plane into the French Alps after locking his captain out of the cockpit, but is not believed to be part of a terrorist plot, French officials said Thursday. In a chilling account