World news
Air Canada jet skids off Halifax runway, at least 23 injured

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
Time for Iran to make tough decisions in nuclear talks: US

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
Copilot ‘deliberately crashed German jet’

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
Sri Lanka's Sirisena meets China's Xi Jinping

BEIJING: Sri Lanka's new president held talks Thursday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping amid a push to recalibrate his predecessor's strongly pro-China policies and a review of major Chinese projects in the island nation. Maithripala Sirisena and Xi reaffirmed longstanding ties between their countr
Obama to maintain troop level in Afghanistan this year

US President Barack Obama today said he would keep 9,800 American troops in Afghanistan through the end of 2015, at the conclusion of talks with his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani. "Based on President Ghani's request for flexibility in the US draw down timeline, the US will maintain its current
Germanwings Airbus crashes in France, 148 feared dead

MARSEILLE: An Airbus operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline crashed in a remote area of southern France and all 148 on board were feared dead. French President Francois Hollande said he believed none of those on board had survived. “There were 148 people on board,” Hollande said. “
Gunmen kill 13 bus passengers in Afghanistan: officials

KABUL: Gunmen killed 13 passengers travelling on a bus in Afghanistan on Tuesday, underlining the country's fragile security situation as President Ashraf Ghani holds talks with the United States in Washington. The attack in Wardak province, which lies close to Kabul, is the latest to hit civilia
Afghanistan's Ghani stresses 'common interests' with US

WASHINGTON: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says his country and Washington have common interests at stake in the fight against extremism, describing how Afghans see the United States as "critical" to the country's future. "While tragedy brought us together, there are common interests that now can
Crashed Syrian army helicopter crew captured by rebels

(Reuters) - A Syrian military helicopter crashed in northwestern Syria on Sunday and at least four of its crew were captured by rebels, according to a monitoring group. Video footage on social media showed a helicopter crashing in the distance. Photographs posted showed one of the crew apparently
Obama says it is now 'hard to find a path' to Israeli-Palestinian peace

In a fresh rebuke to Benjamin Netanyahu, President Barack Obama said the Israeli leader's pre-election disavowal of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict makes it "hard to find a path" toward serious negotiations to resolve the issue. In an interview with the Huffington Post, O
Iran voices mistrust as Kerry meets with European counterparts

LONDON (Reuters) - Iran's top leader voiced mistrust on Saturday of U.S. efforts to reach a nuclear deal, even as Washington spoke of "genuine progress" towards an outline accord. With just 10 days remaining until an end-of-March deadline, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei de
Almost all mosques destroyed in Central African Republic unrest

UNITED NATIONS: Almost all of the 436 mosques in the Central African Republic have been destroyed by months of vicious fighting between Christians and Muslims, the US ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday, calling the devastation "kind of crazy, chilling." Samantha Power spoke to repor
US Congress panel asks Clinton to hand over email server
WASHINGTON: A Republican-led US congressional panel has formally asked Hillary Clinton to hand over her private computer server, ramping up scrutiny over her use of a personal email address while secretary of state. Clinton has come under pressure for using a private address and email server rath
Yemen mosque bombings kill at least 77

Sanaa (AFP) - Triple suicide bombings killed 77 people and wounded 121 others Friday at mosques in the Yemeni capital attended by Shiite Huthi militiamen who have seized the city, medics said. One suicide bomber struck inside Badr mosque in southern Sanaa while another targeted worshippers as they
UN asks Pak to reinstate moratorium on death penalty

Expressing deep concern at the increasing number of executions in Pakistan, the United Nations has asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif government to reinstate the moratorium on death penalty as soon as possible. "The UN has consistently called for an unequivocal end to the execution of anyone, anyw
Egypt sentences 22 Morsi supporters to death

Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian court Wednesday sentenced 22 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to death for an attack on a police station in which one officer was killed. The attack in the town of Kerdasa on the outskirts of Cairo on July 3, 2013 came on the same day that army chief
21 killed in Tunisia attack; 2-3 gunmen at large

Tunisia's prime minister says 21 people are dead after an attack on a major museum, including 17 foreign tourists, and that two or three of the attackers remain at large. Habib Essid told national television that the foreigners included tourists from Poland, Italy, Germany and Spain. He said t
Netanyahu wins parliamentary elections in Israel

Haifa – With more than 99 percent of the votes tallied, Israel’s incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears poised to retain his office and form the next government. Though the final campaign polls showed Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party trailing behind the centre-left Zionist Union, h