COPENHAGEN: Governments can keep climate change in check at manageable costs but will have to cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2100 to limit fast-worsening risks, a UN report showed. The 40-page synthesis, summing up 5,000 pages of work by 800 scientists already published since September 2

An Israeli activist group says the Tel Aviv regime has approved the construction of 500 new illegal settler units in East al-Quds (Jerusalem), despite mounting international criticism of its expansionist policies. Peace Now said the Israeli Interior Ministry gave the go-ahead on Monday for the ne

GAZA CITY: The Hamas militant group says it opposes a UN reconstruction plan for the Gaza Strip following a 50-day war against Israel this summer. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri on Sunday called the UN mechanism “unacceptable, inefficient.” The UN announced the plan in September, creating a sy

DHAKA: A media tycoon who is a key figure in Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party was sentenced to death Sunday for war crimes, just days after its leader was ordered to hang for similar offenses. A war crimes court found wealthy businessman Mir Quasem Ali, an official of the Jamaat-e-Islami party,

GENEVA: A UN human rights watchdog on Thursday urged Israel to respect the rights of Palestinians, and demanded the country probe violations committed during repeated assaults on Gaza. With tensions soaring in East Jerusalem, and months of almost daily clashes, the UN Human Rights Committee publi

BEIJING - China on Friday hailed an international conference on Afghanistan that it said agreed to launch dozens of programmes to boost development and help the country maintain peace as foreign forces draw down. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said that under a “Beijing Declaration” the meeting

OTTAWA: Reports of anti-Muslim harassment have risen in Canada after attacks last week in which two soldiers were killed by people authorities say were inspired by Islamic State. The National Council of Canadian Muslims said it had seen a tenfold increase in reports of harassment, including racia

JERUSALEM: Clashes raged in east Jerusalem Thursday after police shot dead a Palestinian accused of trying to kill a Jewish hard-liner, prompting officials to close the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound. Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said the move was tantamount to a “declaration of war.”

ARBIL: Dozens of Kurdish peshmerga fighters left a base in northern Iraq on Tuesday headed for the battleground Syrian town of Kobani, an AFP journalist reported. The town on the Turkish border has become a crucial front in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, which overran large parts

Jeddah: The Council of Ministers on Monday slammed Israel’s plans to Judaize the Al-Aqsa Mosque, saying it was a flagrant violation of international law. Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, chaired the meeting in Riyadh. The Cabinet said the Arab League had warned of the

JERUSALEM: Tension soared in east Jerusalem Sunday as stone-throwing Palestinians and police clashed ahead of a funeral for a Palestinian man who was shot dead by police as he fled on foot from what Israeli authorities branded a “terror attack.” Palestinian political groups called for a march fro

CAIRO: A state of emergency came into force Saturday across much of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula after 30 soldiers were killed in a suicide car bombing by suspected militants. It was the deadliest attack on the country’s security forces since the army deposed Islamist president Muhammad Mursi last yea

LOS ANGELES: A US student who had issued chilling warnings on Twitter opened fire in a school cafeteria on Friday, killing at least one person and critically injuring three before taking his own life. Terrified classmates dived for cover as the gunman, identified by media reports and fellow stude

NEW YORK: A doctor who recently returned to New York from treating Ebola patients in Guinea tested positive for the deadly virus on Thursday, the first confirmed case in the United States’ largest city. The doctor, Craig Spencer, was placed in isolation at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital Center e

Member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have condemned the continued attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque and worshippers by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers, SPA said. Addressing a UN Security Council meeting, Saudi envoy at the UN Abdullah Yahya Al-Malami, speaking o

Masbate City: Leriza braves the darkness just before dawn to walk 2km downhill from her home in the uplands of Palanas in Masbate to school every day. Leriza is just six years old. Boulders line the path and her teachers described the path as “dangerous” for children of her age. It’s a gruellin

There are about 805 million people around the world who do not have enough to eat on a daily basis, a local academic said here Thursday, as the world marked World Food Day. Mirza Baig, a Canadian professor at King Saud University's (KSU) college of food and agricultural sciences, said more needs to

UNITED NATIONS: More than 1.2 billion people are living on less than $1.25 a day and 2.4 billion are living on less than $2 a day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday. He told the UN observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty that at least 700 million people were