BAGHDAD: ISIS took a town an hour from Baghdad that is home to four natural gasfields on Thursday, another gain by Sunni insurgents who have swiftly taken large areas to the north and west of the Iraqi capital. Iraq's presidency said a session of parliament would be held on July 1, the first step

WASHINGTON: The US military began deploying assessment teams in Baghdad on Tuesday to evaluate the state of Iraqi security forces and decide how to help them counter an Islamist insurgency that has overrun part of the country, the Pentagon said. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secreta

Lahore: A populist Canada-based cleric returned to Pakistan on Monday to try to start what he has called a “peaceful revolution” against the government, as his supporters engaged in violent clashes with police. Tahir-ul-Qadri touched down in the eastern city of Lahore after his flight was diver

Baghdad:  Sunni militants advanced through west Iraq after seizing a strategic Syria border crossing, as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in the region Sunday aiming to bridge widening rifts. The latest assaults saw the security forces making "tactical" withdrawals in the face of an insur

Ukraine's military waged new battles Saturday with pro-Moscow rebels who rejected Kiev's unilateral ceasefire, while the government raised alarm over the Kremlin's decision to put troops across Russia on combat alert. The resurgence of violence in the 11-week insurgency threatening to splinter th

BAGHDAD: When al-Qaida-style insurgents overran the northern city of Mosul, among the war booty they seized were what they claimed were five US-made helicopters. Noting that they were still nearly new, the group said in a posting on its Twitter feed, "We'll expect the Americans to honour the warr

GENEVA: More than 50 million people were forcibly uprooted worldwide at the end of last year, the highest level since after World War II, as people fled crises from Syria to South Sudan, the UN refugee agency said on Friday. Half are children, many of them caught up in conflicts or persecution th

CHENNAI/KOTTAYAM: Hours after sending an SOS to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure their safe return to India, 46 nurses from Kerala trapped in a hospital in the northern Iraq city of Tikrit on Wednesday evening said they had agreed to continue to work there after fighters from militant group, t

Tribal fighters hold up their weapons as they shout slogans in support of Iraqi security forces in Kerbala June 17, 2014.  BAGHDAD: Iraq's prime minister fired several top security commanders in a major shake-up Tuesday as fighting approached Baghdad in a militant onslaught that the UN warned ris

Alutgama, Sri Lanka: Clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in southern Sri Lanka have left three people dead and at least 78 others seriously wounded, the justice minister said on Monday. Police have imposed a curfew after rampaging Buddhist mobs late on Sunday razed a number of Muslim-owned home

The United States ordered an aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf and laid out specific ways for Iraq to show it is forging the national unity necessary to gain assistance in its fight against insurgents. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel yesterday ordered the USS George HW Bush from the northern A

Washington: US President Barack Obama said on Thursday that his national security team was "looking at all the options" as the crisis in Iraq unfolds, with Arab jihadists pushing towards Baghdad. "Iraq is going to need more help from us and it's going to need more help from the international comm

LONDON: A massive reservoir of water three times the size of Earth's oceans have for the first time been located hundreds of miles underneath the surface of the planet. Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of New Mexico provided the first ever evidence for potentially oceans w

Dubai: It has been posted on many buses in Washington, D.C., for few weeks provoking Muslims and non-Muslims alike. The ad reads, “Islamic Jew-hatred; It’s in the Quran. Two thirds of all US aid goes to Islamic countries. Stop racism. End all aid to Islamic countries.” Muslims in the U

TIKRIT, Iraq: Sunni rebels from an al-Qaida splinter group overran the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday and closed in on the biggest oil refinery in the country, making further gains in their rapid military advance against the Shia-led government in Baghdad. The threat to the Baiji refinery come

KARACHI: A security checkpost outside Pakistan's Karachi airport has been attacked by gunmen on Tuesday, an official spokesman told AFP, a day after an all-night siege at the airport left 37 dead. "Gunmen are exchanging fire with Airport Security Force personnel at a checkpost guarding the airpor

Karachi:  Pakistan's army spokesman declared an end to a military operation following a six-hour-long siege of Pakistan's busiest airport in the southern city of Karachi on Monday. At least 20 people have been killed in the attack. "Update: Area cleared. No damage to aircraft, fire visible in pic

Ex-army chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has vowed to to tackle "terrorism" and bring security, after being sworn in as Egypt's new president. He said his election after a landslide win in May was "a historic moment", and pledged no reconciliation with those who had "committed violence". The retired f