Uncategorized

 The United States has warned that the toughest crackdown in years on Chinese activists threatens to cloud the high-profile state visit by President Xi Jinping. Yet human rights is unlikely to dominate the agenda when Xi is welcomed at the White House on Friday. As China emerges as an economic and military rival that Washington both competes and cooperates with, ...

The passport of Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani suspended by the government on Tuesday to prevent him from flying to New York for an event where he was likely to have spoken against India. The government action came after reports that the hardline Hurriyat faction leader was planning to travel to New York to attend the annual meeting of ...

At least 38 Islamic State group fighters were killed in air strikes by the Damascus regime against three jihadist-held towns in central Syria, a monitoring group said on Tuesday. Monday’s strikes hit Palmyra and two other towns in Homs province, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Iran’s armed forces are the best defence against “terror” in the Middle East, President Hassan Rouhani said today, urging regional countries not to rely on world powers. “Today, the largest power against intimidation and terror is our armed forces,” Rouhani said at a massive military parade in Tehran. Iran has played a major role in the fight against the Islamic ...

A US drone strike killed two suspected members of Al-Qaeda east of the Yemeni capital during the night, a local official said on Tuesday. “Two members of Al-Qaeda were killed when a missile from a US drone hit their vehicle” on the outskirts of the city of Marib, the official told AFP. Marib province has seen fierce fighting in recent ...

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world on Tuesday began moving from the holy city of Mecca to nearby Mina for the start of the hajj, the world’s largest annual gathering. Almost two million people are expected to take part in this year’s pilgrimage, undeterred by a crane collapse in Mecca earlier this month that killed 109 people ...

Colombians have been crossing the border on foot since the main crossings were closed on 19 August President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos, have agreed to gradually reopen their common border. Venezuela closed the border a month ago and launched a major anti-smuggling operation. Mr Maduro says smuggling has led to shortages in parts ...

Gunmen on motorbikes attacked a bus carrying members of a religious minority in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Wednesday, killing 43 people and wounding 19 others, hospital officials said. Six attackers used 9 mm pistols to shoot at the people on the bus, police said. After the attack, the bus was driven into a hospital parking lot with ...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a day-long tour of Varanasi, on Friday mocked the opposition for questioning his ambitious Jan Dhan Yojana saying their experiments to alleviate poverty failed to help the poor. “I am surprised that those who did not open a single account in the banks are showing their concern that the accounts are not being ...

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that she believes Subhas Chandra Bose was alive after 1945, the first head of government to publicly indicate the freedom-fighter did not die in the purported air crash in Taiwan. Banerjee’s comments came soon after her government made public 64 classified files related to the freedom-fighter who is said to have ...