Region

TIRANA: Police say that one woman has died and 11 others were injured when a fire broke in a bus in northern Albania. Police said Friday that the fire broke out at 11:25 a.m. (0925 GMT) when the Mercedes bus was near the old bazaar in Kruja, 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of the capital, […]

PHNOM PENH: A Cambodian court on Friday convicted three military commandos of beating up two opposition lawmakers outside the parliament last year, and sentenced them to one year each in prison. The legislators’ lawyer called the punishment too lenient. Phnom Penh presiding judge Heng Sokna initially sentenced the three men to four years in jail […]

SINGAPORE: A Singapore court on Friday charged six Bangladeshi men with terrorism financing, after detaining them last month for allegedly planning attacks in their home country. Security was tight at the state court as three armoured vehicles carrying the suspects entered the premises. The six were among eight Bangladeshi men detained in April under Singapore’s […]

BEIJING: China will turn contested islands in the South China Sea into pleasure-trip destinations for “patriotic” tourists, state-media said Friday, in a move likely to further stoke regional tensions. China claims almost all of the strategically vital South China Sea despite rival claims from Southeast Asian neighbours and has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands […]

TOKYO: An engine fire broke out on a Korean Air jet about to take off from a Tokyo airport Friday, forcing the evacuation of the plane and dramatic scenes of firefighters extinguishing the blaze. The Tokyo Fire Department said 19 people were either injured in the evacuation or felt unwell after it, Japan’s Kyodo News […]

DAVAO: On May 14, five days after voters in the Philippines chose Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as their next president, two masked gunmen cruised this southern city’s suburbs on a motorbike, looking for their kill. Gil Gabrillo, 47, a drug user, was returning from a cockfight when the gunmen approached. One of them pumped […]

ISE-SHIMA: Group of Seven (G7) leaders agreed on Thursday on the need to send a strong message on maritime claims in the western Pacific, where an increasingly assertive China is locked in territorial disputes with Japan and several Southeast Asian nations. The agreement prompted a sharp rejoinder from China, which is not in the G7 […]

BEIJING: Taking a dig at the U.S. arms embargo against China, the Chinese Defence Ministry said on Thursday all such U.S. embargoes were a relic of the Cold War and should be lifted, after the U.S. fully removed one against Vietnam. The United States placed an arms embargo on China following the bloody crackdown on […]

ANKARA: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for vigilance against what he called a “soft war” mounted by the West and aimed at weakening the clerical establishment, state television reported on Thursday. Hardline allies of Khamenei, worried about losing their grip on power, have accused pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani of betraying the anti-Western values […]

HANOI: A court in Vietnam on Thursday jailed four Vietnamese for terms ranging from two to 2-1/2 years each for “organising others to flee abroad illegally” after Australia sent back their group of asylum seekers, their lawyer said. The 46 asylum seekers were aboard a small vessel intercepted off Australia’s remote west coast last year […]