Region

WASHINGTON: US Senators questioned on Tuesday whether India’s development of a port in southern Iran for trade access risked violating international sanctions, and a State Department official assured them the administration would closely examine the project. “We have been very clear with the Indians (about) continuing restrictions on activities with respect to Iran,” Nisha Desai […]

KABUL: Senior Afghan Taliban figures met on Monday to agree on a successor to Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the leader of the movement who US President Barack Obama confirmed had been killed in an American air strike at the weekend. The Taliban have so far made no official statement on the fate of Mansour, who assumed […]

ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged on Monday that the burden of responding to the world’s crises be more evenly shared, as leaders and aid groups gathered in Istanbul seeking to transform the global humanitarian aid system. The over 60 heads of state and government gathered for the two-day summit convened by UN Secretary […]

ANKARA: As Turkey’s incoming prime minister prepares to name his new cabinet, there is little doubt that its primary role will be to rubber-stamp what has already become reality: a shift to a full presidential system with Tayyip Erdogan firmly in charge. Erdogan on Sunday confirmed Binali Yildirim, a close ally for two decades and […]

PARIS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a multilateral French peace initiative as he met his French counterpart on Monday, offering instead to hold direct talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Paris. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he would speak to President Francois Hollande about Netanyahu’s proposal. “It can still be called the […]

WIANG PA PAO DISTRICT: Fire swept through a school for girls from poor hill-tribe families in Thailand, killing at least 17 in their dormitory, police said on Monday, and leaving charred remains of metal bed frames and wooden school chairs. The fire broke out late on Sunday as the girls, aged five to 12, slept […]

The spiralling crisis surrounding the Zika virus is the result of decades of policy failures on mosquito control and poor access to family planning services, the World Health Organization said Monday. “The spread of Zika … (is) the price being paid for a massive policy failure that dropped the ball on mosquito control in the […]

LUCKNOW: Swarms of insects breeding in a polluted river near the Taj Mahal are threatening the intricate marble inlay work at the 17th century monument to love by leaving green and black patches of waste on its walls, archaeological experts said Monday. Workers scrub the walls clean every day, but the regular scrubbing can damage […]

COLOMBO: The cost of Sri Lanka’s landslides and floods will be between $1.5 billion and $2 billion at the minimum, the government said on Monday, as the Indian Ocean island struggles to recover from its worst natural disaster since the 2004 Asia tsunami. The official death toll has risen to 92 but 109 people are […]

BANGKOK: Thai police shot dead a Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar on Monday during a dramatic mass escape of detainees from an immigration camp in southern Thailand, police said. Police Lieutenant Colonel Noppadon Rakchart said 21 Rohingya fled the Phangnga Immigration Detention Centre at about 1 a.m. after sawing through an iron bar in their communal […]