KABUL: An attack targeting members of Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency just outside the capital Kabul on Tuesday killed at least four people and wounded six others, a senior security official said. The official said it was a suicide attack on an operational team from the National Directorate for Security, but he gave no further details. Reuters.
HODEIDA: At least 149 people including civilians have been killed in 24 hours of clashes between government loyalists and rebels in Yemen´s flashpoint city of Hodeida, medics and military sources said Monday. A source in Yemen´s pro-government military coalition, which is backed by Saudi Arabia and its regional allies, said the Houthi rebels had pushed back a large-scale offensive aimed...
At least 61 combatants have been killed in clashes in Yemen's flashpoint Hodeida, medics and a military source said Sunday, and dozens of wounded taken to hospitals outside the city. Medics in the Red Sea city reported 43 Houthi rebels and nine loyalists killed in clashes over the past 24 hours. Another nine loyalist fighters were reported killed by medics...
PARADISE: The death toll from the most destructive fire to hit California rose to 23 on Saturday as rescue workers recovered more bodies of people killed by the devastating blaze. Firefighters are battling raging fires at both ends of the state, but there is little hope of containing the flames anytime soon. "Today, 14 additional bodies were located, which brings...
World leaders gathered under driving rain in Paris on Sunday to lead global commemorations marking 100 years since the end of World War I, at a time of growing nationalism and diplomatic tensions. Around 70 leaders including United States (US) and Russian Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin marked the centenary of the 1918 Armistice in the French capital at...
NEW DELHI: As pollution in Indias capital hit severe on the air quality scale on Saturday, the New Delhi chief minister came under fire following reports he had left the city for an overseas family trip. For a second year the chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, has likened Delhi to a gas chamber because of the pollution. Seasonal burning of crop...
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka´s largest party announced Saturday a legal challenge to President Maithripala Sirisena´s sacking of parliament, a move that has plunged the Indian Ocean island nation into fresh turmoil and alarmed the international community. Sirisena announced on Friday night that he was dissolving parliament and called fresh elections on January 5, two weeks after sacking prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe...
RIYADH: Saudi King Salman hosted Abu Dhabi´s crown prince on Saturday, state media said, as a military coalition led by the two Gulf allies pushes an offensive to seize the strategic Yemeni port city of Hodeida. Abu Dhabi´s Prince Mohammed bin Zayed led a "top-level delegation" to Riyadh, the official Saudi press agency said in a brief statement, after the...
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said officials from Saudi Arabia, the United States, Germany, France and Britain have listened to audio recordings related to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Erdogan’s comments are the first public confirmation of the existence of recordings of the October 2 killing of The Washington Post columnist...
A controversial refueling arrangement between the United States and the Saudi-led coalition that is bombing Yemen was ended on Saturday, halting a key part of Washington’s involvement in the conflict. The move came as warplanes pounded the key strategic port city of Hodeida and after Washington’s support for the campaign was placed under increased scrutiny following the brazen murder of...
PARADISE: Wildfires burned out of control on Friday across California, killing at least nine people in a mountain town and forcing residents to flee the upscale beach community of Malibu in the face of a monster fire storm. All nine victims were found in and around the Northern California town of Paradise, where more than 6,700 homes and businesses were...
Moscow on Friday hosted international talks on Afghanistan aimed at kickstarting direct negotiations between Kabul and the Taliban militant group, both of whom sent delegations. Russia hopes "through joint efforts to open a new page in the history of Afghanistan," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said as the talks opened at a Moscow hotel on Friday morning. He said that...
PARADISE: A fast-moving wildfire devastated a Northern California town of 26,000 people on Thursday with authorities unsure of the casualties as they struggled to contain 150-foot flames. Driven by strong winds and dry conditions, the blaze dubbed the Camp Fire roared through the town of Paradise, about 85 miles (240 km) north of Sacramento, forcing the population to flee in...
ISTANBUL: A Turkish journalist was handed a suspended sentence of two years and five months in prison on Thursday for insulting Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan, a court ruling seen by Reuters showed. Husnu Mahalli, a prominent journalist who also writes columns in the opposition newspaper Sozcu, will not be sent to jail due to time already served and as the...
WASHINGTON: A visibly angry President Donald Trump branded CNN's White House correspondent Jim Acosta a "rude, terrible person" and an "enemy of the people" in a testy exchange on national television Wednesday the day after America's midterm elections. Trump laid into the CNN star — the latest in a long history of fiery run-ins between the pair — after Acosta...
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has embarked on a domestic tour this week with his favourite son, demonstrating his support for his chosen heir despite the crisis spawned by the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Roads were lined with Saudi flags and images of the king and his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when they arrived in the central...
WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday mocked Republicans who avoided campaigning with him before congressional elections and who were not elected during their races, referencing a list of candidates by name. “Those are some of the people who decided for their own reason not to embrace - whether it’s me or what we stand for,” Trump told reporters. “They...
