French President Francois Hollande delivers a speech during a meeting with leaders of international start-ups based in Paris as part of the French President Francois Hollande delivers a speech during a meeting with leaders of international start-ups based in Paris as part of the "French Tech Ticket" conference in Paris, on January 16, 2017 © POOL/AFP PHILIPPE WOJAZER Paris (AFP) - French…

Yangon,  Five terror suspects involved in fatal armed attacks on police and soldiers in Myanmar’s Rakhine have been arrested, a local media reported on Tuesday. The five suspects were captured by the security forces during a two-day combing operation in Rakhine that started on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported. The suspects have confessed to their part in the armed attacks in Ngakhura…

Washington,  US Secretary of State John Kerry has slammed President-elect Donald Trump for an interview in which he branded NATO “obsolete” and said Germany had pursued a “catastrophic” policy on refugees. Kerry told CNN on Monday that it was “inappropriate” for Trump to “be stepping in to the politics of other countries in a quite direct manner”.…

Brussles: Top European officials hit back at US President-elect Donald Trump on Monday after he branded the NATO alliance “obsolete” and lashed out at a key nuclear deal with Iran. In a hard-hitting interview with two major European newspapers, Trump unleashed a volley of verbal attacks on Europe, dubbing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy “catastrophic”…

A Turkish Airlines cargo plane crashed into a village near Kyrgyzstan’s main airport today, killing 32 people and destroying homes after attempting to land in thick fog, authorities said. The majority of the dead were from the village of Dacha-Suu where the cargo plane crashed at around 7.30 am local time, a spokesman for the country’s emergency services, Muhammed Svarov, told AFP. The…

Saudi grand mufti says cinemas, song concerts harmfulDubai: Saudi Arabia's top religious authority has called cinemas and singing concerts harmful and corrupting, in a move that could complicate government efforts to introduce cultural reforms to the conservative kingdom. The comments by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, published on his website, said cinemas and round-the-clock entertainment…

Washington: Several Democrat congressmen have announced that they will break away from a bipartisan tradition by not attending the swearing-in ceremony of Donald Trump as the President of the US next week. Arizona Representative Raul Grijalva said on Friday that on January 20 he will be working in his constituency and that his absence from Washington is not due to a lack of respect for the institution,…

Washington, India and the US have held extensive talks here to protect ocean ecosystems and promote sustainable development through the ‘blue economy’, one of the largest bilateral diplomatic engagements in the world specifically focused on oceans. The two sides held wide-ranging discussions yesterday on areas of cooperation in sustainable marine resource management, including the blue…

Tearful Joe Biden awarded freedom medal President Barack Obama has awarded an emotional and surprised Joe Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US civilian honour. Mr Obama praised his vice-president for his "faith in your fellow Americans, for your love of country and your lifetime of service". The award comes as both men prepare to leave office when Donald Trump is inaugurated…

Chicago: US President Barack Obama strongly criticised discrimination against Muslim Americans, implicitly rebutting many of President-elect Trump’s campaign promises in his final speech as President on Tuesday. In a decisive statement, Obama said he rejects discrimination against Muslim Americans, drawing cheers for saying they are “just as patriotic as we are”. “……

Kushner would be an “invaluable member of my team as I set and execute an ambitious agenda,” said the President-elect in a statement acknowledging the appointment, Efe news reported on Tuesday. According to the statement released on Monday, Kushner would work closely with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, forming a trio. Trump said that this…

Chinese economy is estimated to have grown about 6.7 per cent in 2016, a top economic planner said on Tuesday. The world’s second largest economy registered the same growth rate in the first, second and third quarter in 2016, Xinhua news agency quoted Xu Shaoshi, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, as saying.  

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma has met President-elect Donald Trump and pledged to support one million small American firms by selling their products in China and other Asian markets amid Sino-US tensions over trade and Washington’s growing ties with Taiwan. Ma’s meeting with Trump yesterday in New York is being seen as a back door diplomacy by China to blunt…