SEOUL: North Korea`s military on Thursday held its first talks with the US-led UN Command since the sinking of a South Korean warship, as Washington announced naval exercises to deter the communist state.The two sides were meeting at the border village of Panmunjom to discuss the sinking,

YEKATERINBURG:  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were set on Thursday to oversee a flurry of economic deals to further cement the Moscow-Berlin relationship.German government sources say Siemens will sign 2.2-billion-euro (2.8-billion-dollar) order to

FALLUJAH: A series of six attacks in Baghdad and a shooting west of the capital killed six people, including three daughters and the grandson of a Sufi Muslim order`s leader, Iraqi officials said Wednesday."Men with Kalashnikovs and anti-tank rockets attacked the house and adjacent tekiya

TEHRAN: An Iranian who claimed he was "abducted" by US spies last year denied on Thursday that he was a nuclear scientist, but said he was questioned by Israelis during his "harsh" captivity.Shahram Amiri, who vanished from Saudi Arabia in June 2009 while on a pilgrimage, arrived in

KABUL: A string of bomb, rocket and gun attacks across southern Afghanistan have killed 12 NATO troops in just two days, officials said Wednesday, throwing the spotlight on the spiralling cost of the war.The brazen assaults followed the killing of three British troops by a rogue Afghan

SOFIA:  Direct talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis would make no sense without the participation of the international community, Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki said on Wednesday. "We have always said we need the presence of a third party. Without a third party

MANILA: Typhoon Conson ripped across the Philippines on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people as it destroyed shanty towns and brought the nation`s capital to a standstill.Sixty other people were reported missing after Conson hit the Southeast Asian archipelago late on Tuesday, then

BEIJING: Four landslides triggered by heavy rains in China have left 37 people dead and nearly 40 others missing, an official and state media said Wednesday, as authorities brace for possible flooding.The landslides swept through villages in the southwestern provinces of Yunnan and

STOCKHOLM: From slimming supplements to prescription drugs, pharmacies are full of products destined to help lose weight, but their use can come at great expense, both financially and health-wise.At the 11th International Congress on Obesity hosted in Stockholm, experts were clear when it

WELLINGTON: A New Zealand man has good reason to question whether his dog is truly his best friend after his family pet shot him in the backside in a potentially fatal accident.The 40-year-old man was sitting in the backseat of his car when the dog stepped on the trigger of a loaded .22

JAKARTA: A moderate 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck the Indonesian province of Papua on Wednesday, seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was immediately issued.The quake struck at 8:56 am (2356 GMT Tuesday), 231 kilometres (144 miles) west of Jayapura at a depth of 15 kilometres, the

JERUSALEM: Israeli warships warily shadowed a Libyan aid ship on Tuesday even as officials said the vessel was diverting its course from Gaza and heading for a nearby Egyptian port.The standoff comes amid high tensions just six weeks after Israeli commandos launched a pre-dawn operation

WASHINGTON: The United States has expelled a man who was reported to be a 12th Russian agent in the espionage ring that end last week with a Cold War-style spy swap, a US official said Tuesday.Alexey Karetnikov was "ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge," said

KAMPALA: Ugandan police pinned their hopes on an unexploded suicide vest Wednesday to help them track down suspects in the double bombings that killed at least 76 people watching the World Cup final.The blasts that ripped through a crowded bar and a restaurant in Kampala on Sunday have

NEW ORLEANS, July 14, 2010 (AFP) - BP may be on the verge of capping the well which has been gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, but the cleanup is far from over and the damage to the region`s environment and economy could last decades. An estimated two to four million barrels of oil

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said Tuesday after the Uganda bombings that groups like Shebab and Al-Qaeda did not value African life and saw the continent as a place to kill innocents.In an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation to be broadcast early Wednesday,

QUETTA: Gunmen assassinated a nationalist leader in Pakistan`s insurgency-torn province of Baluchistan on Wednesday as he left his home on the outskirts of Quetta, police and relatives said.Habib Jalib was secretary general of the opposition faction of Baluchistan National Party, which

MUMBAI: At least 60 people were taken to hospital on Wednesday after a leak of chlorine gas in a sprawling industrial district of the Indian city of Mumbai, emergency services said.Mumbai Fire Brigade chief fire officer Uday Tatkare said the leak happened in the Sewri area of the city

KOLKATA: In view of strengthening relationship with India, Bangladesh will set up “Rabindra Gallery” at Jorasanko Thakhurbari here, the ancestral home of Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore marking 150th anniversary of birth of the great poet. Masud Mahmood Khandaker, the

TEHRAN: Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, who claims he was kidnapped by US spies, surfaced at Tehran`s interest section in Washington on Tuesday to declare Americans "losers" in the long-running saga. Iranian state television`s website said Amiri had taken refuge at the interest