Category: World

A British judge on Wednesday sentenced WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to 50 weeks in prison for skipping bail seven years ago and holing up in the Ecuadorian embassy. Judge Deborah Taylor said it was hard to imagine a more serious version of the offense as she gave the 47-year-old hacker a sentence close to the […]

A new round of peace talks between the Taliban and the United States (US) starts on Wednesday in Qatar, an official for the insurgents said, as the foes seek a way out of America’s longest war. The talks mark the sixth round of negotiations between the two sides in recent months, and come as pressure […]

Suspected leftist insurgents killed at least 15 police and a civilian driver in a landmine attack on two security vehicles on Wednesday in the western state of Maharashtra in India, police said, as the state celebrated its foundation day. The Maoist insurgents, known as Naxals, have battled the state for decades, saying they are fighting […]

PINGLAN (India-held Kashmir): Hundreds of Indian soldiers descended on the picturesque village of Pinglan, which is surrounded by apple and apricot orchards, just before midnight on February 17. By the time they left 18 hours later, one civilian, three fighters and five members of the Indian security forces were dead, a row of houses was […]

Two people were killed and at least four wounded in a shooting Tuesday at the University of North Carolina’s Charlotte campus. The university’s office of emergency management tweeted an alert warning that shots had been reported on campus shortly before 6:00pm (2200 GMT), on what was students’ last day of classes this academic year. “Run, […]

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo says that the United States is committed to two main objectives in Afghanistan — a political solution to the Afghan conflict and preventing future terrorist attacks. In a wide-ranging interview to a congressional news outlet, The Hill, Secretary Pompeo also emphasised the need for a broad coalition of non-Taliban […]

Amnesty International on Wednesday condemned the prolonged detention of 10 journalists by Houthi rebels in Yemen, saying it reflected “the dire state of media freedom” in the war-torn country. The 10 journalists have been held since the summer of 2015 and are being prosecuted on trumped-up spying charges, according to the rights group. It said […]

China-based Huawei outsold Apple’s iPhones in the first quarter of this year, seizing the California company’s second place spot in a tightening smartphone market dominated by Samsung, a tracker said on Tuesday. A total of 310.8 million smartphones were shipped globally during the first three months of this year in a 6.6 per cent decline […]

DUBAI/COLOMBO: Saudi Arabia advised its nationals to leave Sri Lanka, Al Ekhbariya state TV said on Tuesday, citing the kingdom’s embassy in Colombo. “Due to the current security situation in the Republic of Sri Lanka, the embassy advises citizens in Sri Lanka to leave,” the embassy said in a tweet. Sri Lanka on Tuesday lifted a social […]