Iraqi forces take full control of Kirkuk
BAGHDAD/KIRKUK, Iraq, Oct 20 (Reuters): Iraqi forces took control on Friday of the last district in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk still in the hands of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters following a three-hour battle, security sources said.The district of Altun Kupri, or Perde in Kurdish, lies on the road between the...
Read more
India welcomes US call for deeper ties
NEW DELHI, Oct 20 (AFP): India on Friday welcomed US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's comments that Washington would rather work with New Delhi than Beijing over the next century, saying it shared his optimism about their burgeoning relationship.Speaking ahead of a visit to India next week, Tillerson called Wednesday...
Read more
Sharif faces charges in third graft case
ISLAMABAD, Oct 20 (PTI): Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was on Friday indicted by an anti-graft court in a third corruption case related to his company Flagship Investments and other offshore companies.
The court charged Sharif, who is in presently in London with his ailing wife Kulsoom, for holding...
Read more
Spain plans elections in Catalonia to end independence bid
MADRID, Oct 20 (Reuters): The Spanish government has secured opposition support for dissolving Catalonia's parliament and holding new elections there in January in its bid to defuse the regional government's push for independence.The Socialists, the main opposition, said on Friday they would back special measures to impose central rule on...
Read more
Rains may dampen Japan election day
TOKYO, Oct 20 (AFP): A typhoon is expected to lash Japan with heavy rains Sunday, potentially weighing on turnout as millions of voters head to the polls in the world's third-biggest economy.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appealed to voters to cast their ballots early as Typhoon Lan moves towards Japan bringing...
Read more
China's strategy gets 13.91m out of poverty a year
A breeding base run by villager Gao Xueliang in Lankao County in central China's Henan Province. The base was established with the help of a cadre sent to help the villagers. Lankao was singled out as the first county in the province to get rid of poverty on March 27....
Read more
Drone attack kills militant leader in Afghanistan
A militant leader blamed for several deadly bombings in Pakistan has been killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan, a spokesman for the extremist group has confirmed, report agencies.Asad Mansoor, a spokesman for the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) militant group, told the Reuters news agency by telephone on Thursday that the...
Read more
Police firing kills five jade scavengers in Myanmar
YANGON, Oct 20 (AFP): Five people were killed after Myanmar police opened fire on an armed mob that tried to enter a jade mine in the far north, state media reported Friday, the latest deadly incident in a murky multi-billion-dollar industry.The violence erupted after police blocked around 50 jade scavengers...
Read more
Toxic haze chokes Delhi
NEW DELHI, Oct 20 (AFP): New Delhi was shrouded in a thick toxic haze Friday after a night of frenzied Diwali fireworks sent the air quality plummeting despite a ban on sale of fireworks aimed at thwarting a repeat of an 'airpocalypse'.India's Supreme Court had banned the sale of firecrackers...
Read more
Taliban hostage family was in Pakistan: CIA
WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (AFP): A North American family who were kidnapped by a Taliban faction in Afghanistan were held for five years in Pakistan before their release last week, CIA director Mike Pompeo said Thursday.The account is at odds with the Pakistani military's version of events, which said it rescued...
Read more
News in Brief (21-10-2017)
Building collapse kills eight in IndiaNEW DELHI, Oct 20: A building collapse in southern India left eight people dead on Friday, an official said, the latest such disaster in the country known for its dilapidated properties and poor quality construction. The victims were among 11 employees of a state-run transport...
Read more