IS suicide bomber kills 26 in Kabul on New Year holiday
KABUL, Mar 21 (AFP): A suicide bomber on Wednesday killed at least 26 people, many of them teenagers, after detonating a device among a crowd of people in Kabul who were celebrating the Persian new year holiday, officials said. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack-the fifth...
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China's aircraft carrier sails by Taiwan as tensions rise
TAIPEI, Mar 21 (AFP): China's sole aircraft carrier has passed through the Taiwan Strait, the island's defence ministry said Wednesday, as Beijing warned against any move to "separate the country". The Liaoning and accompanying vessels entered Taiwan's air defence zone on Tuesday and left around noon Wednesday, the ministry said....
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Boko Haram returns scores of Nigerian schoolgirls
LAGOS, Mar 21 (AFP): Boko Haram Islamists who kidnapped 110 schoolgirls in Dapchi, northeast Nigeria, just over a month ago have returned 76 of the students to the town, the government said on Wednesday.Information Minister Lai Mohammed said the release was "unconditional" and the result of "back-channel efforts" with the...
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Sarkozy faces second day of questioning in Libya probe
PARIS, Mar 21 (AFP): Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy returned to police custody on Wednesday for a second day of questioning over allegations the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi helped finance his 2007 election campaign, sources close to the inquiry told AFP.Sarkozy, 63, arrived just before 8am (0700 GMT) at...
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Myanmar president resigns
YANGON, Mar 21 (AFP): Myanmar's President Htin Kyaw resigned suddenly on Wednesday leaving the country's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi without a close confidant and political ally as she faces rising international opprobrium over the Rakhine crisis.The president, an old school friend of Suu Kyi, served as her...
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Beijing plans ministry of veterans' affairs
BEIJING, Mar 21: China plans to improve the service and management system of demobilised military personnel by setting up a ministry dedicated to dealing with veterans' affairs, according to a government reshuffle plan made available to the media this week.As part of the plan on institutional restructuring made by the...
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Cambridge Analytica played key role in US polls
The suspended chief executive of UK-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica claimed in secretly recorded video that his company played a decisive role in the 2016 election campaign of President Donald Trump, Channel 4 News reported on Tuesday, reports Reuters.British broadcaster Channel 4 News mounted a "sting operation" in which it...
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Austin bombing suspect blows himself up to avoid arrest
AUSTIN, Mar 21 (AFP): A man being sought over the deadly Austin parcel bombings blew himself up early Wednesday inside his car as authorities moved in to arrest him, police said."The suspect is deceased," Austin police chief Brian Manley told a news conference.Manley said the suspect is believed to be...
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Israel admits 2007 Syrian 'nucler reactor' strike
JERUSALEM, Mar 21 (AFP): Israel admitted for the first time Wednesday it was responsible for a top-secret 2007 air raid against a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor, a strike the intelligence minister says serves as a warning to Iran.Israel has long been assumed to have carried out the raid and had...
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News in Brief(22-03-2018)
Maldives ex-leader Gayoom faces terror chargeCOLOMBO, Mar 21: Maldivian authorities have charged former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and several senior judges with "terrorism" for attempting to topple President Abdulla Yameen, the government said Wednesday. Eighty-year-old Gayoom and ten others-including the sacked chief justice Abdulla Saeed-were charged under state of emergency...
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