MANAMA: INDIA and Bahrain on Saturday agreed to collaborate in the areas of space technology, solar energy and culture exchange as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held comprehensive talks with his Bahraini counterpart Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa to give a major boost to the entire spectrum of bilateral relations. Modi, the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Bahrain, and Prince Khalifa after the delegation-level talks witnessed the exchange of MoUs in the areas of culture, space, collaboration ..

 KABUL:  JOY and celebration turned into horror and carnage when an Islamic State suicide bomber targeted a packed Afghan wedding hall, killing at least 63 people in the deadliest attack to rock Kabul in months, officials and witnesses said on Sunday. The massive blast, which took place late on Saturday in west Kabul, came as Washington and the Taliban finalise a deal to reduce the US military presence in Afghanistan and hopefully build a roadmap to a ceasefire. The groom recalled greeting ..

SPACE tourism moved a step closer to reality on Thursday as Virgin Galactic unveiled its new Mission Control at a spaceport in New Mexico and the schedule for final test flights before taking paying customers into the final frontier. ..

PRESIDENT Donald Trump is asking advisers if it is possible for the US to buy Greenland, according to a report. Trump has expressed interest in the self-governing part of Denmark -- which is mostly covered in ice -- asking advisors if it is possible for the US to acquire the territory, ‘The Wall Street Journal’ said on Thursday, citing people familiar with the discussions...

  Prime Minister Narendra Modi and popular host and adventurer Bear Grylls during television show ‘Man vs Wild’ at Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand. (R) Bear Grylls taking a selfie with Modi.  WALES [UK]: “The special episode of ‘Man Vs Wild’ will be broadcast on August 12 at 9 pm and will be showcased in 180 countries around the world. ”     RECALLING one of the moments experienced with Prime Minister Narendra ..

  GENEVA: HUMANITY faces increasingly painful trade-offs between food security and rising temperatures within decades unless it curbs emissions and stops unsustainable farming and deforestation, a landmark climate assessment said on Thursday. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that efforts to limit global warming while feeding a booming population could be wrecked without swift and sweeping changes to how we use the land we live off. Its report on land ..

Amazon chief Bezos has defended the company’s bid for the contract saying it was important to support US defence efforts, even if it is unpopularSAN FRANCISCOTHE Pentagon has put off awarding a $10 billion cloud computing contract sought by Amazon, saying on Thursday that the process will be reviewed by the newly-appointed Defence Secretary.  Pentagon in Washington, D.C.  Amazon was considered a strong contender to provide technology for the Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure ..

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and popular host and adventurer Bear Grylls during Discovery channel’s show ‘Man vs Wild’ at Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand on Monday. (ANI)   MUMBAI: “The episode will premiere on August 12 and will be showcased in more than 180 countries ” PRIME Minister Narendra Modi will feature in a special episode of Discovery’s “Man Vs Wild” which will highlight “issues related to environmental ..

AS PART of its efforts to enhance India’s defence capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region, the Trump Administration notified the Congress on Friday of its decision to approve foreign military sales worth USD 670 million to support India’s C-17 military transport aircraft...

US AEROSPACE major Boeing on Saturday handed over the first four of the 22 Apache attack helicopters to the Indian Air Force while another batch of four choppers will be delivered next week...

 WASHINGTON: MOVING swiftly to counter the diplomatic embarrassment caused by President Donald Trump’s flub on Kashmir and assuage an upset New Delhi, the US administration clarified that Kashmir is very much a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan, even as US Democrats apologised to India’s envoy for the US President’s “amateurish claim” about Kashmir. India strongly rejected Trump’s claim, made in front of visiting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran ..

 WASHINGTON: US PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Monday offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue as he met Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House for the first time. Trump said that he is ready to help, if the two countries ask. “If I can help, I would love to be a mediator,” Trump said in his opening remarks at the Oval Office during his meeting with Khan. Khan welcomed Trump’s remarks and said if the US agrees, prayers of more than a billion people ..

China’s experimental space lab Tiangong-2 on Friday made a ‘controlled re-entry’ into the earth’s atmosphere and a small amount of its debris fell into the South Pacific Ocean, the country’s space agency said.   The re-entry took place under control at 6.24 IST, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted China’s Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) as saying. A small amount of the spacecraft’s debris fell into the predetermined safe sea area in ..

 By M Zulqernain: LAHORE  Saeed was travelling to Gujranwala from Lahore to get pre-arrest bail in terror financing cases when he was arrested by Pakistan Counter-Terrorism Department  MUMBAI terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed was arrested on Wednesday on terror financing charges by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Province, just days ahead of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s maiden visit to the US. Saeed, who has several cases pending ..

FROM the expansive dunes of the Taklamakan Desert to the snow-capped peaks of Tianshan, Chinese authorities are selling troubled Xinjiang as a tourist idyll, welcoming travellers even as they send locals to internment camps...

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday sought to showcase European military cooperation in the annual Bastille Day parade at a time of growing tensions between Europe the United States..

DEFENDING champion Novak Djokovic claimed his fifth Wimbledon title on Sunday beating eight-time champion Roger Federer 7-6 (7/5), 1-6, 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 13-12 (7/3) in the longest ever final and settled by an historic tie-break...

WASHINGTONDECLARING that ‘nothing is impossible’ for Americans, President Donald Trump celebrated the Independence Day with an unprecedented display of the country’s military might at a rain-soaked parade but surprised his critics with a speech that was devoid of his trademark political rhetoric, ahead of his 2020 re-election bid. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive at an Independence Day celebration on Thursday in Washington. (AP/PTI)  In one ..

 By M Zulqernain LAHORE: MUMBAI attacks mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and 12 of his close aides will be arrested ‘very soon’, police said on Thursday, a day after Pakistani authorities booked them for committing multiple offences of terrorism financing and money laundering.  The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Police on Wednesday registered 23 FIRs against 13 leaders of Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) including Saeed on the charges of terror financing in different ..

 MELBOURNE:  IN A first, Australian scientists have determined the precise location of a powerful one-off burst of cosmic radio waves. The discovery was made with Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. A team of researchers made a high-resolution map showing that the burst originated in the outskirts of a Milky Way-sized galaxy about 3.6 billion light-years away.  “This is the big ..

  ZURICH/NEW DELHI: UK remains on top spot UK is followed by the US, West Indies, France and Hong Kong in the top five. The top-five countries alone account for more than 50 per cent of the foreign funds parked with the Swiss banks   INDIA has moved down one place to 74th rank in terms of money parked by its citizens and enterprises with Swiss banks, while the UK has retained its top position, as per data released by the central banking authority of the Alpine nation. India ..

 OSAKA (Japan):  World economy would get a boost of up to USD 28 trillion by 2025 if women were on an equal economic footing, says Ivanka Trump  Research shows that states with higher female participation are less likely to use violence or military force to resolve international conflict, says Ivanka   GROUP of 20 leaders have joined their host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in showcasing support for helping women close the gap with men in finance and other forms of economic ..

 BEIJING/OSAKA: During the meeting, Trump said it will not add new tariffs on Chinese exports. It has come as a relief in China, which is reeling under continued slowdown of the economy  CHINESE President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump agreed on Saturday to re-launch the stalled negotiations to end the bruising trade war, according to the Chinese State media which said the US will not impose new tariffs on imports from China. The move came as Trump held a ..

A CONNECTICUT woman convicted of killing her two children saying it was God’s plan was sentenced to 120 years in prison without the possibility of parole. LeRoya Moore, 39, was sentenced Thursday, following her conviction in March of two counts of murder for killing her six-year-old daughter, Aleisha, and her seven-year-old son, Daaron, at the family’s home in East Haven in 2015. For each count of murder, she received 60 years.  “It’s a no win today, the sentence ..

 PRESIDENT Donald Trump appeared to blame current immigration laws – and Democrats’ refusal to change them – for the drowning death of a father and his young daughter as they tried to cross the Rio Grande river to get into the United States.  Photographs of the two migrants, lying face down near the bank of the river, has sparked new outrage and controversy over the current border crisis. Asked about the images, Trump suggested that if Congress fixed the laws, as he ..

THE temperature in France surpassed 45 degrees Celsius for the first time on record on Friday as Europe sweltered in an early summer heatwave that has caused several deaths. With France, Spain, Italy and parts of central Europe particularly badly hit by the high temperatures, officials pleaded with people to take common sense precautions. France’s new record temperature of 45.1 degrees Celsius was registered in Villevieille, a village in the southern department of Gard near Montpellier, the ..

 WASHINGTON DC: OUTGOING Financial Action Task Force (FATF) President, Marshall Billingslea, has hinted about the possibility of blacklisting Pakistan after the international financial watchdog’s meeting in Paris. “Pakistan had ‘significant’ work to do. With regard to an action plan agreed in June 2018, they are ‘lacking in almost every respect’,” Billingslea said at a press briefing. He added, “Pakistan was cautioned in February at the plenary ..

 TEHRAN: AN Iranian military commander warned on Sunday that any conflict with Iran would have uncontrollable consequences across the region and endanger the lives of US forces, as tensions between Washington and Tehran have flared after the downing of an American surveillance drone. Major General Gholamali Rashid made the remarks while addressing Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps during a field visit to a command center for Iranian radars and missile systems. The General ..

  NEW DELHI: TOP Government functionaries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, and other senior BJP leaders will attend International Yoga Day events across the country on Friday. While the Prime Minister will lead the nation in celebrating the occasion by participating in a mega event in Ranchi, Shah will be in Rohtak and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in the national capital. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) working President J P Nadda will perform yoga, ..

  BISHKEK: KYRGYZSTAN President Sooronbay Jeenbekov has gifted a traditional Kyrgyz hat and a coat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit here for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit. President Jeenbekov, who met Prime Minister Modi on Friday ahead of the SCO Council of Heads of State meeting, also presented him a ‘Samovar’, a traditional container to heat or boil water.  Prime Minister’s Office shared pictures of Modi wearing the Kyrgyz ..

BISHKEKPAKISTAN Prime Minister Imran Khan broke the diplomatic protocol at the opening ceremony of the SCO summit here when he sat down even as all other leaders, including his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, were standing, an embarrassing gaffe for which he was trolled online.  Imran Khan (circled) remains seated at SCO summit while all other leaders stand. (Twitter)  In a video shared on the official Twitter handle of his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Prime Minister Khan ..

In tune with national mood, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ignored Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit and chose not to exchange pleasantries with him. Even while flying to Bishkek, Modi did not use Pakistani airspace though Islamabad had indicated that it would allow the Indian leader to fly over Pakistan, an act that is being taken as a snub to Imran Khan.  At the SCO summit, there was no meeting between Narendra Modi and Imran Khan dur..

A RUSSIAN investigative journalist walked free late on Tuesday after authorities in Moscow dropped drug charges against him in a rare climbdown by law enforcement following a public outcry. Ivan Golunov, a reporter with independent media outlet Meduza, walked out of the gates of a Moscow police building to cheers from waiting journalist and wept as he thanked supporters.   “This all happened so quickly and thank you for that, that you supported me. I think it somehow influenced the ..

SYRIAN air defence shot down Israeli missiles targeting the south of the country on Wednesday, State media said, as a monitor reported positions of the regime’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah had been hit. The attack was launched in the early hours of the morning against the Tall al-Hara sector near the Golan Heights, according to official news agency ‘SANA’, which said there had been no casualties. It did not specify what had been targeted.  ‘SANA’ also accused Israel ..

 BEIJING; Doctors in China have successfully directed surgeons 200 km away to perform a gall bladder surgery using  5G network in a remote area. 5G is the next generation cellular technology with download speeds stated to be 10 to 100 times faster than the current 4G LTE networks.  DOCTORS in China have successfully directed surgeons 200 km away to perform a gall bladder surgery using 5G network in a remote area, official media here reported on Tuesday. The laparoscopic cholecystec..