EXTERNAL Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif on Thursday held extensive talks on the fast-evolving situation in the Gulf region in the wake of frayed Iran-US ties over the killing of Commander Qasem Soleimani. Zarif apprised Jaishankar about the overall situation and Tehran’s position on it in the meeting held over breakfast, officials said. In a statement, the External Affairs Ministry said the two sides exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest, ..

MAKING major investment announcements for small and medium businesses (SMB), Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Wednesday said that the 21st century will be the century of India. Speaking at the Amazon SMBhav event here, Bezos announced that Amazon would invest $1 billion in digitising SMBs in the country. He further said that the e-commerce major would use its global footprint to export Made in India goods worth $10 billion by 2025...

INDIA can play a role in de-escalating tensions in the Gulf region as New Delhi is an important player, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who was on India visit for the Raisina Dialogue, said on Wednesday. His remarks come amid tensions between the US and Iran over the killing of Iranian General Major General Qasem Soleimani. India has been maintaining that it would like the situation to de-escalate as soon as possible and the country has been in touch with key players, including Iran, United ..

THE United States has removed the currency manipulator label it imposed on China last summer, in a sign of easing tensions between the two economic powers after nearly two years of conflict. Just two days before President Donald Trump is set to sign a “phase one” trade agreement with China, the US Treasury said in its semi-annual report to Congress that the yuan has strengthened and Beijing is no longer considered a currency manipulator...

IN A major relief for Pakistan’s self-exiled former military dictator, a top court here on Monday declared his “complaint and trial” in the high treason case as “unconstitutional” leading to the annulment of his death penalty by a special tribunal...

QATAR’S Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei and other senior leaders on Sunday and agreed that de-escalation and dialogue were the only solutions to rising tensions in the Middle East between the United States and Tehran. Qatar and Iran agreed that de-escalation was the “only solution” to regional tensions, ‘Al Jazeera’ quoted Sheikh Tamim as saying after the meeting with Rouhani...

A VOLLEY of rockets slammed into an Iraqi airbase north of Baghdad where US forces have been based, wounding four local troops, the Iraqi military said on Sunday. Its statement said eight Katyusha-type rockets landed on Al-Balad airbase, wounding two Iraqi officers and two airmen. Al-Balad is the main airbase for Iraq’s F-16s, which it bought from the US to upgrade its air capacities...

IRAN on Saturday said it unintentionally shot down the Ukrainian airliner that crashed this week killing 176 people, calling it an “unforgivable mistake”. The Ukraine International Airlines plane came down on Wednesday shortly after Iran launched missiles at bases hosting American forces in Iraq in response to the killing of Qasem Soleimani, one of Iran’s top Generals, in a US drone strike. “The Islamic Republic of Iran deeply regrets this disastrous mistake,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tweeted...

THE US and Iran stepped back from the brink of possible war on Wednesday as President Donald Trump signalled that he would not retaliate militarily for Iran’s missile strikes on Iraqi bases housing US troops. No one was harmed in the strikes, but US forces in the region remained on high alert. Speaking from the White House, Trump seemed intent on deescalating the crisis, which spiralled after he authorised the targeted killing last week of Iran’s top General, Qassem Soleimani...

IRAN launched over a dozen of ballistic missiles targeting at least two bases where US military and coalition forces’ are stationed in Iraq, which Tehran said was a “slap in the face” of America. According to Iranian State TV, the attacks were in revenge for the killing of the commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, General Qasem Soleimani, in a US drone strike on Friday, which was ordered by President Donald Trump. While the Iranian State television claimed that “at least 80 terrorist ..

A UKRAINIAN airliner carrying 176 people from seven countries crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran on Wednesday, killing all on board. The vast majority of the passengers on the Boeing 737 flight from Tehran to Kiev were non-Ukrainians, including 82 Iranians and 63 Canadians, officials said. The crash occurred with tensions high in the Middle-East and shortly after Tehran launched missiles at bases in Iraq housing US troops. But there was no immediate indication of foul play and Ukrainian President ..

NASA said on Monday that its planet hunter satellite TESS had discovered an Earth-sized world within the habitable range of its star, which could allow the presence of liquid water. The planet, named ‘TOI 700 d’, is relatively close to Earth -- only 100 light years away, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced during the annual American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. “TESS was designed and launched specifically to find Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars,” said Paul Hertz, ..

A STAMPEDE erupted on Tuesday at a funeral procession for a top Iranian General killed in a US airstrike last week, killing 50 people and injuring 190 others, State television reported. According to the report, the stampede took place in Kerman, the hometown of Revolutionary Guard Gen Qassem Soleimani, as the procession got underway. Initial videos posted online showed people lying lifeless on a road and others shouting and trying to help them. Iranian State TV gave the casualty toll in its online ..

AS rift deepens between Iran and the United States after the latter killed Iran’s senior military commander Qassem Soleimani, Tehran on Sunday announced that it was abandoning its last obligation under the 2015 nuclear deal which is to limit the number to centrifuges. “By taking the fifth step in reducing its obligations, Iran is abandoning the last key practical limitation under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which is dealing with the number of centrifuges,” the Iranian Government in a statement ..

WASHINGTON PRESIDENT Donald Trump has warned Iran that the US has identified 52 possible targets in the country and will hit it harder than ever before if Tehran, which has vowed “severe revenge”, carries out any attack against America to avenge the killing of top military commander Qasem Soleimani. Major General Soleimani, 62, the head of Iran’s elite al-Quds force and architect of its regional security apparatus, was killed when a US drone fired missiles into a convoy that was leaving the Baghdad ..

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has said Iranian General Qasem Soleimani had made the death of innocent people his “sick passion” and contributed to terrorist plots as far away as New Delhi and London, a day after ordering the drone attack that killed the powerful Revolutionary Guards commander in Iraq. Soleimani, 62, the head of Iran’s elite al-Quds force and architect of its regional security apparatus, was killed when a drone fired missiles into a convoy that was leaving the Baghdad International Airport ..

General Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite al-Quds force was killed when in a drone attack on a convoy that was leaving Baghdad Airport on Friday Deputy chief of Iraq’s paramilitary force and some local Iran-backed militias also killed Military Action carried out at the direction of Trump, says PentagonWASHINGTONGENERAL Qasem Soleimani, the powerful commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq to protect American personnel abroad, the Pentagon ..

TEHRANIRAN warned of “severe revenge” and said arch-enemy the United States bore responsibility for the consequences after killing one of its top commanders, Qasem Soleimani, in a strike Friday outside Baghdad airport. Iranians hold posters of General Qasem Soleimani during a demonstration in the capital Tehran on Friday. (AFP)  The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed the commander of its Quds Force foreign operations arm had been killed by US forces in Baghdad, ..

AN estimated 67,385 babies will be born in India, in 2020 on New Year’s Day, UNICEF said on Wednesday. Indian babies will account for 17 per cent of the estimated 3,92,078 babies to be born globally on New Year’s Day. Fiji in the Pacific will most likely deliver 2020’s first baby. The US, its last. Globally, over half of these births are estimated to take place in eight countries. India with 67,385 tops the list followed by China at 46,299, Nigeria -- 26,039, Pakistan -- 16,787, Indonesia -- 13,020, ..

THE Mars 2020 rover, which sets off for the Red Planet next year, will not only search for traces of ancient life, but pave the way for future human missions, NASA scientists said on Friday as they unveiled the vehicle...

CHINA has upped the ante against India’s security establishment by massively enhancing its military infrastructure in the bordering areas in Ladakh that have witnessed skirmishes between the forces of the two countries. China’s People’s Liberation Army has started carrying out military infrastructure development work near the Pangong lake in Ladakh region, a Defence Ministry source said on Thursday. The PLA has set up tents and has constructed underground tunnels and are constructing more tunnels ..

IN AN extremely stressful year for social media users who have been bugged several times this year, Twitter on Saturday admitted a malicious code was inserted into its app by a bad actor that could have compromised several Android users’ information worldwide, including in India. Some users in India woke up to an email from Twitter, warning them to update the app for Android and immediately change the password. ..

INDIA and China on Saturday agreed that it is important to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas and stressed on approaching the boundary issue from the strategic perspective of bilateral ties. ..

OUR planet is never still and its poles are on a move. The geographic north pole is in the same place it always was, but its magnetic counterpart that we know as the ‘N’ on the compass is now drifting from the Canadian Arctic towards Siberia at record-breaking speeds that has scientists puzzled. Although the pace of the movement is remarkable, the movement itself isn’t. Due to fluctuations in the flow of molten iron within the Earth’s core that affects Earth’s magnetic field, the North pole is never ..

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa and discussed broader roadmap for strengthening bilateral relations in areas such as defence, science and technology and trade. Costa is visiting India on Modi’s invitation to attend the second meeting of the organising committee for the celebrations of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi...

INDIA and the US have agreed to deepen their bilateral cooperation in areas of defence, counterterrorism and trade, and to work with like-minded countries for a free and open Indo-Pacific region. The decisions were taken as the second India-US 2+2 dialogue concluded here. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo along with Defense Secretary Mark Esper hosted their Indian counterparts External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for the dialogue at the Foggy Bottom headquarters ..

PAKISTAN’S former dictator General Pervez Musharraf was on Tuesday sentenced to death in absentia in the high treason case for subverting the Constitution in 2007, drawing a sharp reaction from the powerful military which has ruled the coup-prone country for nearly half its 72-year history. A three-member bench of the special court, headed by Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, pronounced the verdict in the landmark case launched in 2013 against the former Pakistan Army chief by the ..

HAFIZ Saeed, the Mumbai terror attack mastermind and chief of the banned JuD, was indicted on Wednesday by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court here on terror financing charges, amidst intense international pressure on Islamabad to bring him to justice. The anti-terrorism court (ATC) Lahore indicted Saeed and three of his top aides Hafiz Abdul Salam bin Muhammad, Muhammad Ashraf and Zafar Iqbal on terror financing charges. ATC Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta directed the prosecution to produce the witnesses ..

ETHIOPIAN Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed collected the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Tuesday, appealing for unity as ethnic violence flares in his country and reconciliation efforts with neighbouring former foe Eritrea have stalled. Abiy, 43, won the Nobel for his efforts to resolve the long-running conflict with Eritrea. Announced back in October, the prize also honoured his mediation efforts in eastern Africa and the democratic reforms he has undertaken in his country, long ruled by authoritarian leaders...

SOUTH Africa’s Zozibini Tunzi has been crowned Miss Universe for the year 2019, beating more than 90 contestants, including Miss India, from around the globe. The 26-year-old Tunzi was declared the winner at a televised event, hosted by American comic-turned-TV personality Steve Harvey, held at Tyler Perry Studios here on Sunday. Indian contestant Vartika Singh crashed out of the world’s biggest beauty pageant after securing a place in the top 20. Hailing the power of dreams, Tunzi took to Twitter ..

UNITED NATIONS, FOUR prominent diplomats have been honoured with ‘The Diwali - Power of One’ award in recognition and celebration of their work, especially at the United Nations, for a secure and peaceful world. The diplomats who were honoured are former Foreign Minister and Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the UN Kairat Abdrakhmanov, former Permanent Representative of Cyprus to the United Nations Nicholas Emiliou...

A SAILOR shot three civilians, killing two of them, before taking his own life at Pearl Harbor just days before thousands were scheduled to gather at the storied military base to mark the 78th anniversary of the Japanese bombing that launched the US Into World War II. Rear Admiral Robert Chadwick, the Commander of Navy Region Hawaii, said the service would evaluate whether security would need to be upgraded ahead of the annual ceremony. About a dozen survivors of the 1941 bombing were expected to ..

THIS decade is set to be the hottest in history, the United Nations said on Tuesday in an annual assessment outlining the ways in which climate change is outpacing humanity’s ability to adapt to it. The World Meterological Organization said global temperatures so far this year were 1.1 degrees Celsius (two degrees Farenheit) above the pre-industrial average between 1850-1900. That puts 2019 on course to be in the top three warmest years ever recorded, and possibly the hottest non-El Nino year yet. ..

THE chair of a two-week climate summit attended by nearly 200 countries warned at its opening Monday that those refusing to adjust to the planet’s rising temperatures “will be on the wrong side of history.” Chile’s Environment Minister, Carolina Schmidt, said that the December 2-13 meeting in Madrid needs to lay the groundwork for moving toward carbon-neutral economies while being sensitive to the poorest and those most vulnerable to rising temperatures — something that policy makers have termed “just ..

LONDON, THE man who stabbed and killed two people in the London Bridge terrorist attack on Friday has been identified as a convicted terrorist who was jailed seven years ago over a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange and build a terrorist training camp on land owned by his family in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The suspect, identified as Usman Khan, had also discussed staging a Mumbai-style attack on the UK Parliament and described by the judge who sentenced him for terrorism offences in 2012 as ..