KATHMANDU: As Nepal`s parliament prepares once again to try to elect a new prime minister after four failed attempts, concern is growing over the role of neighbouring India in the protracted political crisis. Nepal`s prime minister agreed in May to step down to pave the way for a new

LONDON: A strike that could have shut down six British airports on a key holiday weekend was averted on Monday after management offered a new pay deal to workers, both sides said. Members of the Unite union, including firefighters and security staff, had originally voted by three to one

SUKKUR: Pakistani flood victims, burning straw and waving sticks, blocked a highway on Monday to demand government help as aid agencies warned relief was too slow to arrive for millions without clean water, food and homes.Public anger has grown in the two weeks of floods, highlighting

MILWAUKEE: The White House on Monday denied press reports that President Barack Obama warned Turkey it could lose its chance to obtain US-made weapons over its position on Israel and Iran.Britain`s Financial Times newspaper quoted a senior official as saying that Obama told Turkish Prime

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama`s administration announced Monday it will grant no more permits for deep water oil exploration without requiring studies on their impact on the environment.The Interior Department said it would award offshore drilling permits only to projects

TAIPEI : Taiwan said Tuesday it was "closely monitoring" China`s arms build-up following a US government report warning that China`s military advantage over the island was growing. "China has not given up the use of force against Taiwan, and we are closely monitoring China`s military

SEOUL: North Korea flew an unmanned plane for surveillance or as a decoy after it fired a volley of shells near the disputed sea border with South Korea last week, an official said Tuesday. The impoverished but nuclear-armed communist state has also aired rare footage of its new main

BOGOTA : A Colombian passenger jet operated by local airline Aires crashed while landing on San Andres island on Monday during a storm, killing one passenger and injuring 114, local authorities said. The Boeing 737, which was carrying 121 passengers and six crew members, was arriving on

PHNOM PENH: Prosecutors of the first Khmer Rouge commander to face a U.N.-backed trial appealed on Monday against his prison sentence which they said was too lenient for a man who oversaw up to 14,000 deaths in Cambodia in the 1970s.Kaing Guek Eav, 67, a former prison chief better known

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan authorities forecast on Monday a brief respite in rains that sparked the country`s worst floods in decades, but aid agencies warned help was too slow to arrive for millions without clean water, food and homes.Water levels in the Indus River feeding Pakistan`s plains

JERUSALEM: Israel`s Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday approved the purchase of a fleet of US-built F-35 strike fighters in a move set to ramp up the capabilities of the Israeli Air Force.The minister "approved in principle" a recommendation by the military to purchase the F-35 or

NOWSHEHRA: Six million children are suffering from Pakistan`s devastating floods: lost, orphaned or stricken with diarrhoea, they are the most vulnerable victims of the nation`s worst-ever natural disaster.At relief camps in government schools and colleges and in tent villages on the edge

KABUL: The total number of foreign troops killed in the nearly nine years of the Afghan war has topped 2,000, according to the independent icasualties.org website.In all, 2,002 members of international forces have been killed since the US-led invasion in 2001, including 1,226 Americans

BOGOTA: Colombia on Sunday rejected an offer for talks with the country`s most powerful guerrilla group, saying there could never be dialogue with rebels engaged in "terrorism.""Colombia will never talk with terrorists, that is a lesson we have already learned," said Defense Minister

LONDON: President Barack Obama has warned the Turkish prime minister that Ankara`s position on Israel and Iran could lessen its chances of obtaining US weapons, a report said Monday.The Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants to buy American drone aircraft to attack separatist Kurdish

WASHINGTON: General David Petraeus has refused to be bound by a July 2011 deadline to begin withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan, reserving the right to seek a delay if conditions are not right.The Afghan war commander said President Barack Obama`s date for the start of a limited US

RAMALLAH: The Palestinians have made further progress towards relaunching direct talks with Israel following a meeting with US officials, a Palestinian spokesman said Sunday."There has been progress up to this point," Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP late

BANGKOK: The Thai government said Monday it was lifting a state of emergency in three more provinces, but not Bangkok, almost three months after the end of deadly opposition protests in the capital.Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva revoked the decree in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Ubon

SEOUL: South Korea and the United States launched a new round of war games on Monday involving tens of thousands of troops, despite threats of retaliation from North Korea.The 10-day computerised military exercise is one of a series being staged by by the South -- either alone or jointly

SEOUL: North Korea`s military threatened Sunday to launch the "severest punishment" against South Korea for staging massive joint war games with the United States this week.The North`s army and people will "deal a merciless counterblow" to the allies "as it had already resolved and