Asia

    US President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has opened the possibility of the administration extending to Pakistan the temporary visa ban and extreme vetting of travellers imposed on seven countries. Speaking on Sunday during Face the Nation programme on CBS, he said in the passing that Pakistan may be among countries considered for adding to the enhanced temporary restrictions on travel to the US because of terrorism risks. The temporary ban covers only Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Later in the programme, ‘Face the Nation’ host John Dickerson pointed out that the woman involved in the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack came to the US from Pakistan on a visa given to fiances. He tried to pin down Priebus and get a more definitive answ...

    Former North Korean deputy ambassador to Britain, Thae Yong-Ho, talks to the media at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club, on January 25, 2017 The North Korean regime is on an inexorable decline towards collapse, with its people increasingly disillusioned but its nuclear ambitions undimmed, a top defector said Wednesday. I'm sure and I can say that Kim Jong-Un's days are numbered, said Thae Yong-Ho, who fled his post as North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain in August. In his first press conference for foreign correspondents, held under tight security, Thae said he was sure that more of his fellow countrymen would follow suit since North Korea was "on a downward path". The elite were turning their backs on leader Kim Jong-Un, he said, adding: The traditional structur...

    As of 2017 there are 14,900 nuclear warheads and most of them belong to either the US (6,800) or Russia (7,000). The UK has 215, China 260, North Korea, 10 and a few other countries hold a handful of nuclear bombs. According to the Commission for the Comprehensive nuclear-test-ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), the largest nuclear explosion in history was the 1961 Soviet Union Tsar Bomba. The test measured 50 megatons, which was more than 3,800 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. And that’s just one bomb. Not all nuclear weapons have the same capabilities, but US and Russia have the most powerful kind: thermonuclear weapons. The US has the B83 – a nuclear bomb which generates 1.2 megatons of TNT – the equivalent of 79 Hiroshima atomic bombs. With that in mind, here’...

    The Sharp Sword UCAV is one of China's most high-tech drones, with a flying wing body and internal bomb bad that maximizes its stealth and range. This image is from its first flight on November 21, 2013. The Sharp Sword UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), China's stealthy attack drone, just won second place in the National Science and Technology Advancement Prizes. Considering the secrecy surrounding stealth drones to come out of China—there are relatively few photos of the Sharp Sword available, particularly as opposed to, say, the J-20 fighter the Sharp Sword's victory is pretty noteworthy. The drone, known as Lijian in Mandarin Chinese, is being paraded as a huge win for Chinese aviation technology. And it is. The Lijian uses a flying wing body (just like the B-2 bomber and ...

    Cow is the only animal that inhales and exhales Oxygen, said the Eduction Minister of India’s Rajasthan Vasudev Devnani, reports Indian media. The minister made the statement on Saturday while addressing an event organised by Akshay Patra foundation at the Hingonia Goshala. Underscoring the scientific significance of the cow, Vasudev Devnani said, The cow is the only animal that takes in oxygen and also releases oxygen. There is a need to understand the scientific significance of the cow and ensure that the message reaches all people, he added. The minister’s assertion about cows goes against the claims made by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, which in a 2006 report held livestock, including cows, responsible for large amounts of GHG emissions, from their digesti...

    North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won't happen! tweeted President-elect Donald Trump on January 2. However, the terrifying truth is that North Korea, the only country to test nuclear weapons in the 21st century, has just as much say over whether or not its potential nuclear arms can or will reach the U.S. as Trump and the whole U.S. do. It can be difficult to make assessments about North Korea's nuclear capabilities given that we have very little access to North Korea's missile facilities, Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy and a North Korea expert at the Arms Control Association, told Business Insider. "But it's clear that North Korea has made significant advan...

    Kiyoshi Kimura, center, president of Kiyomura Co., poses with the bluefin tuna he made a winning bid at the annual New Year auction, at his Sushi Zanmai restaurant near Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, early Thursday, 5 Jan. A Japanese sushi chain boss bid a winning 74.2 million yen ($632,000) Thursday for a 212 kilogram (466 pound) bluefin tuna in what may be Tsukiji market's last auction at its current site in downtown Tokyo. The winning bid Thursday for the prized but imperiled species was the second highest ever after a record 155.4 million yen bid in 2013 at the annual New Year auction. This year's price was $2,981 per kilogram, compared with about $7,930 per kilogram for the 2013 record-setting auction price. Kiyomura Corp. owner Kiyoshi Kimura posed, beaming, after the...

    A comfort woman statue was set up in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2011. Japan said on Friday it was temporarily recalling its ambassador to South Korea over a statue commemorating Korean women forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War Two which it said violated an agreement to resolve the issue. The two nations agreed in 2015 that the issue of comfort women, which has long plagued ties between the two Asian neighbors, would be ‘finally and irreversibly resolved’ if all conditions of the accord which included a Japanese apology and a fund to help the victims were met. The statue, which depicts a young, barefoot woman sitting in a chair, was erected near the Japanese consulate in the southern South Korean city of Busan at the end of last year...

    This screen grab taken on January 4, 2017 from a YouTube video originally taken by Myanmar Constable Zaw Myo Htike shows policemen standing guard around Rohingya minority villager seated on the ground in the village of Kotankauk during a police area clearance operation on November 5, 2016. Yangon: The United Nations on Friday said its human rights envoy for Myanmar will probe escalating violence in the country, including a military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, when she visits next week. UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee’s 12-day trip, starting on Monday, will also take her to Kachin state, where thousands have been displaced by fighting between ethnic rebels and the army. Intensifying clashes between Myanmar’s military and ethnic minorities has undercut Aung San Suu Kyi’...

    Veteran Indian actor Om Puri died on Friday morning of a heart attack at his residence in Mumbai, said his family. He was 66. Om Puri’s body is at his residence in Andheri and his old friends and colleagues from Bollywood have arrived to pay their last respects. The actor has appeared in mainstream Bollywood cinema as well as Pakistani, British and Hollywood films. The actor has received an OBE as well as Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India. An alumnus of Film and Television Institute of India as well as National School of Drama, Puri was on the forefront of what was called art films movement in the 70s. He has worked in acclaimed films such as Bhavni Bhavai (1980), Sadgati (1981), Ardh Satya (1982), Mirch Masala (1986) and Dharavi (1992).