Asia

    United States Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to India and his planned schedule continued to be affected by heavy rains which lashed the national capital on Wednesday morning. Not only his planned visit to three religious shrines in Old Delhi – including Sis Ganj Gurudwara, Jama Masjid and Gauri Shankar temple – was cancelled, his visit to IIT Delhi campus was also delayed by almost an hour. Kerry is on a two-day visit to the country for the Second Indo-US Strategic and Commercial (S&C) dialogue. It all started the moment he landed at the airport on Monday evening and got stuck in a massive traffic jam en route to his hotel in Chanakyapuri. Kerry’s motorcade snailed through the traffic jam and it took him two hours to cover the 13-km stretch from Terminal 3 of IG...

    An Indonesian man, named Mbah Gotho, claimed to be 145 years old, is the oldest human in world's history speaks to press members at his family house in Sragen, Central Java, Indonesia on August 29, 2016. The civil registry office recorded parents born on December 31, 1870, age Mbah Gotho exceed men the oldest in the world that used to be held by French woman named Jeanne Calment lived to be 122 years old, his life Mbah Gotho have four wives and his last wife died in 1988. All of the children also had died and now his family is left ie, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandson. An Indonesian man who claims to be the longest living human in recorded history has described how he just wants to die. Mbah Gotho, from Sragen in central Java, was born on Decemb...

    Foreign women travelling to India should not wear dresses or skirts and should not walk alone at night “for their own safety”, India’s tourism minister has said. Speaking to the media in Agra about India’s official safety advice for women, Mahesh Sharma also advised women to take photographs of the number plate of any vehicles they were travelling in. His remarks have sparked controversy in India, where several high-profile gang-rapes and attacks on women in recent years have focused global attention on the problem within the country. Mr Sharma was speaking on Sunday about a welcome kit for foreign nationals arriving in India which have been issued since last year and includes the safety guidelines for women. He said: “In that kit they are given dos and don’ts. These are v...

    Police have ordered some low-end hotels in the Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou not to allow guests from five Muslim-majority countries to stay, though China's foreign ministry said it had never heard of the policy. Three hotels with rooms costing about 150 yuan ($23) a night told Reuters that they had received police notices from as early as March telling them to turn away people from Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan. I'm not clear of the reason. We just can't take them, one hotel worker said by telephone. Afghanistan. The notice appears only to apply to cheaper hotels at the bottom of the price scale. All of the five countries have been beset by terrorist attacks in the past few years, or in the case of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have been in states of war. ...

    Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, center in the background, makes opening remark during a trilateral meeting in Tokyo, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016. The foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea have criticized North Korea's fresh missile launch just hours earlier in the day. The foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea put aside frictions over territorial disputes and wartime history to sharply criticize North Korea's latest submarine missile test on Wednesday in a rare display of unity. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, who chaired the meeting with China's Wang Yi and South Korea's Yun Byung-se, said that North Korea's missile launch is a provocation that simply cannot be tolerated. North Korea fired a ballistic missile from a submarine into th...

    Bangladesh and India on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the route permit for carrying petroleum products from Assam to Tripura through Bangladesh territory. Based on the request by the government of India, the government of Bangladesh has granted permission for the movement of petroleum products on “humanitarian grounds” through the territory of Bangladesh till September 2016, officials said, reports unb. The petroleum products are motor spirit, high-speed diesel, superior kerosene oil and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). Roads and Highways Department of the Government of Bangladesh (RHD) and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), a public sector unit under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the government of India signed the MoU. Heavy monsoon...

    An Indian rights activist who has waged what is thought to be the world's longest hunger strike ended her 16-year fast yesterday after vowing to continue her struggle by standing for election in her home state, reports AFP. Irom Sharmila, dubbed the Iron Lady of Manipur for her unwavering protest against alleged rights abuses by security forces in the insurgency-hit northeast Indian state, was released on bail after she promised a court she would end her fast. The 44-year-old had been held in judicial custody on charges of attempting suicide -- still a criminal offence in India -- and confined to a hospital where she was force-fed through a nasal tube. Speaking to journalists outside the court in the Manipur capital Imphal, she said her long campaign had not worked. "I wen...

    A powerful bomb went off on the grounds of a government-run hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Monday, killing at least 42 people and wounding dozens, police said. The blast took place shortly after the body of a prominent lawyer killed in a shooting attack earlier in the day was brought to the hospital, said senior police official Zahoor Ahmed Afridi, though it was unclear if the two events were in any way connected. Nearly 100 lawyers and other people had gathered there at the time, he added. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, which struck at the gates of the building housing the emergency ward, on the hospital grounds. Earlier, police had mistakenly said the bomb struck the hospital's main gate. Sanaullah Zehri, the chief mini...

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has criticised vigilantes who portray themselves as protectors of cows - an animal considered sacred by Hindus. Modi, a Hindu nationalist, said such people made him "angry", and any such attacks must be investigated. He had been criticised for saying nothing about a public flogging last month of low-caste men by vigilantes. The self-styled cow defenders accused the four men from the Dalit caste of harming cattle. The victims insisted they were taking a cow's carcass for skinning, as was their tradition. Also in July, two Muslim women were beaten up by vigilantes over accusations that they had been carrying beef. Growing pressure Speaking in the capital Delhi on Saturday, Modi said he would ask state governments across India to investigat...

    Suspected militants today attacked a crowded marketplace in Kokrajhar district in India’s north eastern state of Assam killing 14 people and wounding at least 20 others. One of the attackers was killed when security forces returned the fire, reports our New Delhi correspondent quoting authorities and state officials. Assam Director General of Police Mukesh Sahay said the attack at Balajan Tiniali market, 12 km from Kokrajhar, was suspected to have been carried out by heavily-armed militants of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB-S). He said, 12 people were killed on the spot when the militants, who came in a van at around 12.30pm (local time), opened fire. Two others died on their way to the hospital, another police official said. One of the attackers was killed w...