Asia

    Rescuers were searching Monday for at least 91 missing people a day after a mountain of excavated soil and construction waste buried dozens of buildings when it swept through an industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. China's official Xinhua News Agency said the landslide buried or damaged 33 buildings in the industrial park in Shenzhen, a major manufacturing center in Guangdong province across the border from Hong Kong that makes products used around the world ranging from cellphones to cars. Aerial photos on the microblog of the Public Security Ministry's Firefighting Bureau showed the area awash in a sea of red mud, with several buildings either knocked on their side or collapsed entirely. Posts on the microblog said mud had thoroughly infused many of ...

    A man working for Air India has died after being sucked into a jet engine after a "mishap". The freak accident happened as the plane pushed back for take-off at Mumbai airport, the airline said. It reportedly happened after the co-pilot of flight Al 619 to the southern city of Hyderabad mistook a signal from ground staff and started the engine. Maintenance man Ravi Subramanian, who was standing close by, was sucked into the engine and died instantly. India's national carrier said on Twitter that he had "died in a mishap during pushback of flight AI 619". Tha airline sent its "heartfelt condolences" to the man's family and its boss, Ashwani Lohani, said he was "deeply saddened". A source told the Hindustan Times: "At the moment, we are absolutely clueless on how this person...

    Morning commuters wear protective masks to shield from extreme smog in central Beijing It’s an especially bad time to depend on a nose, mouth, and lungs for breathing if you’re in Beijing. While few can afford the pleasures of a leisurely mountain escape in nearby Zhangjiakou, a whiff of Banff is within reach! “Red alert” smog levels hit China’s capital city earlier this month—the highest alert issued since the color-coded system debuted in 2013. As a result, some residents are taking the desperate measure of buying clean air from a can. For Troy Paquette and Moses Lam, it’s a very good time to be in the business of selling an invisible element. After successfully selling sealed plastic bags of air on eBay (the first for 99 cents, the second for $168 after a bidding war), ...

    The government of Japan will provide Japanese yen 133265 million or Tk 8660 crore under the 36th Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan package to Bangladesh against six projects to help the country's development endeavors. The Exchange of Notes and Loan Agreements for the six projects were signed on Sunday between the governments of Bangladesh and Japan at the Economic Relations Division (ERD). ERD Senior Secretary Mohammad Mejbahuddin and Japanese Ambassador toBangladesh Masato Watanabe signed the exchange of notes while ERD Senior Secretary signed the loan agreements with Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Bangladesh Office Mikio Ha-taeda. The rate of interest is 0.01 percent per annum which is payable in 40 years, including 10 year...

    Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, who has achieved global visibility in the recent past, has topped a list of 50 'Sexiest Asian Women on the Planet' compiled by a British magazine. This is the third time in the past four years that the "Quantico" actress has topped the list. Priyanka emerged as the top name after people voted from across the globe for the 2015 edition of the popular annual poll conducted by the Britain-based Eastern Eye newspaper. The 'desi girl' of tinsel town is happy. "Now that's a title I'm happy to hold on to. I'm bringing sexy back! A big thank you to everyone who's voted for me. Thank you also to Eastern Eye for making me feel 'sexy'; well, at least for another year. A piece of advice to the ladies - it's all in the mind. Remember, sexy is as sexy ...

    Actor Salman Khan has been acquitted in the 2002 hit-and-run incident, the Bombay High Court ruled on Thursday. The Bombay High Court observed that the prosecution has failed to establish the case against Salman Khan in connection to the 2002 hit-and-run case. Salman Khan was convicted of all charges by a sessions court earlier this year in the case relating to 2002 when Salman’s Toyota Land Cruiser had crashed into five men sleeping outside a bakery on Hill Road in Bandra in the early hours of September 28. One person was killed and four others were injured. But later, the Bombay HC suspended the sentence after the actor appealed against his conviction.The Indian Express.

    China is not afraid of fighting a war against the United States in the South China Sea, a state-run newspaper with links to the Communist party has claimed. Twenty-four hours after Washington challenged Beijing’s territorial claims in the region by deploying a warship to waters around the disputed Spratly archipelago, the notoriously nationalistic Global Times accused the Pentagon of provoking China. “In [the] face of the US harassment, Beijing should deal with Washington tactfully and prepare for the worst,” the newspaper argued in an editorial on Wednesday. “This can convince the White House that China, despite its unwillingness, is not frightened to fight a war with the US in the region, and is determined to safeguard its national interests and dignity.” The People’s Li...

    India has extended a line of credit (LoC) of US Dollar one billion to Bangladesh for a range of projects in the railways, communications, infrastructure and other sectors. Out of this amount, $200 million was converted to grant which has been fully disbursed to the government of Bangladesh, an Indian High Commission press release said here today. Based on further negotiations, it said, New Delhi and Dhaka agreed to enhance the remaining credit line amount of $800 million to $862 million. "This was done to cater for increase in expenditure of the Khulna-Mongla and the Kulaura-Shabazpur railway line projects," the release said. EXIM Bank of India and the ERD of the Ministry of Finance, the government of Bangladesh, concluded all necessary formalities and inked the Secon...

    Kim Jong-un has been awarded a prize for global statesmanship. The North Korean dictator is to receive the award from the Bali-based Sukarno Centre. The news was announced by the daughter of Indonesia’s founding president, after whom the award is named. Rachmawati Soekarnoputri said: “We will give the award to President Kim Jong-un because he has been consistent in carrying out the ideals of the great leader, Kim Il Sung, which is to fight imperialism. “So this will be a sequel, where we give the award to Kim Jong-un for his persistence in fighting neo-colonialism.” Other previous recipients of the award have included Mahatma Gandhi and Aung San Suu Kyi. Earlier this month, it was reported that the North Korean dictator had ordered the execution of a man who runs a t...

    A typhoon with winds up to 100 mph has hit the Chinese coast south of Shanghai. Typhoon Chan-hom made landfall in Zhoushan, just east of the port of Ningbo in Zhejiang province, China Central Television reported. Almost one million people were evacuated, hundreds of flights cancelled and ships ordered back to port as it approached. China's national weather service says it could be the most powerful storm the country has seen in more than 60 years. Chan-hom was initially deemed a super-typhoon but was downgraded at midday on Saturday to severe. More than 960,000 people were moved to safety from coastal areas, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. A wave, under the influence of Typhoon Chan-hom, hits the shore next to residential buildings in Wenling All flights ...