Washington: US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to India and Pakistan December 7-10 to discuss key political, economic, and security issues with government officials and non-governmental experts. Blinken, who will be in New Delhi December 7-8, will meet with senior Indian officials to discuss a range of bilateral and global economic and security issues, including ongoing US-India cooperation...
Tokyo: The Japanese government has planned to set the size of its supplementary budget for fiscal 2015 at 3.3 trillion yen ($27 billion), the media reported on Saturday. To help finance the extra budget, the government will use 1.9 trillion yen in excess tax revenues, The Japan Times quoted government sources as saying. The government is expected to adopt its proposal...
Washington: The FBI is investigating the California massacre as "an act of terrorism," after a revelation that the Pakistani-American female shooter posted a pledge of allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Facebook during the shooting. Tashfeen Malik, who with her US born Pakistani origin husband Syed Rizwan Farook, shot dead 14 people and wounded 21 others during a holiday...
London: Singer Madonna has been accused of using a fake police car to queue-jump through traffic here. The 57-year-old singer allegedly hopped in a black Jaguar after her two gigs on Tuesday and Wednesday this week at the O2 Arena here. When the vehicle sped off with blue and red lights flashing from its dashboard and queue jumped through traffic, as...
New Delhi: In its ongoing probe after busting a spying network working for Pakistan based ISI, the Delhi Police arrested another person, taking the total number of arrests to four, police said on Saturday. The accused identified as Sabar, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir and a teacher in a government school, was arrested from Rajouri district on Friday, Joint Commissioner...
Hong Kong: There has been no intelligence suggesting Hong Kong being a target of terrorist attack, Police Commissioner Stephen Lo said here on Saturday. The local authorities carried out daily risk assessments and were in close contact with anti-terror authorities in other countries, Lo as saying. The security situation in Hong Kong remained unchanged so far, the police chief said....
Chicago: Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose on Friday as the US dollar showed weakness, along with short covering by traders. The most active gold contract for February delivery rose $22.9 (2.16 percent) to settle at $1,084.10 per ounce, as per reported. For the week, gold futures added 2.64 percent, its first weekly gain...
Washington: US President Barack Obama discussed with British Prime Minister David Cameron, the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, the White House has said. Obama on Friday "welcomed the outcome of the vote and expressed his appreciation" that the UK has joined the counter-IS campaign in Syria, the White House as saying. Britain's house of commons on Wednesday voted to...
New York: Oil prices dropped on Friday as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ended a meeting without any agreement to reduce the production. The cartel's output makes up around 40 percent of the global crude production. OPEC maintained it output quota of 30 million barrels per day at June's meeting. The ceiling was breached routinely by the...
Chennai: Heavy rains battered Chennai again on Friday evening just as life began to limp to normalcy amid persisting power cuts and food shortages here and three other Tamil Nadu districts where floods and downpour have claimed 325 lives. Thousands of military personnel and social activists were engaged in a major operation of supplying food, water and blankets to thousands...
