Japan, China try to avert friction

TOKYO: Japan and China agreed on Monday to set up an emergency hotline and set in place ways to prevent maritime friction sparked by Beijing’s growing

India policy body hirings signal socialist agenda

NEW DELHI: India has appointed several socialist intellectuals and activists to a powerful government policy advisory body, officials said on Monday,

Enigmatic party is kingmaker in Czech election

PRAGUE: An obscure Czech party which rode a wave of public anger with politicians to win 10.9 percent of the vote in a weekend election has emerged as

West worried

VIENNA: Iran is pressing ahead with its controversial atomic programme, producing enriched uranium at higher levels of purification and installing mor

Ban presses states to join war crimes court

KAMPALA: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged all states to sign up to the International Criminal Court and rejected criticism the body wa

Storm kills over 100 in Central America

GUATEMALA CITY: A violent storm that walloped Central America over the weekend killed more than 100 people and left a swath of destruction, officials

German president quits

BERLIN: German President Horst Koehler unexpectedly resigned on Monday after a wave of criticism over his comments about military action abroad, in a

Hatoyama in pinch as ratings fall

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, his coalition fractured and his ratings sinking, brushed aside calls to quit on Monday ahead of an uppe

Nepal’s Maoists warn of ‘crisis’

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s opposition Maoist party on Monday urged the prime minister to step down quickly, warning that failure to do so would result in “ser

‘Sri Lanka needs international probe’

GENEVA: The United Nations human rights chief called on Sri Lanka to allow an international probe into the government’s final offensive against Tamil

World in shock at Israeli massacre of peace activists ‘Gaza ship raid brings Israel close to its end’

TEHRAN/ANKARA: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said a deadly Israeli military raid on Monday on a Gaza-bound aid ship was an inhuman act that br

Australian journalists ‘safe’

SYDNEY: Two Australian journalists on a vessel which was part of an aid convoy stormed by Israeli forces as it headed to the Gaza Strip Monday are saf