Beijing: At least 67 people were missing after mudslides hit a remote town in southwest China`s Yunnan province early Wednesday, authorities said.Power supplies and telecommunications were cut following the mudslides in Puladi Township in Gongshan, Xinhua reported.Rescuers were sent to

BAGUIO: Thirty-five people were killed when a packed passenger bus plunged into a deep ravine in the northern Philippines on Wednesday, rescuers said. The bus, carrying 47 people, had just left the mountain resort city of Baguio, about 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Manila, when its

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai Tuesday issued a decree ordering that all private security firms in the country should be disbanded within four months."I approve the full disbandment of private security companies, both national and international, within four months," Karzai said in

London: Eating bits of chocolate occasionally can help protect women from heart failure. However, daily consumption seems to negate its positive benefits.In a first ever nine-year study involving 31,823 Swedish women, researchers looked at the link between quantity of high-quality dark

BEIJING: The death toll from a massive explosion at a fireworks factory in northeastern China has risen to 19, with more than 150 others injured, state media said Tuesday.The blast early Monday shattered the windows of buildings one kilometre (half a mile) away from the plant near the

SEOUL: A group of South Koreans crossed the tense border into North Korea Tuesday for the first time since a travel ban was imposed three months ago, officials said. A doctor and four others from a relief group travelled to the North`s border city of Kaesong to deliver anti-malaria aid

BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded army recruitment centre in Baghdad killing 59 people Tuesday, officials said, as violence coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan raged across Iraq.The attack, the deadliest this year, wounded at least another 100 people and

KATHMANDU: As Nepal`s parliament prepares once again to try to elect a new prime minister after four failed attempts, concern is growing over the role of neighbouring India in the protracted political crisis. Nepal`s prime minister agreed in May to step down to pave the way for a new

LONDON: A strike that could have shut down six British airports on a key holiday weekend was averted on Monday after management offered a new pay deal to workers, both sides said. Members of the Unite union, including firefighters and security staff, had originally voted by three to one

SUKKUR: Pakistani flood victims, burning straw and waving sticks, blocked a highway on Monday to demand government help as aid agencies warned relief was too slow to arrive for millions without clean water, food and homes.Public anger has grown in the two weeks of floods, highlighting

MILWAUKEE: The White House on Monday denied press reports that President Barack Obama warned Turkey it could lose its chance to obtain US-made weapons over its position on Israel and Iran.Britain`s Financial Times newspaper quoted a senior official as saying that Obama told Turkish Prime

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama`s administration announced Monday it will grant no more permits for deep water oil exploration without requiring studies on their impact on the environment.The Interior Department said it would award offshore drilling permits only to projects

TAIPEI : Taiwan said Tuesday it was "closely monitoring" China`s arms build-up following a US government report warning that China`s military advantage over the island was growing. "China has not given up the use of force against Taiwan, and we are closely monitoring China`s military

SEOUL: North Korea flew an unmanned plane for surveillance or as a decoy after it fired a volley of shells near the disputed sea border with South Korea last week, an official said Tuesday. The impoverished but nuclear-armed communist state has also aired rare footage of its new main

BOGOTA : A Colombian passenger jet operated by local airline Aires crashed while landing on San Andres island on Monday during a storm, killing one passenger and injuring 114, local authorities said. The Boeing 737, which was carrying 121 passengers and six crew members, was arriving on

PHNOM PENH: Prosecutors of the first Khmer Rouge commander to face a U.N.-backed trial appealed on Monday against his prison sentence which they said was too lenient for a man who oversaw up to 14,000 deaths in Cambodia in the 1970s.Kaing Guek Eav, 67, a former prison chief better known

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan authorities forecast on Monday a brief respite in rains that sparked the country`s worst floods in decades, but aid agencies warned help was too slow to arrive for millions without clean water, food and homes.Water levels in the Indus River feeding Pakistan`s plains

JERUSALEM: Israel`s Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday approved the purchase of a fleet of US-built F-35 strike fighters in a move set to ramp up the capabilities of the Israeli Air Force.The minister "approved in principle" a recommendation by the military to purchase the F-35 or

NOWSHEHRA: Six million children are suffering from Pakistan`s devastating floods: lost, orphaned or stricken with diarrhoea, they are the most vulnerable victims of the nation`s worst-ever natural disaster.At relief camps in government schools and colleges and in tent villages on the edge

KABUL: The total number of foreign troops killed in the nearly nine years of the Afghan war has topped 2,000, according to the independent icasualties.org website.In all, 2,002 members of international forces have been killed since the US-led invasion in 2001, including 1,226 Americans