Moscow, June 23 (AP): The leader of Myanmar's military junta on Wednesday attended an international conference in Moscow, an appearance that reflected Russia's eagerness to develop ties with it despite international opprobrium. The military in Myanmar ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, saying her party's landslide victory in elections last November resulted from massive voter fraud. It has not produced credible evidence to back it

Beijing, June 23 (PTI): President Xi Jinping on Wednesday spoke to the three astronauts stationed in China's space station and told them that the project is an important "milestone" in the country's ambitious space exploration programme. China successfully launched its longest crewed space mission to date on June 17, sending three astronauts to its new orbiting station, in a major milestone for the Communist giant's space exploration plans and establishing it a

New York, June 23 (AP): Warren Buffett is resigning as a trustee from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The announcement comes weeks after Bill and Melinda Gates announced that they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage but would continue to jointly run the foundation, one of the largest charitable foundations in the world. Gates was formerly the world's richest person and his fortune is estimated at well over USD 100 billion. For years I have been a trustee an in

Seoul, June 23 (AP): North Korea's foreign minister on Wednesday said his country is not even considering a resumption of stalled nuclear talks with the United States, dismissing hopes expressed by US and South Korean officials for a quick resumption of negotiations. The statement by Ri Son Gwon came a day after the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a message saying that US expectations of talks would plunge them into a greater disappointment . Hope fo

Lahore, June 23 (PTI): A powerful car bomb went off outside Mumbai terror attack mastermind and banned Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed's house here on Wednesday, killing at least three people and injuring 20 others, police said. The blast took place at the BOR Society in Jauhar Town at the police picket outside Saeed's residence. The Punjab police chief Inam Ghani said there could have been a "major loss" had there been no police picket outside the house o

Beijing, June 23 (AP): Chinese authorities have closed Beijing's central Tiananmen Square to the public, eight days ahead of a major celebration being planned to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party. The square, which normally attracts tourists from around the country, was barricaded Wednesday and will remain closed until July 2. Rows of yellow seats and heavy machinery could be seen on the open plaza that also houses the mausoleum of Mao Zedo

Colombo, June 23 (PTI): Sri Lanka's former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday was sworn in as an MP for a record ninth consecutive time, creating history as the only politician in the country to have entered every Parliament since 1977. The United National Party (UNP), which Wickremesinghe has been leading since 1994, suffered a major setback at the 2020 parliamentary polls when the party faced its worst election defeat in history. Wickremesinghe's UNP was r

Kathmandu, June 23 (PTI): Nepal's Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli has stoked yet another controversy by claiming that Yoga originated in his country, not in India, a view not shared by a leading expert here. Speaking at a function organised to observe the International Yoga Day on June 21 at the Prime Minister's residence in Baluwatar, Oli said that India was not even born as a separate country when Yoga originated in "this part of the world". "Yoga originate

WASHINGTON, JUNE 23 (IANS): NASA's Ingenuity helicopter has completed its eighth flight on Mars on Monday, according to NASA. It flew for 77.4 seconds and travelled 160 meters to a new landing spot, about 133.5 meters from NASA's Persevere rover. Ingenuity arrived at Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover. The helicopter is a technology demonstration with a planned test flight duration of up to 30 Martian days. The Mars heli

KOLKATA, JUNE 23 (IANS): Myanmar's military junta has ordered an extensive combing operation in the country's second biggest city Mandalay after a shootout on Tuesday. Fighting erupted between an armed urban insurgent group People's Defense Force, a Mandalay based resistance force made up of Bamar (ethnic Burmese) hardliners , and the Burmese military Tatmadaw raided a rebel hideout on the 54th street in Mandalay's Chanmyathazi township on Tuesday morning. The Tat

WASHINGTON, JUNE 23 (IANS): The US on Tuesday seized dozens of websites used by the Iranian news outlets for "violation of sanctions." "Today, pursuant to court orders, the United States seized 33 websites used by the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU) and three websites operated by Kata'ib Hizballah (KH), in violation of US sanctions," said the Justice Department in a statement. The statement said that both IRTVU and KH, a Shia militia group

Washington, June 23 (AP): Facebook's recommendation algorithm amplifies military propaganda and other material that breaches the company's own policies in Myanmar following a military takeover in February, a new report by the rights group Global Witness says. A month after the military seized power in Myanmar and imprisoned elected leaders, Facebook's algorithms were still prompting users to view and like pro-military pages with posts that incited and threatened violence

London, June 23 (AP): Five years ago Wednesday, Britons voted in a referendum that was meant to bring certainty to the UK's unsettled relationship with its European neighbors. Fat chance. Voters' decision on June 23, 2016 was narrow but clear: By 52% to 48%, they chose to leave the European Union. It took over four years to actually make the break and the former partners are still bickering, like many divorced couples, over money and trust. And five years after a fract

Hong Kong, June 23 (AP): Hong Kong's pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper will close by this weekend after police arrested five editors and executives and froze USD 2.3 million in assets linked to the paper. The board of directors said in a statement Wednesday that its print edition and online edition will cease no later than Saturday due to the current circumstances prevailing in Hong Kong. The widely expected move followed last week's arrests. The five were detained on s

New Delhi, June 22 (PTI): Eleven people who received the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine have developed a rare neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome, clinicians in India and England have reported in two separate studies. While seven cases were reported from a medical centre in Kerala, where about 1.2 million people were administered the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, known as Covishield in India, four were reported from Nottingham, UK, in an area in which approxima

London, June 22 (IANS): Many poorer countries lack Covid-19 vaccine doses to continue with their inoculation programmes, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. WHO senior adviser Dr Bruce Aylward said the Covax programme -- the international vaccine-sharing initiative -- had delivered 90 million doses to 131 countries, but it is nowhere near enough to protect populations from the deadly virus, the BBC reported on Monday. Uganda, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and Trinidad and Tobag

Hong Kong, June 22 (AP): Foreign governments are beautifying acts that endanger national security in Hong Kong when they criticise the recent crackdown on a pro-democracy newspaper, the leader of the semiautonomous Chinese territory said on Tuesday. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam's comments come as some countries including the US condemn the arrest of editors and executives at Apple Daily and the freezing of its assets as the latest examples of eroding freedoms in the former Britis

Kathmandu, June 22 (PTI): The political crisis deepened in Nepal on Tuesday after the Supreme Court quashed the appointment of 20 ministers by beleaguered Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, invalidating his two Cabinet expansions since the dissolution of the House of Representatives, according to a media report. A division bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana and Justice Prakash Kumar Dhungana said that Cabinet expansions after the dissolution of the House were unconstitutiona

Beijing, June 22 (PTI): China on Tuesday politely declined UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet's call for a meaningful access to verify the serious reports of human rights violations in the restive region of Xinjiang, saying she is welcome for a "friendly visit" but not to pursue a probe with presumption of guilt . The US and the EU besides many other countries have accused China of committing a genocide against the minority Muslim Uygurs in Xinjian

Islamabad, June 22 (PTI): Prime Minister Imran Khan has ruled out hosting American bases in Pakistan for military action inside war-torn Afghanistan, fearing it might lead to his country being "targeted in revenge attacks" by terrorists. In an opinion piece in The Washington Post newspaper ahead of US President Joe Biden's meeting with top Afghan leaders at the White House later this week, Khan also questioned the efficacy of such US bases in Pakistan. "We simp