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New Delhi: A day after it came to light that Saudi Arabia was invited to join China-Pakistan...

The official theme of this year’s UN general assembly is “making the United Nations relevant to all people” but everyone attending next week’s sprawling summit in New York knows that one person is more relevant than others....

Washington: United States Secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo has warned Iran of “direct action” for any attacks on Washington in Iraq, even those using proxy forces, against US interests. In an interview to CNN, Pompeo said,...

The family of an Australian filmmaker pardoned by Cambodia after being jailed on espionage charges said on Saturday it was happy the "nightmare" came to an end, while the Australian foreign minister thanked the government in Phnom Penh for his release. ......

The United Nations humanitarian chief warned on Friday that the fight against famine is being lost in Yemen, which is already facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis with 75 per cent of its 29 million people in need of assistance. Mark Lowcock called the situation "bleak" and told the Security Council it "has deteriorated in an alarming way in recent weeks". "We may now be approaching a tipping point, beyond which it will be impossible to prevent massive loss of life as a result of widespread famine across the country," he said. "We are already seeing...

The Pakistan government on Friday expressed "deep disappointment" at India's decision to cancel a meeting scheduled between the foreign ministers of the two countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) session next week. "The government of Pakistan is deeply disappointed at the announcement made by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi today (Friday) about the cancellation of the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan, which was to be held on the sidelines of UNGA in New York," the Pakistan Foreign Office said in a statement late on Friday night. "The reasons cited by the Indian side for the decision to cancel the Foreign Ministers' meeting,...

(CNN)An employee at a Wisconsin software company opens fire at the office, wounding three coworkers and forcing others to hide under desks. A gunman wounds four people at a Pennsylvania municipal building about an hour and half later, before he's shot dead by police. The next morning a disgruntled employee fatally shoots three people and leaves three others wounded at a Rite Aid distribution center in Maryland. In a span of 24 hours this week three seemingly safe places of business in America turned into danger zones. "Three workplace active shooting attacks in just the last 24 hours should spark outrage in every American," former US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said in a statement this week Read...

China scotched trade talks with the U.S. that were planned for the coming days, according to people briefed on the matter, further dimming prospects for resolving a trade battle between the world’s two largest economies. ......

Officials in northwestern Germany declared a disaster across three towns on Friday over a wildfire which has been burning for more than two weeks, according to Deutsche Welle. The fire was ignited by a rocket test conducted on an army training site, but German firefighters have struggled to extinguish the blaze which has spread across moorland used by the German army to conduct training exercises. Smoke is now spread across more than 62 miles from the blaze and is visible on satellite images. Authorities in the German state of Lower Saxony said up to three towns near the moorland fire at the Bundeswehr testing facility may need to be evacuated if the fire continues. The head of the Emsland...

In the days after FBI Director James Comey's May 2017 firing, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein discussed wearing a "wire" to record conversations with President Donald Trump and recruiting Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, according to sources familiar with memos authored by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe documenting the discussions, CNN reported. The extraordinary allegations, depicting a panic-stricken No. 2 official at the Justice Department who has been a target of the President in the past, were first reported by The New York Times. CNN has not reviewed the McCabe memos, but they have been turned over to special counsel Robert...

Moscow and Ankara announced they reached an agreement to establish the borders of a demilitarized zone surrounding Syria's last remaining rebel enclave of Idlib on Friday, according to The AFP. Russia's top diplomat said the deal could put a hold on the assault for Idlib. "Just yesterday or the day before, the militaries of Russia and Turkey agreed on the concrete frontiers of the demilitarised zone," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with his Bosnian counterpart Igor Crnadak in Sarajevo on Friday."We are already drawing conclusions, doing all necessary not to depend on those countries that are acting that way with their international partners," Interfax quoted Lavrov...

Even though international criticism of China detaining more than a million Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region, China's domestic security chief called for strengthening the "reform through education" initiative on Friday according to state media reports. Channel NewsAsia reported secretary of the ruling Communist Party's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission Guo Shengkun said the social stability in Xinjiang "should be greatly cherished and continuously consolidated" after a four-day trip to the region, according to the official People's Daily. "We should comprehensively adopt legal education, psychological counseling and vocational training, innovate and strengthen reform through...

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's wife, Ashley, has been receiving graphic and violent threats, according to emails obtained by Fox News, following reported harassment also directed at accuser Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh himself, Fox News reports. "Please tell your rapist, lying, cheating, corrupt b---h of a husband to put a bullet in his ugly f-----g skull," one email to Kavanaugh’s wife read. "My condolences to you for being married to a rapist. Although you probably deserve it." – Email to Kavanaugh’s wife Another email, with the subject line, "Did your know your husband is a rapist?????" stated: "Hey b---h, did you know your husband was a rapist before you married him? F---...

At least 136 bodies have been retrieved from Lake Victoria in east Africa after a ferry sank on Thursday, Tanzanian officials have said. Scores more were reported missing as rescuers searched for survivors. The MV Nyerere, with a capacity to hold 101 people, had been dangerously overloaded, the government’s chief secretary John Kijazi told reporters. He ordered an investigation and said those responsible will face charges. Initial estimates suggested that the ferry was carrying as many as 300 people when it capsized near the dock in Ukerewe, Lake Victoria’s largest island. The precise number was unknown, however, because the ticket-seller had drowned and the...

British spies are likely to have hacked into Belgium’s biggest telecommunications operator for at least a two-year period on the instruction of UK ministers, a confidential report submitted by Belgian prosecutors is said to have concluded....

President Donald Trump slowed down his plan to declassify and release a large trove of sensitive documents connected to the ongoing FBI investigation concerning Russian election meddling on Friday, according to Politico. Trump tweeted how "key allies" warned him of a "perceived negative impact" on the probe by releasing the documents. "Therefore, the Inspector General ... has been asked to review these documents on an expedited basis," Trump tweeted Friday morning. "I believe he will move quickly on this (and hopefully other things which he is looking at). In the end I can always declassify if it proves necessary. Speed is very important to me — and everyone!" Trump and a number of other...

President Donald Trump attacked the credibility off the woman who accused his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were teenagers in the 1980s on Friday morning, claiming if it would have happened she would have reported the attack to her parents or law enforcement, according to The Washington Post. Trump had been relatively quiet after the accusation first surfaced last week when Christine Blasey Ford came forward to offer to testify for the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents,”...

San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN)One year ago, Maria came to Puerto Rico like a chainsaw in the sky, one hundred miles wide. On the island, The Maria Generation will remember it as 9/20, a vivid example that few things test a society's values like a massive disaster. While earthquakes and volcanoes give no warning, a hurricane can be a slow-motion stress test of national strength, smarts and cohesion. When the winds die and the clouds part, failure to prepare or respond becomes impossible to ignore. How a country counts its dead and measures its losses will shape the way it braces for the next big, bad day. Miguel Olivera, a combat veteran, here with his wife Diana Aponte, was down to his last...

Russian diplomats held secret talks in London last year with people close to Julian Assange to assess whether they could help him flee the UK, the Guardian has learned....

Since U.S. President Donald Trump made his debut at the United Nations a year ago pushing an "America First" policy, he has quit the Iran nuclear deal, the U.N. Human Rights Council and lashed out at some of the closest allies of the United States. ......

Article by WN.Com Correspondent Dallas Darling They say some Republican conservatives are reactionary. Evidently, they’re also vindictive. Some think these are just two of the many reasons why Texas’ State Board of Education (SBOE) voted to change what students in every grade are required to learn in the classroom. Led by a conservative and Christian advocacy group, Hillary Clinton is at the top of the list of names to be purged from textbooks. Didn’t Quite Pass The Test Until now, high school students have been required to learn about Clinton, who was the first woman to win a major political party’s presidential nomination. She was included in the curriculum under a section about...

Ivanka, who visited the space centre on Thursday where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted, spoke to the crew of the International Space Station. world Updated: Sep 21, 2018 15:00 IST Press Trust of India Press Trust of India, Houston Follow Story Follow Story --> Ivanka Trump, first daughter and US President’s advisor, said that it...

(CNN)Jim Fraboni is preparing for the worst as an "unheard" amount of floodwater from Hurricane Florence is slowly flowing through the Carolinas. He and his wife have seen floodwater rush in and damage his home for 22 years -- but this time feels different. They've been moving many of their belongings to the attic, hoping the water won't rise higher than their house in Horry County, South Carolina. "This is going to be a lot worse," Fraboni told CNN affiliate WBTW. A week after Hurricane Florence made landfall, the trillions of gallons of water it dumped over the Carolinas are slowly moving toward the sea and leaving a path of destruction behind. Residential streets have turned into rivers...

LONDON — Theresa May is in the midst of a serious crisis for her leadership after European leaders roundly demolished the Chequers plan she had spent the entire summer selling as the only credible plan for Brexit. Donald Tusk, European Council President, on Thursday said May's idea that the UK could stay in the single market for goods after Brexit "will not work," and had been rejected by leaders of all 27 EU member states. He later openly mocked her on Instagram, with a satirical post referring to the EU's rejection of her plans to "cherry pick" parts of the European single market. He was joined by French president Emmanuel Macron, who dismissed the entire Brexit project as being pursued by...

More than 100 bodies have been found so far after a ferry sank in Lake Victoria on Thursday, Tanzania's state radio TBC Taifa said on...

PARIS: More than half of all countries will likely fail to hit the UN target of reducing premature deaths from a quartet of chronic diseases by a third before 2030, researchers said Friday. Cancers, heart and blood-vessel disease, diabetes, and chronic respiratory disease combined to kill 12.5 million people aged 30 to 70 worldwide in 2016, they reported in a major study. “The bottom line is this: a set of commitments were made, and most countries are not going to meet them,” lead author Majid Ezzati, a professor at Imperial School London’s School of Public Health, told AFP. Only 35 nations are on track to meet UN Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 — launched in 2015 — for women,...

New Delhi: India on Thursday hailed the recent inter-Korean summit held in Pyongyang, saying that such engagement would help in reducing tensions and pave the way for long-lasting peace in the Korean Peninsula. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement, “India welcomes the just concluded inter-Korean Summit meeting held...

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel met U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, who is on a trip to Havana to discuss tense bilateral relations and other "matters of common interest", state-run media reported on Thursday. ......

WASHINGTON--The Trump administration imposed sanctions on the Chinese military on Thursday for buying fighter jets and missile systems from Russia, in breach of a sweeping U.S. sanctions law punishing Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. The U.S. State Department said it would immediately impose sanctions on China's Equipment Development Department (EDD), the branch of the Chinese military responsible for weapons and equipment, and its director, Li Shangfu, for engaging in "significant transactions" with Rosoboronexport, Russia's main arms exporter. The sanctions are related to China's purchase of 10 SU-35 combat aircraft in 2017 and S-400...

Officials raised the death toll from Tropical Storm Florence to 41 on Thursday, even as residents were still returning home to start the long process of cleaning up after the storm and local governments prepared to reach out to the federal agencies to request billions of dollars in aid to assist with their recovery efforts, according to NBC News. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster estimated his state likely suffered $1.2 billion in "financial impact," according to a letter he sent to the state's representatives in Congress. North Carolina was even harder hit with Gov. Roy Cooper calling on legislators to convene a special state assembly to properly assess the damage across the state before...

China continues to link itself to Hong Kong this week with the former British colony's first bullet train scheduled to debut this weekend, according to Reuters. The glittering harborfront railway station costs $11 billion and has ignited several controversies since unlike other border connections, Hong Kong has had to concede part of its jurisdiction to Beijing for the first time. Train passengers will have their documents stamped by Chinese immigration officers and be subject to Chinese law while zooming to the Chinese mainland at 200 kph (120 mph). Even though Hong Kong and Chinese officials have touted the benefits of the new line, critics argue it's a powerful symbol of Beijing's growing...

After Ireland officials revoked its ban on abortion earlier this week, on Thursday its health minister said women will not have to pay for abortion services in the country, according to National Public Radio. Health Minister Simon Harris said the Irish government wanted to ensure all women had access to the healthcare services and would not be forced to travel for the procedure. In an "extraordinarily historic day," Harris said after President Michael D. Higgins signed the abortion referendum bill into law on Tuesday, he confirmed, "it is my intention that the services will be free." Irish voters overwhelmingly supported reproductive freedom in May by voting for women in Ireland to have...

President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has participated over the last month in multiple interview sessions lasting for hours with investigators from the office of special counsel, Robert Mueller, sources tell ABC News. The special counsel’s questioning of Cohen, one of the president’s closest associates over the past decade, has focused primarily on all aspects of Trump's dealings with Russia – including financial and business dealings and the investigation into alleged collusion with Russia by the Trump campaign and its surrogates to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. Investigators were also...

At least 44 were declared dead but dozens more remain missing after a passenger ferry capsized in Lake Victoria near Tanzania on Thursday, according to CBC News. Officials said the death toll could be more than 200. Ukerewe District Commissioner Colonel Lucas Magembe told Reuters that the rescue mission to find survivors from the disaster had been halted until dawn on Friday. Local officials said the boat was overloaded and toppled after crowds on board the ferry moved to one side as it docked. John Mongella, the commissioner of Mwanza, said around 100 people were rescued, with 32 in critical condition, and said the ferry was carrying around 400 people. Reuters said the exact figures of...

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar has issued a stark warning to the United Kingdom, urging British leader Theresa May to “double the efforts” to avoid a no-deal Brexit and a hard border between Britain and Ireland, The Express reports. Varadkar said Ireland will remain “at the heart of Europe” as he and European Union member state leaders meet in Salzburg to discuss Brexit and immigration. Speaking ahead of today’s talks, the Irish Taoiseach revealed he held an early morning meeting with May, where he discussed Brexit and its implications for the British Isles. Despite saying the meeting was “very good”, Varadkar did not refrain from reminding his British counterpart there is not much time...

Negotiations for a high-stakes public hearing about the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh gained steam Thursday when his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at California's Palo Alto University, sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee offering to testify next week, the Los Angeles Times reported. In the letter from her attorney, Debra Katz, Ford said she was prepared to appear before the Senate next week, but ruled out Monday, when GOP leaders are currently planning to hold the hearing. They set that date without consulting Ford. She also indicated that she may be willing to testify without an FBI investigation first, though she still...

The World Health Organization announced Uganda would use a new vaccination technique against the Ebola virus on Thursday if the outbreak spreads from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been hit twice year, according to Reuters. Uganda borders the North Kivu and Ituri provinces where Ebola is believed to be the cause of 97 deaths since the latest outbreak, with another 45 people infected. One of those deaths was recorded in the Congolese city of Butembo, which is a crucial hub for mineral exports and imports from East African ports via Uganda, so the infection poses a risk to potentially spreading into Uganda. WHO issued a statement on Thursday which said the organization was...

India and Pakistan will have their first substantive engagement since their December 2015 abortive bid to restart the dialogue process in the form of a meeting between the foreign ministers on the side lines of UNGA later this month. Responding to queries on TOI's exclusive story Thursday that Pakistan PM Imran Khan had written to his counterpart Narendra Modi seeking a meeting between the foreign ministers, the external affairs ministry said India had accepted the offer at a mutually convenient date in New York. The fact that the proposal came from Pakistan PM...

A female attacker opened fire killing three people and wounding two more on Thursday at a drugstore distribution center just north of Baltimore, Maryland, according to CNN. One law enforcement official who was briefed on the incident provided the casualty toll to CNN, while two law enforcement sources briefed on the matter confirmed the shooter was a woman who opened fire at the distribution center. The shooting occurred at a Rite Aid facility about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore. Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said the suspect used a single handgun in the shooting and said while the shooter was in custody she remained in critical condition at a local hospital. The sheriff did not answer reporters'...

David Smolansky returned to the Venezuelan border last week to visit with the Organization of American States Secretary General Luis Almagro to witness the ongoing wave of migrants fleeing Venezuela after the former mayor made the same escape last year, according to The Miami Herald. Smolansky was stripped of his job as mayor of El Hatillo and was facing arrest after leading several anti-government protests so he changed his appearance by shaving his beard and head before sneaking into Brazil disguised as a missionary. He has emerged as one of the essential Venezuelan voices who left the country under Nicolas Maduro and is now speaking out against the human rights abuses in his...

(CNN)If Theresa May hoped that a two-day summit with European leaders in the birthplace of Mozart would bring harmony to the fraught Brexit process, she will have left sorely disappointed. A lavish dinner in the opulent setting of the Felsenreitschul theater in Salzburg on Wednesday evening failed to smooth the way. By Thursday, there wasn't much left but bitterness and rancour. Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, said key aspects of Brexit proposals presented by May "will not work" in their current form. Somehow, Theresa May is still standing Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said there could be "no compromise" on the integrity of the single market, the bloc's economic...

A second major landslide buried dozens of homes in Naga city in the Philippines on Thursday, killing at least 21 people and burying many more as rescuers quickly attempted to find survivors as some of the buried were sending text messages or calling relatives to ask for help, according to The Associated Press. The landslide covered nearly 30 homes spread across two rural villages just outside Naga city in the Cebu province, according to city police chief Roderick Gonzalez, who was supervising the search and rescue operation. At least seven injured villagers were rescued from the mass of debris and dirt. Gonzales said some victims were able to send text messages describing where they were...

Show me something that will shock me, I told Amira Hass. So Israel’s only journalist in the Palestinian West Bank – or Palestine, if you still believe in so unorthodox a word – took me down a road outside Ramallah that I remember as a highway which led to Jerusalem. But now, just over a hill, it deteriorates into a half tarmac road, a set of closed, rusting shop doors, and garbage. The same old summer smell of raw sewage creeps up the road. It lies, green and gentle, in a pool at the bottom of the wall. Or The Wall. Or, for more cautious scribes, the "Security Wall". Or, for more squeamish souls, the "Security Barrier". Or for even more slovenly pens, just the "Barrier". Or, if you’re really...

Madrid (CNN)Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell claims that US President Donald Trump suggested Spain should build a wall across the Sahara desert to deal with the issue of migration from Africa. Borrell made the remarks in a speech Tuesday during a lunch at Club Siglo XXI in Madrid, in reference to the expected massive growth in the number of young Africans seeking work in the next two decades. He did not specify where Trump had spoken but described it as happening "recently." "You need to build...

Stunning new research from the European Space Agency (ESA) shows the lasting impact of a near collision between the Milky Way and another...

The Washington Post reported in an effort to speed up the denuclearization process, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is anxious to hold a second summit meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Thursday upon his return to Seoul. Following his own three-day summit with the North Korean leader, Moon said Kim promised to allow external inspectors into his country to verify a missile test and launch site had been permanently dismantled and also pledged to permanently disable an important nuclear site if the United States also takes “corresponding steps,” the report said. Trump responded saying he was “very excited,” the Post reported, while Secretary of...

The man driving 129 migrants into the sea had no idea how to sail a boat. The traffickers in Libya had given him a compass and, with a gun pointed at his temple, told him to go north....

BEIRUT: Hezbollah will stay in Syria "until further notice", the leader of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday in a televised address. "We will remain there even after the Idlib accord," Nasrallah said, referring to a Russia-Turkey deal to prevent a Syrian regime...

A “nightmarish comedy” about Donald Trump, with characters including the US president, former FBI director James Comey and George W Bush, will have its world premiere at the Almeida theatre in London next year. Shipwreck is written by the US playwright Anne Washburn, who is best known for Mr Burns,...

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese digital currency exchange has been hacked, and 6.7 billion yen ($60 million) worth of cryptocurrencies are gone. Tech Bureau Corp. said Thursday a server for its Zaif exchange was...