Category: WORLD NEWS

Trump administration officials say there will be no more conditions imposed on North Korea before a first-ever meeting of the two nation’s leaders beyond the North’s promise not to resume nuclear testing and missile flights or publicly criticize US-South Korean military exercises. The officials’ comments yesterday followed the surprise announcement last week that President Donald Trump has agreed to meet the North’s Kim Jong Un by May. “This potential meeting has been agreed to, there are no additional conditions being stipulated, but, again they they cannot engage in missile testing,…

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A pair of Indonesian Islamic universities are pushing female students to ditch niqab face veils — with one threatening expulsion for non-compliance — as concerns grow over rising fundamentalism in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation. Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University said it issued the edict this week to more than three dozen niqab-wearing students, who will be booted from school if they refuse. Although niqabs are common in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states, they’re rare in secular Indonesia, where around 90 percent of its 260 million people…

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A super luxury yacht owned by embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya has been seized by authorities in Malta over unpaid wages amounting to USD 1 million to its crew, including some Indians, according to an international traders union. Nautilus International said the 95-metre vessel named ‘Indian Empress’ was “arrested” to recover over USD 330,000 unpaid wages and other costs on behalf of its members. Mallya, who is facing an extradition trial in London on fraud and money laundering charges involving his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines’ default of bank loans amounting to…

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A former adult film actress has sued US President Donald Trump, claiming that his lawyer forced her to sign a statement in 2016 to stop her from going public about her alleged relationship with the then Republican-presidential candidate. Stephanie Clifford, who is known as Stormy Daniels in the adult film industry, filed a lawsuit in a California State court yesterday. Running into 28 pages, the lawsuit alleges that she was paid USD 130,000 by Michael Cohen, personal lawyer of Trump, to not to go public with her alleged sexual encounters…

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Popular TV host Jimmy Kimmel has slammed US President Donald Trump over his Oscars ratings comments and called him the “lowest rated President in history”. After the 90th Academy Awards wrapped up this Sunday, Trump took a jibe at the low TV ratings of the ceremony with a tweet that the problem with the Oscars is “we don’t have stars anymore”, except him. Kimmel, who hosted the Oscars for the second time, got back at the POTUS tweeting, “Thanks, lowest rated President in HISTORY.” He later followed up his reply…

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An explosion in a Polish mini-supermarket in Leicester that killed five people, including three members of an Indian-origin family, was caused by petrol which was spread throughout the premises, a UK court was told. Zabka mini-supermarket and a flat above were completely destroyed in the blast on the evening of February 25, killing members of the Ragoobeer family who had moved to the UK from Mauritius. Three men charged with arson and manslaughter appeared before Leicester Magistrates Court and were remanded in custody to appear before Leicester Crown Court on…

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Air India has been allowed by Saudi Arabia to fly over its territory on its new route from New Delhi to Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today, an unprecedented move which would reduce travel time between the two cities by two and a half hours. India’s national carrier Air India is scheduled to begin its direct flight between New Delhi and Tel Aviv in few weeks from now. Interacting with reporters after his meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, Netanyahu said that Air…

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A US aircraft carrier arrived in Vietnam today for the first time since the end of the war, as the former foes bolster military ties in the face of Beijing’s build-up in the disputed South China Sea. The USS Carl Vinson will make a four-day port call to the central city of Danang for a highly symbolic trip that will include a visit to a centre for victims of Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant sprayed over large swathes of land by the US during the Vietnam war. But ongoing tensions…

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Turkish air force hit two positions of pro-government Syrian fighters deployed last week in the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, killing and wounding a number of fighters in an escalation of violence in a region where Turkey has been on the offensive for more than a month, Syrian activists said Friday. Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters have been on the offensive in Afrin since Jan. 20 against Syrian Kurdish fighters. Ankara has also warned Damascus not to send fighters to the area, saying it would target them. Turkey considers Syrian…

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