North

North Korea fires sixth missile in three days

Seoul: North Korea fired two short-range missiles on Monday, making six launches in three days, and it condemned South Korea for criticising what it said were its legitimate military drills. South Korea's Defense Ministry said North Korea had fired one missile on Monday morning and a second one in the afternoon. Both were fired into the sea off North Korea's east coast, a ministry official said.

The launches come hard on the heels of more than two months of threats from North Korea that it would wage a nuclear war against South Korea and the United States if it were attacked.

The North condemned joint US and South Korean military exercises, that ended in late April, as a rehearsal for an attack on its territory.

"We are conducting intense military exercises to strengthen our defence capacity," North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the body that handles inter-Korean issues, as saying on Monday....more    

Heat wave sweeps across North India, Delhi sizzles

New Delhi: Heat wave swept across Northern states as temperatures on Sunday soared past 45 degrees Celsius at several places affecting normal life in the region. Churu in Rajasthan was the hottest place in the region with temperature touching 47 deg C. The national capital recorded a high of 44 deg C while mercury in parts of Punjab and Haryana shot up to 46 deg C. Delhi sizzled under a...  

North Korea fires three short-range missiles

Seoul: North Korea fired three short-range missiles from its east coast on Saturday, South Korea's Defence Ministry said, but the purpose of the launches was unknown. Launches by the North of short-term missiles are not uncommon, but the ministry would not speculate whether these latest launches were part of a test or training exercise. "North Korea fired short-range guided missiles twice in the morning and once in the afternoon off...  

Financial sanctions delay North Korea's atom bomb work: UN

United Nations: A combination of increasingly tough financial sanctions, an arms embargo and other international restrictions on trade with North Korea have not stopped Pyongyang's illicit nuclear arms program but appear to have significantly delayed it, according to a confidential report by a UN panel of experts seen by Reuters on Tuesday. "While the imposition of sanctions has not halted the development of nuclear and ballistic missile programs, it has...  

Assam govt steps up security along NE Frontier Railway after threat

New Delhi: The Assam government on Monday stepped up security on the North East Frontier Railway (NEFR) after a threat issued by a tribal group to disrupt traffic. The group, called the Adivasi People's Army, issued a threat to disrupt rail traffic at Srirampur and Kokrajhar in Assam. Kokrajhar in Assam is a sensitive area that witnessed violent clashes between different groups in 2012. Four Bodoland Territorial Administered Districts (BTAD)...  

North Korea has to pay a price for provocations: Obama

Washington: Emphasising that North Korea has to pay for its recent provocative behaviour, US President Barack Obama and his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-Hye have said that engagement process would be initiated if Pyongyang gives up its nuclear ambitions. "The key is that we will be prepared for a deterrence; that we will respond to aggression; that we will not reward provocative actions; but that we will maintain an openness...  

US seeks N Korean amnesty for American jailed for 15 years

Seoul: North Korea sentenced an American citizen to 15 years of hard labor on Thursday for crimes against the state, prompting a US call for his amnesty in hopes of avoiding him becoming a bargaining chip between the two countries. Kenneth Bae, 44, was born in South Korea but is a naturalized US citizen and studied psychology for two years at the University of Oregon. His sentencing comes after two...  

J&K: Earthquake leaves 1 dead, 69 injured

Srinagar: A 5.8 magnitude earthquake that shook Jammu and Kashmir and North India earlier in the day on Wednesday left one person dead and 69, including 32 children, across the state. An injured person was airlifted to Jammu. Scores of houses have developed cracks in the Chenab Valley. The quake had its epicentre in Doda district in the state. Tremors were felt in parts of North India as the mild...  

5.8 magnitude quake hits J&K, tremors felt in parts of North India

New Delhi: Tremors were felt in parts of North India as a mild earthquake hit Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday. The epicentre of the earthquake, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, was the border of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. "A tremor measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale was recorded at 12.27 PM today," an official of the MET office said. He said the epicentre of the earthquake was...  

NASA gets close-up views of large hurricane on Saturn

Washington: NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn's North Pole. In high-resolution pictures and video, scientists see the hurricane's eye is about 2,000 kilometres wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the hurricane are travelling 150 meters per second. The hurricane swirls inside a large, mysterious, six-sided...  

Trapped in S Korea, veteran spies still believe in North

Seoul: Park Hee-sung, a 78-year-old North Korean former agent who has been held in the enemy South for close to half a century, remains staunchly loyal to his homeland, the ruling Kim family and its Juche ideology of economic self-reliance. A trim, neat man, Park is one of around two dozen North Korean operatives trapped in exile in affluent South Korea. He lives in a charity house in central Seoul...  

Pyongyang glitters, but rest of North Korea still dark

Pyongyang: The heart of this city, once famous for its Dickensian darkness, now pulsates with neon. Glossy construction downtown has altered the Pyongyang skyline. Inside supermarkets where shopgirls wear French designer labels, people with money can buy Italian wine, Swiss chocolates, kiwifruit imported from New Zealand and fresh-baked croissants. They can get facials, lie in tanning booths, play a round of mini golf or sip cappuccinos and cocktails while listening...  

Punjab government will honour top VAT payers: Sukhbir

Chandigarh: Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday said the VAT collections in Punjab had more than doubled in the past five years and was likely to touch Rs 16,000 crore in 2013. Honouring "Achievers of North India" at a function in Chandigarh, he announced his government would honour 635 top VAT payers who were "virtually" sustaining the economy of Punjab. Badal said similar functions would also be organised...  

North Korea charges US man in plot to overthrow regime

Pyongyang: North Korea announced on Saturday that an American detained for nearly six months is being tried in the Supreme Court on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, a crime that could draw the death penalty if he is convicted. The case involving Kenneth Bae, who has been in North Korean custody since early November 2012, further complicates already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington following weeks of heightened...  

Chit fund scam: WB Minister denies any link with Sudipta Sen

Transport minister and senior TMC leader Madan Mitra said that he was never the president of any employees association of the Saradha Group. ...

WB, NE a hotbed of investment frauds: probe

New Delhi: Amid a raging controversy over alleged cheating of gullible investors by Saradha group, the regulators have found that West Bengal and Northeastern states have become a hotbed of such frauds and NRIs from these regions account for a large chunk of defrauded people. While the Centre has announced an SFIO (Serious Fraud Investigation Office) probe into the affairs of Kolkata-based Saradha group and other such entities across the...  

6.2 magnitude quake hits Afghanistan, tremors felt in Pak, India

New Delhi: An earthquake measuring 6.2 on the richter scale hit Afghanistan on Wednesday. Tremors were also felt in parts of Pakistan including Lahore, Abbotabad, Sargodha, Islamabad, Kasur, Peshawar, Swat and Parachinar as well as in North India including New Delhi and Kashmir. There were no initial reports of any damages. While the Pakistan Met department put the magnitude of the earthquake at 6.2, the USGS put its magnitude at...  

CPI-M for central intervention in chit fund muddle

Kolkata: Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Asim Dasgupta on Sunday urged the central government to step in and launch a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the collapse of chit fund-funded company Saradha Group. Dasgupta, a noted economist who held the finance portfolio for 24 years during the Left Front rule, also rejected allegations that chit fund companies had flourished during the LF regime. "My question...  

North Korea moves two more missile launchers: Report

Seoul: North Korea has moved two short-range missile launchers to its east coast, apparently indicating it is pushing ahead with preparations for a test launch, a South Korean news agency reported on Sunday. South Korea and its allies have been expecting some sort of North Korean missile launch during weeks of heightened hostility on the Korean peninsula. An unidentified South Korean military source told the South's Yonhap news agency that...  

Chit fund scam: Investors demand refund

Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee's government feels the heat as one of the largest chit fund companies in West Bengal collapses. Fearing a backlash from upset investors, thousands of the Saradha Group agents have gathered in Kolkata seeking state government's intervention. But the company's proximity to the Trinamool Congress has put the government in a corner. "If the government does something for us, then it's fine. Then they'll get votes else we...