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....
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03:17 PM, May 20, 2013
Washington: US President Barack Obama has asked Americans to be more competitive as millions of young people from countries like India, China and Brazil are joining the global workforce. "In today's hyper-connected, hyper-competitive world, with millions of young people from China and India and Brazil - many of whom started with a whole lot less than all of you did - all of them entering the global workforce alongside you,...
12:16 PM, May 20, 2013
Washington: A US-based Sikh group on Monday said that it will challenge the decision of an American district court last week to dismiss alleged human rights violations case against Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The Sikh for Justice (SFJ) had filed the case of alleged human rights violations against Badal in 2012, but it was dismissed by a US district court in Wisconsin last Friday. The group said it...
11:40 AM, May 20, 2013
Singapore: Gold fell for an eighth straight session on Monday to its weakest level in over a month, as fears that the US Federal Reserve may wind back its economic stimulus programme hurt the metal's appeal as a hedge against inflation. Investors have been dumping gold, which is down 20 per cent so far this year, as stocks and the dollar continue to outperform. If gold closes in the red...
11:30 AM, May 20, 2013
Washington: Tornadoes tore through three central American states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa with baseball-sized hail and wind blasts ripping roofs off homes and turning trees to matchsticks, as severe weather swept the region. A large "violent and extremely dangerous" tornado was spotted on Sunday night on the southwest side of Wichita, Kansas and a second confirmed one was seen near Edmond, Oklahoma, the National Weather Service said. Another tornado...
11:17 AM, May 20, 2013
New Delhi: Lingering row between CIL and power producers such as NTPC is casting a shadow over 10 per cent divestment plans in the coal major as its parent ministry has reservations about stake sale till issues, like Rs 9,000 crore dues owed by electricity utilities, are resolved. "Coal Ministry in a letter to the Department of Disinvestment (DoD) has said that going ahead with the stake sale process in...
12:11 PM, May 19, 2013
Beirut: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says he won't step down before elections are held in his war-ravaged country. The Syrian leader's comments, published on Saturday in the Argentine newspaper Clarin, highlight the difficulties the US and Russia face in getting the Assad regime and Syria's political opposition to the table at an international conference envisioned for next month. The country's main opposition group has demanded that these talks lead to...
07:50 AM, May 19, 2013
Cape Canaveral: An automated telescope monitoring the moon has captured images of an 88-pound (40 kg) rock slamming into the lunar surface, creating a bright flash of light, NASA scientists said on Friday. The explosion on March 17, 2013 was the biggest seen since NASA began watching the moon for meteoroid impacts about eight years ago. So far, more than 300 strikes have been recorded. "It exploded in a flash...
06:53 AM, May 19, 2013
A report on Friday night from WBBH, an NBC television affiliate in Fort Myers, Fla., said Phelps will return to swimming with an eye toward competing at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The three-paragraph story on the station's Web site was posted by news anchor Peter Busch, who is the son of Frank Busch, director of the U.S. national swim team. "The greatest Olympian of all time isn't hanging up his...
12:32 PM, May 18, 2013
London: Four more people in China have died from a new strain of bird flu, bringing the death toll from the H7N9 virus to 36 from 131 confirmed cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday. The United Nations health agency said the four deaths were from cases that had already been identified in laboratories. Since May 8, there have been no new cases of infection with H7N9, it...
11:30 AM, May 18, 2013
Washington: Opening up the prospects of export of shale gas to energy starved India, the US today granted conditional authorization to export domestically produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) to nations that do not have Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with it. In a decision, which has major implications for India, the Department of Energy announced that that it has conditionally authorized Freeport LNG Expansion, LP and FLNG Liquefaction, LLC (Freeport) to...
11:10 AM, May 18, 2013
Geneva: The number of Syrian refugees, who are either registered or awaiting registration, has surpassed 1.5 million, while the actual number is much higher, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The increasingly widening gap between needs and available resources is a growing challenge, reported Xinhua citing UNHCR's spokesperson Dan McNorton on Friday . "Over the past four months, we have seen a rapid deterioration compared to the previous 20...
10:59 AM, May 18, 2013
David Beckham's longevity and his ability to reinvent himself were "absolutely incredible", retiring Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has said. Beckham and Ferguson, who were synonymously linked with Manchester United until the former England captain moved to Real Madrid, both announced in the past 10 days they would retire from soccer at the end of the current season. The 71-year-old Ferguson's final game in charge after 26 years at Old...
09:31 AM, May 18, 2013
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to travel to Washington in a few months at the invitation of US President Barack Obama. Obama's invitation to Singh was delivered by US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns during his recent visit here, sources said. Singh has accepted the invitation and will be travelling to Washington, the sources said. The Prime Minister's visit to Washington could be clubbed with his...
09:20 AM, May 18, 2013
New Orleans: Residents of one of America's most violent cities cheered six arrests in a Mother's Day parade shooting that left 19 people wounded and three in critical condition. Two New Orleans brothers were booked with 20 counts each of attempted second-degree murder in Sunday's shooting spree. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who strongly promotes the city's tourism industry, including the annual Mardi Gras celebration, said the arrests are the latest evidence...
08:00 AM, May 18, 2013
Beirut: The United States chided Russia for sending missiles to the Syrian government as plans for a peace conference promoted by Washington and Moscow were hit by diplomatic rifts over its scope and purpose. Sectarian bloodshed in neighbouring Iraq during Friday prayers, a hacking attack on a Western newspaper by sympathisers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and defiant comments by a rebel commander filmed eating a slain soldier's flesh were...
07:35 AM, May 18, 2013
Boston: A judge has rejected a request from lawyers for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who want to take periodic photos of him in prison. US Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler on Friday said the prison where Tsarnaev is housed has a policy against visitors bringing cameras. Tsarnaev's lawyers argued the photos could provide evidence on the voluntariness of his statements and be used in an argument to mitigate his...
07:15 AM, May 18, 2013
Washington: An Indian has been sentenced to three years of imprisonment on charges of trafficking immigrants from India into the United States, the Department of Justice said. Kaushik Jayantibhai Thakkar, 33, along with Brazilian national Fabiano Augusto Amorim were sentenced on Friday to serve 36 months in prison for their roles in smuggling undocumented migrants to the US for private financial gain, the Acting Assistant US Attorney General Mythili Raman...
06:27 AM, May 18, 2013
New Delhi: Delhi Police on Friday claimed to have smashed an IPL betting racket and arrested one person in theis connection. The arrest came following a tip off that one Pawan Arora was allegedly organising betting in his rented house in Rani Bagh during the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Pune Warriors . Arora was arrested. Police said a decoy customer was sent who offered a deal to the...
02:55 AM, May 18, 2013
