The UN envoy to Yemen called for the extension of a five-day pause in a Saudi-led air war which was due to end later Sunday expressing hope it could become permanent. "I call on all parties to renew their commitment to this truce for five more days at least," Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told a meeting on Yemen in the Saudi capital. "This humanitarian truce should turn into a permanent ceasefire,&quo
A US special forces raid in eastern Syria killed 32 members of the Islamic State jihadist group, including four leaders, a monitoring group said Sunday. "The US operation killed 32 members of IS, among them four officials, including IS oil chief Abu Sayyaf, the deputy IS defence minister, and an IS communications official," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. US officials have
Islamic State militants clashed with security forces inside Iraq's largest refinery on Thursday and held on to recent gains in the west of the country, as Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the extremist group remained "very, very dangerous". The insurgents suffered a major defeat this month when Iraqi troops and Shi'ite paramilitaries routed them from the city of Tikrit, but are now striking back at Baiji refinery
Kenya has begun three days of mourning following the massacre of over 100 students by militant group al-Shabab. Easter ceremonies will be held to remember the 148 victims of the attack on Garissa University, and flags are expected to fly at half-mast. President Uhuru Kenyatta has vowed to respond to the attack "in the severest ways possible". Sunni Islam's most respected seat of learning, Cairo's al-Azhar Un
UNITED NATIONS/ADEN (Reuters) - Russia and the Red Cross appealed on Saturday for a military pause in Yemen to allow urgent humanitarian aid deliveries and evacuation of civilians after 10 days of Saudi-led air strikes and fighting in which hundreds of people have died. Russia distributed a draft resolution at the United Nations pressing for suspensions of the air strikes to allow evacuation of foreign civilians and diplomats, and demanding ra
DUBAI/BEIRUT (Reuters) - All United Nations Security Council resolutions related to Iran's nuclear program will be lifted immediately if a final deal is agreed, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday, stressing the benefits to Iran of this week's negotiations. After leading Iranian negotiators to a preliminary deal with world powers in Switzerland, Zarif must now convince a domestic audience that the talks are heading t
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Almost all Shi'ite paramilitaries had left Tikrit on Saturday after locals complained that some fighters had spent several days looting the Sunni city after helping retake it from Islamic State. "Most of the (paramilitaries) were removed from the city," said Ahmed al-Kraim, the head of the council of Tikrit and its province Salahuddin. The rampage of theft and burning began on Wednesday, within hours of the
BEIJING (Reuters) - China executed three accused separatists on Tuesday for their role in an attack that killed 31 people at a train station in the southwest last year, a court said. The government has said the attack, in the southwestern city of Kunming, was carried out by knife-wielding separatists from the far western region of Xinjiang, which is strategically located on the borders of Central Asia. The three men who we
YANGON (Reuters) – - A senior member of Myanmar's government has said members of the U.S.-based Carter Center and the European Union will be invited to monitor a general election later this year, the first time in at least 65 years that the country will call in Western poll observers. "We'll allow the Carter foundation and EU to observe the upcoming general election independently to ensure the election takes p
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The people of Syria feel "increasingly abandoned by the world" as global attention focuses on Islamic State militants, while violence and government bureaucracy hinder attempts to deliver aid to 12 million people, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said on Monday. In his 13th monthly report to the United Nations Security Council on Syria, Ban said a lack of accountability during the four-year civil war h
Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Wednesday to form a new governing coalition quickly after an upset election victory that was built on a shift to the right and drew an immediate rebuke from the White House.
Damascus (AFP) - Syria's military shot down a US drone over the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad, state media said on Tuesday. The US military confirmed that it had lost communication with an unarmed Predator drone over northwest Syria on Tuesday and was looking into the claims it was brought down. If confirmed, it would be the first time that Syrian forces have attacked a US aircraft since the coal
London (AFP) - Nigeria has begun the "final onslaught" against Boko Haram, the country's national security spokesman said on Tuesday, after the militants were ousted from the strategic town of Bama. On a visit to London, Mike Omeri told AFP that "significant strategic military successes and gains" had been made against the Islamists in recent weeks. "Bama (the second biggest town in Borno state) was retaken yest
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Close to a million demonstrators marched in cities and towns across Brazil on Sunday to protest a sluggish economy, rising prices and corruption - and to call for the impeachment of left-wing President Dilma Rousseff. The protests in the continent-sized country come as Brazil struggles to overcome economic and political malaise and pick up the pieces of a boom that crumbled about the time Rousseff took office in
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif resumed nuclear talks on Monday in the Swiss city of Lausanne to try to narrow gaps before a March 31 deadline for a political agreement. The meeting included U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi, who also met on Sunday to negotiate technical details on how to curb Iran's nucle
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Navy's Northern Fleet and paratrooper units to be on full alert as part of snap military exercises, state-owned RIA news agency cited the defence minister as saying on Monday. The tests were due to include nearly 40,000 servicemen, 41 warships and 15 submarines, RIA reported. C: Russian President Vladimir Putin walks in to attend a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Ma
Ukrainian government forces engaged with a separatist armored column near the southeastern town of Novoazovsk, about 10 km (6 miles) from the Russian border, Ukraine's military information service said on Monday.
Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden told a U.S. television interviewer on Wednesday he was not under the control of Russia's government and had given Moscow no intelligence documents after nearly a year of asylum there.
The military has ruled Thailand since a coup on May 22 and analysts have said General Prayuth Chan-ocha, who leads the ruling military council, could remain the country's leader until a general election tentatively due in the second half of 2015.
Iraq's president named a new prime minister to end Nuri al-Maliki's eight-year rule on Monday, but the veteran leader refused to go after deploying militias and special forces on the streets, creating a dangerous political showdown in Baghdad.
President Barack Obama said on Thursday he had authorized U.S. air strikes to blunt the onslaught of Islamist militants in northern Iraq and began airdrops of supplies to besieged religious minorities to prevent a "potential act of genocide."
A train carrying the remains of many of the 298 victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 arrived in a Ukrainian government-held city on Tuesday on the first leg of their final journey home to be reclaimed by their families.
Israeli air strikes killed eight members of a family including five children in a pre-dawn raid on Gaza on Thursday, Palestinian officials said, while Hamas-led fighters launched rockets at Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities.
President Barack Obama said on Thursday he was sending up to 300 U.S. military advisers to Iraq but stressed the need for a political solution to the Iraqi crisis as government forces battled Sunni rebels for control of the country's biggest refinery.
Tourist arrivals surpass 63,000 in first half of October
EDB gets new chief
Colombo welcomes Cinnamon Life
New Board of Directors appointed for SriLankan Airlines
Hareendra Dissabandara appointed Chairman of Sri Lanka SEC
Pali, accorded the status of ‘Classical language’ in India
Fuel deal without competitive bidding risks corruption, expert warns
SriLankan Captain resigns after cockpit lockout incident