Asian Lite News Archive

Category: World News

  • Show flexibility in n-deal: Iran

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    Iran has exhibited the necessary flexibility during the course of nuclear negotiations, calling on the P5+1 group of world powers to take the turn and the final steps, said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. “We have come close to sensitive days. Iran has shown the crucial flexibility during the talks, and now it is the opposite…

  • Sharif assures support to King Salman

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    Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has told Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz that he will soon send a high-level delegation to Riyadh to discuss cooperation for the Saudi-led strikes on Yemen, a top diplomat said. Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry told a press conference late on Saturday that the delegation could depart within 24 to…

  • Australia to join Asian bank

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    Australia has decided to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which will allow it to become a founding member of the bank, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said. In a joint statement with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Treasurer Joe Hockey, Abbott said the MoU would enable Australia “to…

  • Lee was among the tallest leaders: Modi

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    Prime Minister Narendra Modi  described Singapore’s founder prime minister Lee Kuan Yew as “among the tallest leaders of our times”. Modi arrived in Singapore early Sunday to join a host of world leaders for the funeral of Lee, who died at the age of 91 on Monday after a long battle with pneumonia. “The passing…

  • Apple boss to donate millions to charity

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    American multinational Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook has announced that he will donate millions of dollars of his wealth to charity before he dies, a media report said . Cook said he would leave his wealth, worth over $800 million, to philanthropic causes after paying for his 10-year-old nephew’s college education, BBC reported citing a…

  • Air Strikes to continue: King Salman

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    Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud said  that the Saudi-led military airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen will continue until security is restored in the country. “The Decisive Storm Operation will continue until the Yemeni people enjoy security and stability,” the Saudi king told the 26th session of the Arab Summit presided over…

  • India puts navigation satellite in orbit

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    By Venkatachari Jagannathan  India successfully put into orbit its fourth navigation satellite with its own rocket in copy book style. Exactly at 5.19 p.m, the rocket – Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle – (PSLV-C27) standing about 44 metres tall and weighing around 320 tonne, tore into the evening skies with fierce orange flames at its tail.…

  • Facebook tests laser drones in Britain

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    If Facebook has its way, there would soon be huge solar-powered drones — with the wingspan of a commercial airliner — beaming down internet in the remotest of areas. Facebook has been testing such drones in the skies over England, according to its CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The drones use lasers to beam internet access down…

  • Russian spacecraft docks at ISS

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     A Russian Soyuz spacecraft, with three crew on board, docked with the International Space Station (ISS), a media report said. According to a statement issued by American space agency NASA, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, 54, and American astronaut Scott Kelly, 52, are to spend 342 days aboard the orbiting laboratory – about twice as long…

  • Obama support Saudi action in Yemen

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    US President Barack Obama spoke with Saudi King Salman, discussing recent developments in Yemen and emphasised the US support for the action taken by Saudi Arabia and Gulf Cooperation Council members, the White House has said in a statement. Both agreed that their goal is to achieve lasting stability in Yemen through a negotiated political…

  • Iran nuclear talks in final stage

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    Delegates from major powers and Iran continued nuclear talks into its final stretch to ink a framework agreement ahead of a March 31 deadline. After 90 minutes of negotiations with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters: “Our feeling is that we certainly will be able to reach…

  • UAE jets join Saudi campaign in Yemen

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    The United Arab Emirates (UAE) military command has said here a number of fighter jets joining the Saudi-led “Decisive Storm” air campaign on some positions of Shiite Houthi group in Yemen. Reports said the UAE fighter jets struck command and control centers, and supply centers in Yemen’s oil producing Marib region, Xinhua reported citing state…

  • China to renew Silk Belt

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    China unveiled the principles, framework, and cooperation priorities and mechanisms in its Silk Belt and Road initiative in a bid to enhance regional connectivity and embrace a brighter future together, Xinhua reported. The vision and action on jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, an initiative raised by Chinese President…

  • US economic growth slows in fourth quarter

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    US economic growth decelerated in the fourth quarter of 2014 and is likely to slow further in the first quarter of 2015 despite robust consumer spending, the US Commerce Department said on Friday, a media report said. The US economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter, unchanged from the second…

  • Saudi influence on oil price to decline

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      With Saudi Arabia moving beyond its long-held role as a simple exporter of crude oil and reshaping itself as a supplier of refined petroleum products, the kingdom will be less able to influence prices and balance global oil markets, a study says. The paper, published in the journal Energy Policy, examined the growth of…

  • VAJPAYEE: A giant in Indian politics

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    In the six decades he was in electoral politics, the now ailing Atal Bihari Vajpayee, presented the Bharat Ratna on Friday, catapulted from one who lost one election after another to a colossus who eventually became India’s only non-Congress prime minister to last a full five years in office. In the short but tumultuous period…

  • Ban Ki-moon warns of biological weapons threat

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     UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the whole world to continue to remain vigilant against the threat of biological weapons despite the progress made by the international community in preventing their spread, media reported on Friday. In his message marking the 40th anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Biological Weapons Convention, the secretary-general…

  • Germanwings fallout brings new cockpit rules

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    Air New Zealand  joined other global airlines in stipulating that two crew members would have to be present at all times in the cockpit, amid allegations that a co-pilot willfully crashed a passenger jet earlier this week, locking the pilot out of the cockpit. Prosecutors indicated on Thursday that the co-pilot of Germanwings flight 4U…

  • Venezuela ready for dialogue with US

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    Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said Venezuela is ready to initiate dialogue with the US based on mutual respect and equality, and that he is prepared to speak directly with US President Barack Obama on this basis, Spanish news agency Efe reported. “Venezuela is ready for a dialogue based on respect and in terms of…

  • Facebook to roll out suicide prevention tools

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    Popular social media site Facebook will introduce suicide prevention and support tools for vulnerable Australian users in the coming months, a company official has said. The initiative, which was welcomed by mental health groups when it was unveiled in the US earlier this year, allows users to report concerning online posts, The Brisbane Times reported.…

  • Co-Pilot deliberately crashed aircraft

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    The co-pilot of a plane which crashed in the Alps activated the descent button and refused to open the cockpit door to the pilot. Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin says the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, 28, was alone at the controls of the Germanwings flight and “intentionally” sent the plane into the doomed descent reports Sky News.…

  • Bibi begins talks to form government

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      Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  began negotiations for the formation of the next government, a process that will continue at best until the second half of April. Negotiations kicked off with delegates of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, which won the March 17 elections with 30 seats, to be followed by a series of meetings in…

  • Iran condemns Saudi-led air strikes

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    Iran condemned Saudi Arabia-led air strikes on Yemen, urging an immediate end to the military strikes against the country, media reported. Describing the move as an aggression, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Marzieh Afkham said launching military strikes against Yemen would complicate the crisis in the country and kill opportunities for peaceful resolution to the crisis…

  • Saudi offensive in Yemen gets support

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    Jordan, Sudan, Morocco, Egypt and Pakistan have declared their willingness to participate in Saudi Arabia’s ‘Al-Hazm against the Shia Houthi militia in Yemen, Saudi Press Agency reported. Arabia and its Gulf region allies launched military operations including airstrikes in Yemen to counter the Shia Houthis besieging the southern city of Aden. Gulf broadcaster al-Arabiya TV…

  • US airstrikes support Iraqi efforts

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    The US has begun airstrikes to support Iraqi government efforts to recapture the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, overcoming earlier resistance to its intervention, Efe news agency reported. “At the request of the government of Iraq, coalition forces are providing support to Iraqi security forces as they combat ISIL (as…

  • Pakistan examining Saudi request for Yemen operation

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    Pakistan  said it was examining Saudi Arabia’s request to join the Gulf-led operation against Shia Houthi militias in Yemen. Advisor to Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz confirmed that top Saudi officials had contacted the Pakistani leadership requesting it to join the Yemen operation, Dawn online reported. A decision has not…

  • Pilot locked out of cockpit before crash: Report

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      One of the two pilots of the crashed Germanwings flight may have been locked out of the cockpit before the plane crashed in the French Alps, the New York Times reported. The report quoted a senior military official involved in the investigation as saying that evidence from a cockpit voice recorder indicated that the…

  • FBI to track hate crimes

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    Six US lawmakers along with leading advocacy groups have welcomed the inclusion of Sikh, Hindu, and Arab American communities in the Department of Justice’s hate crimes tracking effort. This is the final step in the long-fought effort to encourage the US federal government to finally begin tracking and quantifying hate crimes against these at-risk communities,…

  • Britain’s Gentle Giant Dares Asian Fayalwans

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    Eddie Hall, UK’s strongest man, is challenges Asian fayalwans (strongman) to test their might in Britain or in their home turf. British-Asian millionaire businessman Mo Chaudhry offers cash prize for the winner…writes Kaliph Anaz   Eddie Hall, UK’s strongest man, is challenges Asian fayalwans (strongman) to test their might in Britain or in their home turf. Mo…

  • India votes against gay rights for UN staff

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    India was among 43 countries which voted in favour of a Russia-drafted resolution that proposed doing away with benefits for same-sex partners of the United Nations staff. India said that UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon, a strong proponent of gay rights, had “of his own accord” changed the existing rules without consulting member countries. The…

  • Germanwings crash probe begins

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      A probe was launched  into the crash of an Airbus A320 of a German budget airline with 150 people on board in southern France while flying from Spain’s Barcelona to Germany’s Dusseldorf. A plane operated by Germanwings, the budget carrier of Germany’s Lufthansa airlines, crashed on Tuesday in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the southern French Alps…

  • Obama sees Palestinian state sabotaged by Bibi

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    US President Barack Obama has said that “it’s hard to envision” the creation of a Palestinian state after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent remarks rejecting the idea, and that the possibilities of a lasting peace right now are “very dim”. “There still does not appear to be a prospect of a meaningful framework established…

  • Search operations resume in the French Alps

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    The search operations for an Airbus A320 of a German budget airline with 150 people on board which crashed on Tuesday in southern France while flying from Spain’s Barcelona to Germany’s Dusseldorf, resumed on Wednesda. A plane operated by Germanwings, the budget carrier of Germany’s Lufthansa airlines crashed in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the southern French Alps…

  • ISIS releases Bangladeshi hostages in Libya

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    Two Bangladeshis, who were held hostage by the Islamic State (IS) terror group in Libya, have been released after 18 days, the foreign ministry here has confirmed. Helal Uddin of Jamalpur and Mohammed Anowar Hossain of Noakhali were released on Tuesday evening and were taken to Libya’s Sirte hospital for check-up, bdnews24 reported. The physical…

  • Cancer treatment breakthrough by NRI professor

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    Queen’s University cancer researcher Madhuri Koti has discovered a biomarker that will help lead to better predictions of the success of chemotherapy in ovarian cancer patients. Biomarkers are an indicator of a biological state or condition, and the discovery could lead to better treatment options in the fight against ovarian cancer, according to a press…

  • 148 feared dead as jet crashes in France

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     An Airbus A320 of a German low-cost airline with 148 people on board crashed  in southern France while flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, with French President Francois Hollande saying no survivors are expected. There are “likely many German victims”, Hollande said in a tweet from the presidential place. Germanwings flight 4U9525 crashed around 11 a.m.…

  • FBI hunting for Indian cyber-fugitive

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    Declaring Shivraj Singh Dabi, an Indian national, a cyber-fugitive, the FBI has put him on its most wanted list with posters in English, Punjabi and Hindi seeking information about him. Wanted by the FBI notice put out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation accuses Dabi, 42, of “Unlawful Flight to Avoid Confinement – Computer Crimes”…

  • Bibi feels the heat

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    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  apologised to the Arab Israelis in a bid to walk back his controversial comment made at the height of last week’s parliamentary election. In a statement, Netanyahu made the apology to members of the Arab community in an apparent attempt to heal rifts and quell criticism from home and abroad,…

  • Obama vows L-1B visa reforms

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    By Arun Kumar   Declaring that “America is proudly open for business”, President Barack announced plans to reform the L-1B visa category to allow global corporations to temporarily move workers to the US in a faster, simpler way. “And this could benefit hundreds of thousands of non-immigrant workers and their employers; that, in turn, will benefit…

  • Britain accuse Israel of land grab

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     Israeli settlers are colonising Palestinian territory under the guise of protecting archaeological sites, the British government has said, according to media reports. British ministers have warned that the Israeli government agency responsible for preserving historic artefacts is undermining efforts for peace in the region by working with a group of “radical” settlers, The Independent reported…

  • Sri Lanka gives back land to Tamils

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      President Maithripala Sirisena handed back land held by the military to its rightful owners in north Sri Lanka. The president assured Tamils in the minority Tamil-dominated North that the land issue would be resolved and the land used as High Security Zones will be returned, Xinhua news agency reported. During the 30-year civil war,…

  • N-deal needs revocation of sanctions: Khamenei

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      Removal of anti-Iran sanctions should be part of any possible nuclear deal between Iran and western countries, said Iranian top leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. Anti-Iran sanctions should be discussed as a part of nuclear negotiations and should not be considered a result of those talks, state-run news agency IRNA cited Khamenei as saying…

  • Obama explores other avenues for a Palestinian state

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    The United States is exploring other options in its efforts to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace in light of the Israeli prime minister’s recent harmful campaign statements, President Barack Obama said. The president said that he had called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to voice his displeasure at the latter’s opposition to a Palestinian state and…

  • Substantial progress in Iran talks: Kerry

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    US Secretary of State John Kerry said that “substantial progress” has been made in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme. Kerry’s remarks came a day after the P5+1 countries — the US, China, Russia, France, Britain, plus Germany — and Iran suspended their week-long negotiations, without having reached a framework agreement ahead of the March 31…

  • Obama to ‘reassess’ Israel ties

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    The US will “reassess” aspects of its relationship with Israel after Benjamin Netanyahu’s provocative statements leading up to Israeli elections, President Barack Obama told the Israeli prime minister during a phone call. The phone call on Thursday was officially described as a message of congratulations on Netanyahu’s victory, but it also carried a serious warning…

  • Turkey deports Syria-bound British women

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    A British woman, who was detained in Ankara on the suspicion that she was trying to cross into Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, was deported from Turkey to Britain, Xinhua news agency reported citing the state-run Anatolia news service. Jalila Nadra H., 22, was detained by Turkish police in a counter-terrorism…

  • Boko Haram attack kills 10 in Nigeria

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    At least 10 people were killed in an attack carried out by the Boko Haram militants in a Nigeria-Cameroon border town in Borno state, a security source said . The attack was carried out in Gamboru town on Wednesday, barely three weeks after Boko Haram fighters were dislodged by Chadian soldiers on regional cooperation, Xinhua…

  • Obama urges Iran to grab ‘historic chance’

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    US President Barack Obama called on Iranian leaders not to miss a “historic opportunity” to reach a reasonable nuclear deal, saying such a moment “may not come again soon”. In a video message to mark Nowruz (Persian New Year), Obama on Thursday said this is “the best opportunity in decades to pursue a different future…

  • Briton among victims of Tunisia attack

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    Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond  confirmed that a British woman, Sally Jane Adey, was among those killed in the shooting at the Bardo Museum in Tunis. “I can confirm the death of a British woman in yesterday’s (Wednesday) terrorist attack in Tunisia. Consular staff are providing assistance to her family. My thoughts are with them…

  • ISIS committed genocide in Iraq: UN

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      The Islamic State (IS) may have committed all three of the most heinous international offences, namely war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, according to a report issued by the UN high commissioner for human rights. Genocide is a “manifest pattern of similar conduct aimed at the destruction” of a particular group, the report…