HONG KONG: Hong Kong`s Cathay Pacific on Wednesday announced plans to buy 30 new planes for almost eight billion US dollars, underlining the carrier`s expansion as it reported strong first-half profits.In a statement to Hong Kong`s stock exchange, Cathay said the total catalogue price for

CHARSADDA: Desperate survivors crushed into relief centres Wednesday after Pakistan`s worst floods in living memory as officials feared a food crisis could compound the humanitarian disaster.With over three million people affected by the flooding, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told

MARBELLA:  US First Lady Michelle Obama and her nine-year-old daughter Sasha arrived Wednesday on Spain`s Mediterranean coast for a vacation with friends at a luxury hotel where they have booked 60 rooms.The pair and their entourage arrived at the Hotel Villa Padierna in the hills above

TEHRAN - A grenade exploded on Wednesday near the motorcade of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the western city of Hamedan, but the Iranian president was unhurt, a conservative website reported."This morning a hand grenade exploded next to a vehicle carrying reporters accompanying the president in

ADAYSSEH: Israeli troops on Wednesday uprooted trees along the border with Lebanon, completing an operation interrupted by a deadly gunbattle with Lebanese soldiers, an AFP correspondent witnessed. The troops were seen using a crane that reached over a fence in a disputed border area

LONDON: British food safety officials said Tuesday that meat from the offspring of a cloned cow had entered the country`s food chain last year.The Food Standards Agency (FSA) made the discovery as it probed a report that milk from the offspring of a cloned cow had been put on sale for

LONDON: The diplomatic row over Britain`s accusation that Pakistan supports terrorism intensified Wednesday as President Asif Ali Zardari arrived in London with a vow to tackle the charges head-on. Zardari -- also under fire for continuing a European trip despite deadly floods at home --

  NEW YORK: A plan to build a mosque and Islamic center next to Ground Zero, sparking a national debate on religious tolerance, won a crucial battle Tuesday in New York. The city`s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously not to declare the building now occupying the site

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration on Tuesday rebuffed a call for a US-Iranian summit, but saw signs that growing international sanctions may force Iran into holding big-power talks about its nuclear aims. The US Treasury Department at the same time imposed sanctions on 21 firms it

ADAYSSEH: Lebanese and Israeli troops traded deadly fire on their tense border Tuesday in the worst clash since the 2006 war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah, with the Shiite movement`s leader warning against future Israeli "aggression."Two Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist

SEOUL: North Korea moved long-range anti-aircraft missiles close to the border with South Korea as tensions rose over the sinking of one of Seoul`s warships, a newspaper reported Wednesday. Chosun Ilbo quoted a military source as saying the North moved some SA-5 missiles from the

  WASHINGTON: Militant jihadists claimed Tuesday that a suicide bomber blew himself up on a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last week, the US monitoring group SITE said. Mitsui OSK Lines had previously reported that one of its tankers, the M Star, appeared to have been hit

UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged "maximum restraint" Tuesday after Israeli and Lebanese troops traded deadly fire on their tense border in the worst clash since the 2006 war in southern Lebanon. Ban, who is on a visit to Japan, said through his spokesman Martin Nesirky that he

SEOUL: South Korea warned North Korea Wednesday it would not tolerate provocations during an upcoming naval exercise in the Yellow Sea, after Pyongyang threatened "strong physical retaliation" for the drill. "Our military will keep a close eye on our enemy, be ready under any

  PESHAWAR: Pakistan issued new flood warnings and the country on Wednesday faced a "serious humanitarian disaster" after downpours which have affected 3.2 million people and killed up to 1,500. A week into the crisis and as more monsoon rains lashed the country, anger was reaching

NEW DELHI: International funding will be sought for the proposed revival of the ancient Nalanda University, a global centre for learning, and Singapore Buddhist organisations have already offered donations for the construction of a world-class library."We will go for international fund

KARACHI - Political and ethnic violence erupted in Pakistan`s biggest city of Karachi after the murder of an MP, killing 46 people as protesters torched vehicles in the deadliest episode since January. The lawmaker, who represented the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a partner in the

MOSCOW - Firefighters Tuesday struggled to contain the worst wildfires to hit Russia for decades, as a relentless heatwave and the carelessness of the public sparked hundreds more blazes across the country. President Dmitry Medvedev has declared a state of emergency in seven Russian

JOHANNESBURG - A judge on Tuesday jailed South Africa`s former police chief and the ex-president of Interpol, Jackie Selebi, for 15 years for accepting bribes from organised crime. Judge Meyer Joffe said he believed Selebi was the most senior official ever convicted of graft in South