Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the closure of Venezuelan border with Colombia for 72 hours till Thursday to deal with the “mafias” operating and smuggling out Venezuelan currency. The measure came on the heels of his decision to withdraw the 100-bolivar bill from circulation, Efe news reported on Tuesday. “We’re intercepting about $95,000 that […]
Sri Lankan parliament will have a three-day debate in January on the proposals for a new Constitution, Leader of the House Lakshman Kiriella said on Monday. Sri Lanka sponsored the resolution adopted by the UNHRC in September last year to work out a political solution to the country’s Tamil issue, Xinhua news agency reported. The […]
US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end the practice of laid-off American workers being made to train foreigners brought over to replace them, a move which could impact Indian technology workers and outsourcing companies. Trump called these incidents “demeaning” and said: “We are not going to let it happen to our people any more.” […]
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos travelled to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, together with representatives of the thousands of victims of the country’s half-century conflict, the media reported on Friday. Santos on Thursday invited “some 40 people, many of them close friends and relatives, but also (peace) negotiators and about 10 representatives of […]
Italian President Sergio Mattarella and party leaders have started talks over how to form a transitional government after Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigned on Wednesday. Renzi’s resignation followed defeat in the December 3 referendum on constitutional reform law, Xinhua news agency reported. The talks which started on Thursday are expected to end by Saturday, according […]
Pakistan is looking forward to work closely with the new US administration over regional security and to help resolve the Kashmir issue, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi has said. He made the remarks in Washington while interacting with the current US administration and as part of reaching out to officials […]
The pilot of the ill-fated Pakistan International Airlines plane that crashed into a mountain on Wednesday killing everyone on board reportedly lost control of one of the engines, the airline said. Azam Sehgal, PIA’s chairman, told reporters that the pilot for flight PK661 told the control tower at 4:09 p.m. local time that an engine […]
As nearly 500,000 children are living under siege amid escalating violence across Syria, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for lifting sieges and allowing immediate humanitarian access. The number of children living under siege has doubled in less than one year, Xinhua news agency quoted UNICEF as saying in a press release. “Nearly 500,000 […]
The first HIV vaccine efficacy study in seven years has begun in South Africa to test whether a modified vaccine candidate can provide effective protection against the AIDS virus, the US National Institutes of Health said. The study — called HVTN 702 — aims to enroll 5,400 sexually active men and women aged 18 to […]
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow on Monday officially inaugurated the Asian International Railway line connecting the two countries at a special ceremony organised in Turkmenabad, local media reported. Ghani called the inauguration of the Imam Nazar (Turkmenistan) and Aqina (Afghanistan) railway line “historic” and said his government remains committed to turning […]