Indonesian authorities today advised Australian consular officials that the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will be scheduled imminently at Nusa Kambangan prison in central Java. The thoughts and prayers of many Australians would be with Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran. I spoke to Mr Sukumaran’s mother Raji yesterday and assured her […]
The Australian Embassy in Nepal is providing assistance to Australians and has confirmed the safety of over 200. There are 549 Australians registered as travelling in Nepal and officials are working under challenging conditions to locate all those in the country. While there are reports of extensive loss of life, at this point […]
China’s ministry of civil affairs (MCA) and the National Commission for Disaster Reduction on Saturday evening issued a level-IV emergency response to the earthquake in Tibet that measured 5.9 on the Richter scale. The quake struck Dingri county in southwest China’s Tibet region at 5:17 p.m. Saturday following strong earthquakes in neighbouring Nepal, the China […]
Thousands of people in Kathmandu and elsewhere in Nepal slept out in the open, fearful of powerful aftershocks following a massive earthquake that measured 7.9 on the Richter scale, eyewitnesses said. The main earthquake struck at 34 km east-southeast of Lamjung, Nepal at 06:11:26 (11.41 a.m. India time). Here is a list of aftershocks which […]
A total of 10 people, including foreign climbers, were reportedly killed in an avalanche on Mount Everest which was triggered by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake that hit Nepal on Saturday, a Nepal tourism ministry official said. However, BBC quoted officials and reports as saying that the avalanche on Mount Everest killed at least eight people, […]
Hina Khwaja Bayat, considered one of the pillars of the Pakistani entertainment industry, feels there is a preconceived notion about her country worldwide, and hopes that India and Pakistan soon learn to live like “good neighbours”. During her 20 years in the media industry, she pioneered ground-breaking shows like “Baatain Mulaqaatain”, “Uljhan Suljhan” and “Geo […]
The United Nation Children’s Fund (Unicef) reported on Friday that at least 115 children had lost their lives in Yemen since March 26, with some 172 children injured as a result of the ongoing conflict. According to the organisation, 64 of these children were killed in aerial bombardments, 26 by mines, 19 by gunshots, three […]
American doctors were shocked to find that an Indian computer science PhD student from Hyderabad who underwent brain surgery had an embryonic “evil twin” instead of a tumour in her head. The 26-year-old Yamini Karanam had jokingly called her “evil twin sister who’s been torturing me for 26 years”. According to NBC, Karanam, who was […]
Washington, April 23 (IANS) The White House said on Thursday that a US counter-terrorism operation in January killed two hostages, one American and an Italian, held by Al Qaeda in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Xinhua news agency reported. “It is with tremendous sorrow that we recently concluded that a US government counter-terrorism […]
Tripoli, April 23 (IANS/AKI) Masked gunmen on Thursday shot dead television journalist Muftah al-Qatrani in Libya’s eastern port city of Bengasi, the interior ministry said. The gunmen burst into al-Qatrani’s office and shot him in the head. Al-Qatrani, director of private production company al-Anwar, was covering clashes between Islamist militiamen and pro-government forces in violence-wracked […]