Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday that India and the European Union have reached a free trade agreement to deepen their economic and strategic ties. The accord, which touches a whopping 2 billion people, was concluded after nearly two decades of negotiations. It was dubbed the "mother of a
The Calcutta High Court has directed the West Bengal government to allocate land to the Border Security Force (BSF) for the construction of barbed-wire fencing along the Bangladesh border. The order, issued on Tuesday, requires the state to hand over land in nine border districts by Mar 31, accord
More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled a remote region in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan over uncertainty of a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban, residents and officials said Tuesday. Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif has denied th
Search and rescue operations continued on Tuesday for 10 people still missing after a passenger boat capsized off a southern Philippine province, with the death toll rising slightly to 18, the Philippine Coast Guard said. Captain Noemie Cayabyab, a spokesperson at the PCG, said the total number of
Mark Tully, a longtime BBC correspondent who was widely known as the “voice of India” for his reporting on the South Asian nation, has died, the broadcaster said. He was 90. Tully died Sunday at a New Delhi hospital after a brief illness. Born in India's Kolkata city in 1935, Tu
India’s Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat stated that under the leadership of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is working to establish peace in the world by following the path of Buddha. Addressing the Second Global Buddhist Summit held in Bharat Manda
Indonesian authorities resumed search-and-rescue efforts for 80 people missing after a landslide killed 10 in a residential area of West Java province. The landslide early on Saturday was triggered by heavy rains starting the day before, which the weather agency warned could continue for a week in
The fourth meeting of the BIMSTEC Joint Working Group on Environment and Climate Change (JWG-ECC) was held in Bhutanese capital Thimphu recently, emphasising regional cooperation and the mobilisation of climate finance. The two-day meeting was hosted by Bhutan, the lead country for the Environment
The 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will not send observers to army-ruled Myanmar's ongoing three-stage election and will therefore not certify the poll, Malaysia's foreign minister said. Speaking to parliament, Minister Mohamad Hasan also said ASEAN was hoping to finalise a code
An explosion tore through a Chinese-run restaurant in a hotel in a heavily guarded part of Afghanistan's capital on Monday, killing a Chinese national and six Afghans and injuring several others, including a child, officials said. The restaurant was in the commercial Shahr-e-Naw neighbourhood of K
An earthquake of magnitude 6 struck northwestern Kashmir in Pakistan on Monday, the European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) said. The quake was at a depth of 35km (21.75 miles), the EMSC said.
Some citizens in Iran have been provided with access to the Internet after several days of nationwide blackout, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Saturday, without giving more details. Also on Saturday, the country restored short message service (SMS), reports Xinhua. Iran imposed se
A large fire swept through Gul Plaza, a multistory shopping mall in Karachi late Saturday, killing at least three people and injuring around a dozen others, officials said. Firefighters and rescue teams rushed to the scene shortly after 10 p.m. local time. Most shop owners had already left or were
