World

GENEVA., April 23: A top UN official today denounced growing rhetoric claiming that nuclear arms are necessary and warned that the risk of such weapons being used was on the rise. "The threat of the use, intentional or otherwise, of nuclear weapons is growing," the UN's top representative for disarmament affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, told a preliminary review meeting of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT, which was introduced at the height of the Cold War a half century ago, seeks to prevent the spread of atomic weapons but also...

Toronto, April 24: At least 10 people have died after a man plowed a white rental van into a crowd of pedestrians in Canada's biggest city Toronto, in what police dubbed a "deliberate" attack. The incident took place in broad daylight around 16 kilometers from a conference center hosting a meeting of G7 ministers, but officials said they had no evidence of a link to the event. "The actions definitely looked deliberate," Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders told journalists. Ralph Goodale, the minister of public security, added that "on the...

Toronto, April 22: Canada’s largest school board has unanimously adopted a motion recognising November as Hindu heritage month in the country’s most diverse metropolitan area. The motion was moved before the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) by 36-year-old trustee Parthi Kandavel. The board covers 583 schools and is the third-largest in North America. Kandavel, whose father is of Sri Lankan origin and mother is from India, said he championed the motion because of a “desire expressed by the community.” While November is already observed as Hindu heritage Month in the...

London April 22: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with his British counterpart Theresa May at her Downing Street office earlier this week could have turned chaotic if a pregnant duck nesting in one of the windows had been accidentally disturbed, it has emerged. On Wednesday, before the visiting Indian prime minister arrived at 10 Downing Street for his breakfast meeting with May, the British Prime Minister's aides had an additional briefing for her keep away from the brooding duck dubbed as "Duckula" to avert a crisis of a non-political nature....

New York, April 22: Iran is ready to "vigorously" resume nuclear enrichment if the United States ditches the 2015 nuclear deal, and further "drastic measures" are being considered in response to a US exit, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned. Zarif told reporters in New York that Iran is not seeking to acquire a nuclear bomb, but that Tehran's "probable" response to a US withdrawal would be to restart production of enriched uranium - a key bomb-making ingredient. "America never should have feared Iran producing a nuclear bomb, but...

HOUSTON, April 21: Thousands of mourners lined up to pay their final respects to former US first lady Barbara Bush who passed away this week. A string of mourners, adults and children, were surprisingly greeted by former US President George H W Bush, at the public viewing of his wife of 73 years. Bush sat at the front of the cavernous sanctuary of St Martin's Episcopal Church along with his daughter Doro, gazing up at the rose-draped casket holding his wife of 73 years. Bush greeted mourners, many of whom...

SEOUL, April 21: North Korea will carry out no more nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile tests and will shut down its atomic test site, it said on Saturday in a move immediately welcomed by US President Donald Trump. Pyongyang`s declaration, long sought by Washington, will be seen as a crucial step in the fast diplomatic dance on and around the Korean peninsula. It comes less than a week before North Korea`s leader Kim Jong Un meets South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a summit in the Demilitarized Zone that divides...

DUBAI, april 21: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday Iran's atomic agency was ready with "expected and unexpected" reactions if the United States pulls out of a multinational nuclear deal, as U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to do. "Our Atomic Energy Organization is fully prepared ... for actions that they expect and actions they do not expect," Rouhani said without elaborating in a speech carried by state television, referring to a possible decision by Trump to leave the accord next month. The deal reached between Iran, the United...

Berlin, April 20: Bomb disposal experts defused a World War Two bomb in Berlin on Friday after evacuating an area in the heart of the city including the central train station, a hospital and the economy ministry. The 500-kg British bomb was discovered during building work this week, more than seven decades after the end of World War Two. Some 10,000 people – including residents, hospital patients and office workers – were evacuated from 9 am from buildings within an 800 metre radius of the bomb while experts performed the...

Harare, April 20: A Zimbabwean parliamentary committee is summoning former leader Robert Mugabe to explain past comments on alleged diamond looting — the first time a public institution has called him to account for such claims made during his 37-year rule. Mugabe, who resigned in November following a military intervention and extraordinary public demonstrations, has said $15 billion worth of diamonds were looted from fields in the country’s east. He later said he had no basis for that figure and spoke off the top of his head. But parliamentary committee...