AFP, THE HAGUE: The Philippines has appealed to an international tribunal to declare China's claims to most of the South China Sea illegal, warning the integrity of United Nations' maritime laws is at stake. In opening comments to the tribunal in the Hague on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Albert…

AFP, ISLAMABAD: Pakistan yesterday said Afghan and Taliban representatives had agreed to meet again after landmark through-the-night talks aimed at ending the militants' 13-year insurgency. A delegation of the Afghan High Peace Council (HPC), the body tasked with opening negotiations, met the Taliban…

AFP, YANGON: Myanmar officials yesterday announced November 8 as the date for a historic general election set to be the first contested by Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition in a quarter of a century. The announcement fires the starting gun for the much-anticipated poll in the former junta-run nation,…

AFP, WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama welcomed the leader of Vietnam's Communist Party on Tuesday to the White House for historic but "candid" talks marking two decades of rapprochement between the former enemies. Nguyen Phu Trong is the first general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist…

AFP, WASHINGTON: The US Army is to cut 40,000 soldiers from its ranks over the next two years at home and abroad, a defense official said Tuesday, in a move that will raise doubts about its ability to fight wars. Under the cost-cutting plan, the Army will be down to 450,000 soldiers at the end of the…

THE INDEPENDENT, LONDON: The prime minister of the world's fourth smallest nation has appealed for help from European leaders to stop it disappearing from the face of the Earth. Enele Spoaga, prime minister of Tuvalu,  arrived in Brussels on Monday to call on EU leaders for support ahead of…

AFP, BAGHDAD: An Iraqi court sentenced 24 men to death by hanging yesterday over the June 2014 massacre by jihadist and allied militants of hundreds of mostly Shiite military recruits in Tikrit. The central criminal court in Baghdad handed 24 of 28 defendants the maximum sentence over the "Speicher"…

AFP, KOH SAMUI: Defence lawyers for two Myanmar migrants charged with killing two British tourists in Thailand criticised police handling of the case as the trial opened Wednesday, accusing them of failing to secure the crime scene or call in medical experts quickly enough. Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun have…

South Pakistan hit by power cut BBC, Karachi: A major power failure plunged large parts of southern Pakistan into darkness on Tuesday night. Worst affected was the port city of Karachi, a city of 20 million, where many people spent a sleepless night because of warm and humid weather. The city's…