AFP, SANAA: Saudi-led warplanes bombarded Yemeni rebels at dawn yesterday, witnesses said, in a new blow to a UN-proposed truce in the impoverished country where millions are threatened with famine. Air strikes hit the Shiite Huthi stronghold of Saada in Yemen’s north, as well as other rebel positions…

AFP, SEOUL: Domestic flights were cancelled in South Korea Sunday as Typhoon Chan-hom brought strong winds and heavy rainfall to southwestern provinces, after wreaking substantial damage in China. The storm grounded more than 150 domestic flights nationwide, airport authorities said. International flights…

AFP, BEIRUT: A bomb explosion in a tunnel near Aleppo Citadel in Syria on Sunday damaged a wall of the fortress that is part of the UNESCO-listed Old City, state media and a monitor reported. The blast partly destroyed the wall of the monumental 13th century citadel that overlooks the Old City, said…

AFP, MUMBAI: India’s mass Hindu pilgrimage, the Kumbh Mela, officially starts in Maharashtra state on Tuesday, with organisers desperate to avoid a repeat of a deadly stampede at the same venue 12 years ago. Thirty-nine pilgrims were trampled to death and dozens injured when the religious festival…

AFP, CAIRO: Close friends and family paid respects yesterday to cinema legend Omar Sharif, who will forever be remembered as the eponymous “Doctor Zhivago”, at a solemn funeral in his native Egypt. Sharif, 83, died on Friday of a heart attack in an upmarket Cairo clinic after a struggle…

AFP, TRIPOLI: European states on Sunday welcomed a UN peace deal initialled by some Libyan factions but not the opposition as a step towards restoring stability in the lawless North African country. Plunged into chaos since the 2011 overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libya has two parliaments and…

THE INDEPENDENT, LONDON: There will be a “mini ice age” in 2030, solar scientists have said. “We are now able to predict solar cycles with far greater accuracy than ever before thanks to a new model which shows irregularities in the sun’s 11-year heartbeat,”  said…

AP/ UNB, Honolulu: A solar-powered plane has been grounded by damaged batteries for at least a few weeks after completing its record-breaking five-day journey from Japan to Hawaii. The Solar Impulse 2’s team says the batteries were over-insulated and became overheated on day one of the Japan-Hawaii…

S Korea fires  at North soldiers     AFP, SEOUL: South Korean troops fired warning shots at North Korean soldiers who intruded on the buffer zone marking their heavily armed border, Seoul said Sunday, in the first such skirmish this year. The incident occurred Saturday morning when…