AFP, COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s government vowed Wednesday to pay “due attention” to a damning UN report on war crimes in the country, but stopped short of agreeing to an internationally backed investigation. The government told UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein it was open to…

AFP, ADEN: Yemen’s Prime Minister Khaled Bahah and several of his ministers travelled to Aden Wednesday from exile in Saudi Arabia, two months after loyalist forces pushed Iran-backed rebels out of the city. “The government has moved its base from Riyadh to Aden,” government spokesman…

AFP, KATHMANDU: A four-year-old boy was among four people killed late Tuesday when police in Nepal opened fire on a crowd of people demonstrating against a new national constitution due to be introduced this week. Police said they opened fire after protesters threw petrol bombs and stones at security…

AFP, KABUL: The family of late Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar has pledged allegiance to new chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour after a secret meeting in which the two sides agreed a power-sharing deal. The move aims to end a rift among the Islamist insurgents after they admitted in July that the death of…

AFP, TOKYO: Thousands took to Japan’s streets Wednesday to protest at laws expected to be passed this week that could see troops fight overseas…

AFP, KABUL: A Taliban suicide car bomber killed four people on Wednesday and injured dozens more on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul, police said. A total of 41 people, most of them civilians, were injured when the bomber targeted the local district administration compound in the town of Paghman,…

AFP, NEW DELHI: Hospitals in the Indian capital struggled Wednesday to cope with a flood of patients suffering from dengue fever as the Delhi government warned against turning away anyone seeking treatment. Patients told of sleeping on pavements outside emergency rooms and doctors said services were…

AFP, TEHRAN: A Tehran court has fined two women $260 for violating the Islamic dress code by not wearing their mandatory hijabs (headscarves) properly in the street, a judicial official was quoted Wednesday as saying. “In recent days several cases have been filed in the court for bad hijabs and,…

AFP, LOS ANGELES: The death toll from flash floods that have struck the western state of Utah rose to 15 on Tuesday with five people still missing, authorities said. Twelve of the victims were from two families who were in two vehicles caught off guard Monday afternoon by raging waters in the small…