BenArmani

Experts say there is a 50 percent chance Istanbul will be hit by a major earthquake in the next two decades. Ankara, Turkey - In the early hours of a Tuesday morning 20 years ago, a powerful earthquake shook the densely populated Marmara region to the south of Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, for 45 seconds. Within days, the official death toll stood at 17,500. The 7.4-magnitude...

Two Israelis were wounded yesterday in what the Israeli army called a car-ramming attack near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, while the suspected fighter was shot dead. “A fighter ran over two civilians,” an English-language army statement said. “The civilians were injured and evacuated to hospital for medical treatment. The fighter was neutralised,” it said. The two wounded were...

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement faces a major test this weekend as it tries to muster another huge crowd following criticism over an airport protest earlier this week – and as concerns mount over Beijing’s next move. Ten weeks of protests have plunged the international finance hub into crisis, with the communist-ruled mainland taking an increasingly hardline tone, including labelling the...

Sri Lanka yesterday ordered an investigation following the collapse of a skeletal 70-year-old elephant after being forced to parade at a high-profile pageant popular with local and foreign tourists. Tourism and Wildlife Minister John Amaratunga said he ordered wildlife authorities to investigate how the elephant, known as Tikiri, was forced to take part in a lengthy parade despite her failing...

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party called off planned anti-government demonstrations yesterday, saying it aimed to avert bloodshed after police rounded up its followers and dispersed them with batons and water cannon. The Movement for Democratic Change, which accuses President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government of repression and economic mismanagement, had called a demonstration for yesterday as the start of a nationwide protest movement. But...

Hundreds of protesters in Indian-administered Kashmir clashed with police yesterday as the UN Security Council began its first meeting on the territory in nearly half a century, with tensions soaring over New Delhi’s move to strip the disputed region of its autonomy. The meeting began as Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke with US President Donald Trump, who last month...

India has stuck to its commitment of ‘no first use’ of nuclear weapons but future policy will depend on the situation, the defence minister said yesterday, which analysts said introduced a level of ambiguity in a core national security doctrine. India declared itself a nuclear weapons power after conducting underground tests in 1998 and long-time rival Pakistan responded with its...

Sudan has allowed Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera to reopen its Khartoum office, which they had shut down in May, the channel's director in the Sudanese capital said Friday. "The Sudanese authorities have agreed to let us resume our work in covering Sudan," Al-Musallami Al-Kabbashi said.The Al Jazeera crew had been informed in late May, at the height of the...

Veteran Bollywood actress Vidya Sinha, known for her role in Basu Chatterjee’s film Rajnigandha died yesterday, family sources said. She was 71 and died at a private hospital in Juhu where she was rushed last Sunday after severe breathing problems. Since her condition was critical she had been put on a ventilator but failed to recover and died around 1pm. Until...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered an Independence Day speech yesterday that spotlighted a decision to remove the special rights of Jammu and Kashmir among the bold moves of the first 10 weeks of his second term. Modi talked about his aim to turn India into a $5tn economy within five years, by spurring wealth creation, boosting exports and tourism, and...

A Russian pilot was hailed as a hero yesterday for safely landing an Airbus carrying more than 230 people in a Moscow corn field after a bird strike. The Ural Airlines A321 flying to Crimea hit a flock of seagulls shortly after take-off from Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport early yesterday, the Rosaviatsia air transport agency said in a statement. Birds were sucked...

A man sustained non-life threatening injuries in a stabbing near Britain’s Home Office in London’s government district of Westminster yesterday afternoon, police confirmed. Ambulance services said they attended to the man at the scene and he was taken to a trauma centre for further treatment. One man had been taken into custody near the incident, the capital’s Metropolitan Police said in...

Opposition parties have launched rival campaigns to topple Prime Minister Boris Johnson and stop him taking Britain out of the European Union without a deal, illustrating fractures in the anti-Brexit movement that make neither scheme likely to succeed. Johnson has promised to push through Brexit by October 31, with or without a deal, setting the scene for a showdown in...

At least three Pakistani soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire with Indian troops in Kashmir yesterday, the Pakistani army said, at a time of peak tensions in the disputed border region. Indian troops fired artillery across the Line of Control (LoC), a de facto frontier that divides the Himalayan valley into parts controlled by the two countries, the...