World News
Browse all articles and features filed under the News desk.
Milky Way teeming with 'billions' of planets
The Milky Way is home to far more planets than previously thought, boosting the odds that at least one of them may harbour life, according to a study released Wednesday. Not long ago, astronomers counted the number of "exoplanets" detected outside our own solar system in the teen
Three dismembered bodies found in Mexican resort town
Three dismembered bodies were found Tuesday in different parts of the Mexican resort town of Acapulco in what appears to be continuing drug cartel violence, the Guerrero state government said. Two of the bodies were found in a burning car and on the pavement of the roadway at the
Attackers kill 51 in South Sudan clashes: governor
Gunmen killed at least 51 people in the latest ethnic clashes in South Sudan's troubled Jonglei state, the region's governor said Tuesday. "The whole night (Monday) they burned the town... 51 are confirmed dead and now we have 22 (injured) evacuated to Juba," said Jonglei governo
World's deepest sea vents reveal unknown creatures
The ocean's deepest volcanic vents, kilometres below the surface, are teeming with life forms never before seen that thrive near super-hot underwater geysers, according to a new study. Eyeless shrimps and white-tentacled anemones were photographed bunched around cracks in the oce
57 killed in new South Sudan clashes
New ethnic clashes in South Sudan's troubled Jonglei state have killed 57 people, the government of the world's newest nation said late Thursday. Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said that in the latest clash "57 people got killed, and most of them are women and child
Sixteen dead as Nigeria chaos grows
Ethnic and religious violence in Nigeria claimed 16 more victims Tuesday, with gunmen killing eight in the north and a mob torching an Islamic school in the south, as a fuel strike added to the deadly tension. Amid the sectarian and social turmoil, Nobel literature prize laureate
N Korea military pledges support for new leader
Members of North Korea's powerful military have held a rally to pledge loyalty to the country's new leader Kim Jong-Un, vowing to become "rifles and bombs" to protect him, official media said Tuesday. Service members promised to "become rifles and bombs to serve as Kim Jong-Un fi
Suspected arson attacks in Chile as firemen buried
The home of a Mapuche Indian leader in Chile was destroyed in a suspicious blaze Sunday in an area ravaged by forest fires, which officials say may have been caused by radical indigenous activists. Police said hooded assailants also torched the home of a retired military officer
Chile blaze claims six firefighters
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera invoked anti-terror legislation Thursday after at least six firefighters died in a wildfire he believes was started deliberately. An unusually hot and dry start to the Chilean summer has seen more than 50 wildfires, fanned by high winds, burn do
Scientists home in on missing link of physics
International scientists said on Tuesday they had found signs of the Higgs boson, an elementary sub-atomic particle believed to have played a vital role in the creation of the universe after the Big Bang. Peter Higgs, the 82-year-old British theoretical physicist who first propos
Rare Moon mineral found in Australia
A mineral brought back to Earth by the first men on the Moon and long thought to be unique to the lunar surface has been found in Australian rocks more than one billion years old, scientists said Thursday. Named after Apollo 11's 1969 landing site at the Sea of Tranquility, tranq
Mullah Omar confirms peace talks with US
Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar has confirmed opening peace talks with the US authorities, Geo News reported on Thursday. Mullah Omar made two demands - release of Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay detention facility and complete pull out of US-led forces from Afghanistan. H
Three N Koreans 'shot dead' during escape bid
North Korean troops shot dead three countrymen who were trying to cross the border into China, a Seoul activist said Tuesday, as Pyongyang tightens border controls after the death of leader Kim Jong-Il. Border guards last Saturday killed the men in their 40s who were crossing the
LUMHS announces winter vacations from Dec 28
The Registrar of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) Jamshoro informed here Monday to teaching faculty members that winter vacation of the university will be start from December 28 and end on January 5, 2012. Those faculty member who have not completed o
Gunman sought after ranger killed in US park
A popular US national park will remain closed Monday as police hunt a gunman who shot and killed a federal ranger before fleeing into the forest, authorities said late Sunday. A major manhunt launched immediately after the New Year's Day shooting in Mount Rainier National Park fa
Iran tests missiles in navy war games near oil strait
Iran on Monday test-fired two missiles on the last day of navy war games near the Strait of Hormuz, official media quoted a navy spokesman as saying. A Qader ground-to-ship cruise missile and a short-range Nasr anti-ship missile were launched in the tests, which came after the te
Two NASA probes both in lunar orbit
The second of two NASA lunar probes on a mission to study the Moon's inner core so scientists can better understand the origins of planets went into orbit Sunday as planned, the US space agency said. The second Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL-B) began orbiting the
Myanmar warehouse blast kills 17
A large pre-dawn explosion at a warehouse in Myanmar's biggest city Yangon on Thursday killed at least 17 people and injured dozens but was not caused by a bomb, an official said. "It was not a bomb explosion," the official said, though the cause of the blast, which sparked a lar
No surgery for now on two-headed baby in Brazil: Doctors
Doctors in Brazil said Thursday they have decided for now not to attempt to surgically separate a set of conjoined twins who have two heads but share one body and various vital organs. Doctor Neila Dahas of the Santa Casa de Misericordia Hospital in the northern town of Belem, sa
Christmas bombs kill 40 in Nigeria
Bomb attacks on churches during Christmas services and a suicide blast in Nigeria killed at least 40 people amid spiralling violence claimed by Islamists. A purported spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a bombing of a church outside the capital Abuj