JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia has found the cockpit voice recorder from a Lion Air plane more than two months after the Boeing Co 737 MAX jet crashed into the sea near Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board, search officials said on Monday. Naval Lieutenant Colonel Agung Nugroho told Reuters a weak signal from the

WARSAW (Reuters) – The European Union and NATO should work on a joint position on whether to exclude Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei from their markets, Poland’s internal affairs minister, Joachim Brudzinski, said on Saturday. Poland has arrested a Chinese employee of Huawei and a former Polish security official on spying allegations, officials and sources

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (Reuters) – An offensive by Mexico’s new government against fuel theft at one of the country’s main refineries has led to days of shortages at gas stations in several central states, as authorities move more fuel by tankers and less by vulnerable pipelines. A Reuters witness said many gas stations in the city

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House chief of staff said on Sunday that the U.S. federal government shutdown, now entering its third week, could “drag on a lot longer”. But Mick Mulvaney also raised the possibility of changing the construction materials used to build a barrier on the border with Mexico in order to reach

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Harold Brown, an advocate of nuclear arms control who as President Jimmy Carter’s defence secretary tried but failed to win U.S. Senate approval of a key treaty with the Soviet Union, has died at age 91, the think tank where he worked said. Brown, a native New Yorker, was the first scientist

CARACAS (Reuters) – The newly elected chief of Venezuela’s opposition-run Congress on Saturday said President Nicolas Maduro will be “usurping the presidency” when he swears in for a second term on Jan. 10 after winning a much criticized and broadly boycotted 2018 election. Legislator Juan Guaido of the hard-line opposition party Popular Will, who was

PARIS (Reuters) – French ‘yellow vest’ protesters marched through Paris and other cities on Saturday to highlight their struggle to make ends meet, a day after President Emmanuel Macron’s government hardened its stance against them. Two months after they started blocking roads, occupying highway toll-booths and staging sometimes-violent street demonstrations in Paris, the yellow vests

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand resumed flights on Saturday to its southern provinces, as the first tropical storm in 30 years slowed and headed into the Andaman Sea, leaving behind a trail of homes damaged by fallen trees or blown-off roofs, and disrupted power networks. Before tropical storm Pabuk hit land in Nakhon Si Thammarat on

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday a New York Times report that he was considering former Democratic Senator Jim Webb to be his next defence secretary was “fake news.” The Times, citing an unnamed official, said on Thursday that Vice President Mike Pence and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A doctors’ strike in Zimbabwe has not been called off, a representative said on Friday, after state media said the action had ended following a meeting between medical staff and first lady Auxilla Mnangagwa. The nationwide strike, now into its second month, is to demand better pay and conditions in a country

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As a partial U.S. government shutdown hit the two-week mark, President Donald Trump and congressional leaders were scheduled on Friday to discuss ways to break an impasse pitting his demand for building a border wall against Democrats’ call for alternative security measures. About 800,000 federal workers have been affected by the Dec.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is eyeing a presidential run, blasted former Senator Joseph Lieberman for becoming a lobbyist for ZTE Corp, a Chinese telecommunications equipment maker accused of ties to China’s government. In a tweet posted on Wednesday night, Warren said Lieberman had “joined” lobbyists for ZTE, which she wrote

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabian prosecutors will seek the death penalty for five of the 11 suspects detained over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported on Thursday, as a Saudi court held a first hearing on the case. Saudi Arabia said it also sent new letters to the

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In their first action in control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats plan to adopt a bill on Thursday to end a federal shutdown without funding a Mexican border wall, trying to firmly fasten blame for the 13-day-old closure on President Donald Trump and his Republicans. Passage of the bill by

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump has asked congressional leaders to return to the White House on Friday for talks aimed at ending a partial government shutdown over a dispute on border security funding, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Wednesday. Speaking after a meeting of congressional leaders with Trump at the White House,

(Reuters) – Netflix withdrew an episode of the comedy show “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj” from its Internet streaming service in Saudi Arabia after officials of the kingdom complained, the company said on Wednesday. The episode of the news-comedy program in question criticized the country over the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi last

BEIJING (Reuters) – China reserves the right to use force to bring Taiwan under its control but will strive to achieve peaceful “reunification” with the self-ruled island that has a bright future under Chinese rule, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday. Taiwan is China’s most sensitive issue and is claimed by Beijing as its sacred

MOSCOW/NEW YORK (Reuters) – A retired U.S. Marine detained by Russia on spying charges was visiting Moscow for a wedding and is innocent, his family said on Tuesday. Paul Whelan had been staying with a wedding party for a fellow former Marine at the Metropol hotel in Moscow, said his brother David Whelan, who learnt

(Reuters) – India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is confident of doing well at this year’s general election despite the party’s recent losses in state polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an interview with Reuters partner ANI on Tuesday. “No reason for morale down. We are confident and are moving ahead. In 2019, if

TAIPEI (Reuters) – China must use peaceful means to resolve its differences with Taiwan and respect its democratic values, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Tuesday, ahead of a major speech about the island by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. China has heaped pressure on Tsai since she took office in 2016, cutting off

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Defence Secretary Jim Mattis gave his farewell message to the U.S. armed forces on Monday, telling them to “keep the faith in our country” and stand firm alongside allies after he resigned over policy differences with President Donald Trump. Mattis, who had been seen as a stabilizing factor in U.S. defence policy,

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Rescuers scrambled amid freezing temperatures to recover people trapped in the rubble of a Russian city apartment block that collapsed in a gas explosion on Monday, killing at least four people and leaving dozens missing, news agencies reported. The blast, thought to have been caused by a gas leak, damaged 48 apartments

NEW DELHI (The Statesman/Asia News Network): The Badshah of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan recently confessed to doing something least expected from him. The actor, who is busy promoting his recently released film Zero, revealed that he once stole car tyres. Now that’s something someone wouldn’t expect the superstar of Hindi cinema would do. The Dilwale

DHAKA (Reuters) – Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling party was on course for a landslide victory on Monday after an election tainted by violence and widespread allegations of rigging, with the opposition demanding a fresh vote. Victory would give Hasina a third straight term in office. As the final votes were counted early on

MANBIJ, Syria (Reuters) – The city of Manbij has switched control more than most places in Syria’s civil war.     With U.S. troops set to leave after President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw them, residents fear others will rush to fill the vacuum, causing more upheaval: Syrian government forces have deployed nearby while Turkey is

DHAKA (Reuters) – Bangladesh went to the polls on Sunday after violence-plagued campaigning, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina confident of a third straight term in a face-off against an opposition whose leader is in jail charged with corruption. Mobile internet was blocked and the streets of the capital were largely deserted as many had left

RABAT (Reuters) – Morocco arrested a Swiss national on Saturday in connection with the killing of two Scandinavian women, the counter-terrorism agency said. Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway were found dead early on Dec. 17 near the village of Imlil in the Atlas Mountains. The man arrested is

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia expanded a ban on imported goods from Ukraine on Saturday, saying it would halt some $500 million (393.6 million pounds) worth of annual imports of mainly industrial products in retaliation for economic sanctions by Kiev. Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to prepare a list of measures

MUMBAI (AFP): An Indian woman cut off the penis of a man who had been stalking her, before rushing him to a hospital to save his life, police said Thursday. The 47-year-old woman and two men lured her neighbor to an isolated spot in Mumbai before hacking off his genitals. “We have arrested the woman

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Prosecutors on Thursday charged a disgraced Brazilian faith healer with rape and sexual assault, following his arrest after allegations from hundreds of women who said he had sexually abused them while seeking spiritual guidance or psychic healing from him. João Teixeira de Faria, known as “John of God,” was arrested earlier this