The long-awaited and somewhat controversial Beijing Olympics officially open Friday....

China has hit back at US President George Bush for his criticism of Chinese religious and human...

Impeachment proceedings against President Pervez Musharraf have been initiated in Pakistan by the ruling coalition...

White House hopeful John McCain has suggested what he calls a "policy surge" to balance the teetering US...

Russia and Britain are feuding over a Security Council debate on last March's rioting in a Serb-populated part of...

China has everything in place to stage an Olympic Games that will change the world's perception of the country, International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Jacques Rogge said on the eve of the opening...

Beijing, Aug 7 (Xinhua) As the Beijing Olympics start Friday, tens of thousands of young people in China are rushing to marry or have...

In a mere 254 days since he shed his army chief's uniform, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has plummeted from being an all-powerful kingmaker who single-handedly called the shots to a toothless tiger who faces impeachment - unless he quits office before that...

Seven Afghan policemen and 24 Taliban fighters were killed in a series of clashes in Afghanistan, officials said...

Pakistan's ruling coalition Thursday decided to impeach President Pervez Musharraf following his failure to win the trust of the newly elected parliament and also to reinstate the judges he had sacked after declaring an emergency last...

India have decided to drop wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik for the series deciding third and final Test Match against the Sri Lankans that starts on Friday here at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium in...

India's ruling Congress and the Communist Party of China (CPC) Thursday signed a pact to put in place a mechanism that would help regular high-level exchanges between them, soon after party chief Sonia Gandhi arrived here with her family for the Olympics inaugural...

Days before the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) meets to decide on lifting curbs on civil nuclear trade with India, a powerful US Congressman has asked the Bush administration to shelve the deal unless it can guarantee suspension of trade if India conducts another nuclear...

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become the first Arab country to enter a list of the world's 30 largest services importing...

Mogadishu, Aug 7 (Xinhua) Suspected Islamic insurgents Thursday launched mortar attacks on the presidential residence and the airport in the southern Somali town of Baidoa, the seat of the transitional Somali parliament, witnesses...

The Beijing Olympic Games Organising Committee will have its fingers crossed in the fervent hope that the skies, which have had haze hanging over it for the last few days, will clear out in time for the opening ceremony...

Amandeep Johl continued to be the highest ranked Indian in the field after he fired two over 73 to be placed tied 33rd on the rain-hit second day two of the Worldwide Selangor Masters...

The lensmen seemed to be waiting for this particular...

A senior figure of Iraq's Islamic Party was shot in an apparent assassination in the northern province of Mosul, a party spokesman said...

Moscow, Aug 7 (Xinhua) Two people were killed and four injured in an explosion on a beach in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi Thursday, Russian news agencies...

Beijing, Aug 7 (Xinhua) International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Jacques Rogge Thursday lauded China for its extraordinary efforts to tackle...

Beijing, Aug 7 (Xinhua) A Nigerian journalist, covering the Olympics, was hit by paralysis here Thursday while he was filing a report at the Olympic Main Press Centre...

An estimated 2,000 Tibetan exiles demonstrated in the Nepali capital Kathmandu Thursday, a day ahead of the official start of the Olympic Games in...

Tehran, Aug 7 (RIA Novosti) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) scheduled for Aug 28 in Tajikistan, The Tehran Times reported...

Liberals in the worldwide Anglican Church can take comfort from views expressed eight years ago on the vexed issue of homosexuality by Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, the London Times said...

Indian doctors are once again suing the British government, this time accusing it of violating the spirit of a four-month-old court order by seeking to deny thousands the opportunity to live and work in...

Beijing, Aug 7 (Xinhua) Chinese President Hu Jintao Thursday met his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapakse, who is here to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic...

Indian badminton coach Pullela Gopichand is confident of a good performance from the shuttlers, provided they can handle the pressures of their maiden Olympic appearance and the huge crowd...

The price for crude oil produced by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has dropped below $115, to its lowest price since early May, figures released by OPEC showed...

Beijing, Aug 7 (Xinhua) China's fiscal surplus hit 1.19 trillion yuan ($173 billion) in the first half of the current year, the finance ministry said...

Eyeing a medal from the high-profile tennis event at the Beijing Olympics, India were handed a tough draw Thursday. The country's top women's star Sania Mirza and the men's doubles pair, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, may well make it past the first round, but will then need to come up with something special to make a podium finish in the discipline which gets underway...

The Olympics have always meant a lot to Roger Federer. But this time around, it could mean more than ever before. For one, it refreshes happy memories of having met his girlfriend, Mirka Vavrinec, at the Sydney Games in 2000. In Athens he carried the Swiss flag. And this time, he does it again on the day he celebrates his 27th...

Colombia will become the first Latin American country to participate in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, the Spanish daily El Pais reported...

US President George W. Bush Thursday chided China for its human rights record and called on the communist country to help pressure Myanmar's military leaders before departing Bangkok Thursday for...

Three human rights activists have been denied entry into Hong Kong just days before the start of the Olympic Games, a media report said...

Kabul, Aug 7 (Xinhua) An aircraft belonging to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) crashed Thursday in eastern Afghan province of Paktika, an ISAF statement here...

An English court has jailed a Sri Lankan man who defrauded an entire village apparently in order to pay back debts to a loan-shark with Tamil Tigers...

Talks between Iran and the United Nations nuclear watchdog started in Tehran Thursday, state media...

Leaders of Pakistan's coalition Thursday were set to announce their 'decisive decision' on the impeachment of President Pervez Musharraf, a move that could send the country into yet another political...

The human eye has inspired a new technology that is likely to push the limits of photography by producing vastly better images over a wider field of...

Olympic supremo Jacques Rogge may have to declare the Beijing Olympics the best ever as the Chinese organizers are determined to put on the biggest sports show on...

US President George W. Bush said Thursday that he would take up the Myanmar problem with China, one of the few countries that has any influence over the cloistered military state, dissidents...

The mosquito-borne chikungunya disease has hit 17 workers in the largest outbreak of the viral infection in the city state, the Singapore health ministry data said...

India stunned favourites France to enter the semifinals of the 15th world junior men's squash championship for their best-ever result in the...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will not meet the Dalai Lama during the latter's upcoming visit to France, the Elysee Palace has...

The population of expatriate Indians in Qatar stood at 419,096 as of July 31, more than double that of the local Qatari population, a minister...

The Olympic torch relay reached the Great Wall of China on the eve of Friday's lighting of the cauldron at the opening ceremony in Beijing's National...

An Afghan-German businessman kidnapped in Kabul was freed by Afghan agents, a spokesman of the country's intelligence service said...

Nicole Kidman's hometown of Sydney was hoping Thursday for a glimpse of 'four-weeker' Sunday Rose as friends and relatives gathered at the Hollywood actor's harbourside home to greet the new baby and Kidman's husband, Keith...

The bulk of Americans, highly dissatisfied with their healthcare system, think that it needs a radical overhaul to provide better services and care to the public, according to a new...