Author: News Desk

A strong typhoon with a record level of gusts and torrential rains is expected to make landfall near Tokyo by early Monday morning, reported NHK. The Izu Island chain and part of Shizuoka Prefecture are under the typhoon storm zone. The authorities have issues alert for landslides and other disasters. Japan’s meteorological agency said that Typhoon Faxai was 100 kilometers off Izu Oshima Island and is heading north-northwest at 25 km per hour. Evacuation advisories have been issued for more than 40,000 households or more than 1,00,000 in parts of Kanagawa, Shizuoka prefectures and Tokyo metropolitan areas Extremely rough seas…

Despite President Donald Trump announcing the decision to call off US-Taliban peace talks, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said that the administration is still working toward a deal and but it will not proceed until the Taliban delivers on its commitments. The United States’ move came after the Taliban last week took the responsibility for the attack in Kabul in which 10 people, including an American soldier, were killed. Earlier in the day, Trump announced that he is calling off the peace negotiations with the Taliban and is also canceling a ‘secret meeting” with the Taliban representatives at…

Authorities here on Sunday suspended mobile services in Karachi and Nawabshah as part of security measures during Muharram processions. Sindh government has confirmed that mobile service was suspended in 245 areas in Karachi. The province’s Home Department Secretary Abdul Kabir Qazi said that cellular signals were jammed in the areas which are flashpoints” and where major processions and ‘majlis’ (gatherings) are held. The service will be suspended in all areas where processions have been planned, including small towns, reported Dawn. Security has been beefed up in the province to prevent any untoward incidents. Around 70,000 police personnel have been deployed…

President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday embarked on an official nine-day visit to Iceland, Switzerland, and Slovenia to enhance India’s political and economic ties with the three European countries. The President, accompanied by his wife Savita Kovind left for Iceland on Sunday evening. Kovind will arrive in Iceland and will hold talks with his Icelandic counterpart Gudni Th. Johannesson and Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir. He will also deliver a lecture at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik on ‘India-Iceland partnership towards making a greener planet’. The second leg of the visit to Switzerland will begin on September 11. The President…

President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel Afghan peace talks will cost more American lives, the Taliban said on Sunday while the United States promised to keep up military pressure on the militants, in a stunning reversal of efforts to forge a deal ending nearly 20 years of war in Afghanistan. The Islamist group issued a statement hours after Trump unexpectedly canceled planned secret talks with the Taliban’s “major leaders” at the presidential compound in Camp David, Maryland. He broke off the talks after the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack in Kabul last week that killed an American soldier and…

Hong Kong police have fired teargas to disperse protesters in the upmarket Causeway Bay shopping district after demonstrators rallied at the US consulate calling on Donald Trump to “liberate” the territory. Police had clashed with protesters in the Central district as the demonstrations in Hong Kong entered their 14th week. Protesters dispersed to nearby Admiralty, the bar district of Wan Chai and on to Causeway Bay. On Sunday evening activists set up barricades, smashed windows, started street fires and vandalized the mass transit railway (MTR) station in Central. Home to banks, jewelry shops, and luxury shopping arcades, the area was awash with graffiti, broken…

India’s space program may have hit a major stumbling block on the road to the moon, but the country has already made major strides in lunar and Mars exploration. The wildly successful Chandrayaan-1 mission finished most of its major objectives in 2009 despite losing communications with Earth after less than a year in space, about halfway through its planned run. But in that short time, the spacecraft deployed a moon impactor, producing debris that helped prove that there is indeed water on the moon. That sparked a rush for future missions to make use of that precious resource. On Friday (Sept.…

Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi is all set retire from the longest format of the game after the conclusion of ongoing Test against Bangladesh. “Experienced all-rounder @MohammadNabi007 announced his retirement from Test cricket confirming that the ongoing one-off match against @BCBtigers will be his last in the longest format. The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) tweeted. Nabi is currently playing in the Test match against Bangladesh and has scored eight runs including both innings and also bagged three wickets so far. He has been a permanent fixture in the cricket team in the last couple of years. The 34-year-old has only played…

Citizens and leaders across the political spectrum have offered overwhelming support to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) after the agency lost contact with the lander module comprising the Lander Vikram and Rover Pragyan, a hitch in India’s ambitious space project Chandrayaan 2. All systems were operating normally during the initial period of the automated powered descent phase. Contact was abruptly lost some 2.1 kilometers above the moon’s surface when the lander was in its ‘fine braking’ phase. ISRO Chairman confirmed the same in an address to the press. The scientists are now analyzing the data to determine what went wrong and…

Fishermen started sailing here on Saturday after the three-day ban owing to high wind speed was lifted by the local administration. Around 1200 boats were parked on the shore following the ban. More than 5,000 fishermen were waiting for the wind to drop. A fisherman, Nagarajan, told, We do not know the exact speed of the wind in the sea. Then there is the Sri Lankan Navy which we feel might create a problem for us. We do not have any option but to sail further.’ On September 4, due to an increase in the wind speed causing sea turbulence,…