Hollywood actor, Harrison Ford, has been injured when a small plane he was flying crashed in Los Angeles. The 72-year-old star of Indiana Jones and Star War films, reported an engine failure and crash-landed the vintage plane on a Venice golf course. He was breathing and alert when medics arrived and took him to the…
Nine Injured In China Station Knife Attack
Nine people have been injured in a knife attack at a station in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, Chinese Police authorities say. The attack happened on Friday morning. Police shot one suspect dead and caught another, a statement said. There have been several knife attacks in the country lately. A few months ago, there were…
Singapore to Cane and Imprison Two German Youths
A court in Singapore has sentenced two German youths to nine months imprisonment and three strokes of the cane each for breaking into a depot and spray-painting graffiti on a commuter train. 22-year-old Andreas Von Knorre and Elton Hinz, 21, were accused of vandalism and trespass after they broke into one of Singapore’s train depots…
Many Feared Dead in Ukraine Mine Blast
A suspected gas blast at a coal mine in a rebel-held region of east Ukraine has killed at least 30 people and left some 40 missing, officials said on Wednesday. However, several rebel officials said that they could not confirm the death toll at the Zasyadko mine in Donetsk. At the time of the…
ISIS Threatens Twitter Over Blocked Accounts
Members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS, have threatened to kill Twitter employees and co-founder Jack Dorsey over the social network’s practice of blocking accounts associated with the group. In an Arabic post uploaded to the image-sharing site JustPaste.it, the group told Twitter “your virtual war on us will cause a real…
Iraq Launches Military Operation Against ISIS
Iraq has launched a military operation to recapture Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit from Islamic State. Troops and militia attacked different fronts backed by airstrikes from Iraqi fighter jets. According to the Iraqi government, military forces are advancing into the city. Tikrit is150km (95 miles) north of the capital Baghdad and was seized by IS…
Islamic State frees 19 Kidnapped Christians
Not less than 19 members of an Assyrian Christian community kidnapped by Islamic State, IS, in north-eastern Syria have been released. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said an Assyrian commander informed about their release. The Assyrian Human Rights Network said the captives gained their freedom after a Sharia court ordered them to…
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Leaders Get Death, Life Sentences
An Egyptian court has sentenced four members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood organisation to death while 14 others were handed life imprisonment. Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and his deputy Khairat al-Shater were among those sentenced to life imprisonment on Saturday, along with former lawmaker, Mohamed el-Beltagy and party head Saad el-Katatni and his deputy,…
US-Bangladesh Blogger Hacked To Death
A popular U.S-Bangladeshi blogger, Avijit Roy, was hacked to death by a knife-wielding mob on Thursday. His writing on religion had brought threats from Islamist hardliners. Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism, was attacked in Dhaka as he walked back from a book fair with his wife, who was hurt in the attack. The Bangladesh…
Ukraine Begins Heavy Weapons Withdrawal
Ukraine’s military has begun the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line in the eastern part of the country as part of a truce. Ukraine’s ministry of defence said the pullout of 100mm calibre artillery “is the first step” and will be monitored by OSCE observers. Though the pro-Russian rebels also claimed to have…