World

LONDON: Oxford Dictionaries announced that it has chosen "toxic" as its annual "Word of the Year", arguing that it was "the sheer scope of its application that has made it the standout choice".

NEW YORK:  India is the second largest international reservoir for the US higher education institutions having sent 196,271 students here in the last academic year, according to latest data.

LONDON:  Four authors of Indian origin and two of Pakistani, whose novels bring alive a spectrum of themes and emotions relevant in contemporary South Asian life were short-listed on Thursday for the US $25,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2018.

LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May will preside over a decisive extraordinary Cabinet meeting on Wednesday in which she will seek the backing of her ministers for a draft technical deal struck between the UK and the EU on Brexit.

SINGAPORE: India and the US on Wednesday discussed their roles in a free Indo-Pacific region and cooperation in defence and trade sectors during a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US Vice President Mike Pence on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit here.

NEW YORK: The relationship skills and personality traits that you inherit from your mother are likely to determine the number of romantic partners you will have, say researchers.

WASHINGTON:  US First Lady Melania Trump has called for a top national security aide to President Donald Trump to be fired, media reports said.

BLOOMBERG: The co-founder and chief executive officer of Indian e-commerce company Flipkart Group resigned after an investigation into allegations of sexual assault, dealing a blow to owner Walmart Inc.’s ambitions in that country.

ISLAMABAD:  A Pakistani court has refused to try for treason the Islamist leaders who organized mass protests to oppose the Supreme Court acquittal of Christian woman Asia Bibi in a blasphemy case, the lawyer who filed the petition said on Tuesday.

SEOUL / WASHINGTON: South Korea's presidential office on Tuesday played down a report on North Korea's "undisclosed" missile sites, saying the state intelligence communities of Seoul and Washington earlier acquired relevant information.

SAN FRANCISCO: The three raging wildfires in California have killed 44 people since it started last week, a record number of deaths from a wildfire in the US state, officials said.

BLOOMBERG: Thirteen undeclared North Korean missile operating bases were identified in a new report, undermining the Trump administration’s claims that its outreach to Pyongyang is making progress in getting Kim Jong Un’s regime to give up its nuclear weapons program.

LOS ANGELES:  Stan Lee, the creative dynamo who revolutionized the comic book and helped make billions for Hollywood by introducing human frailties in Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk, died Monday. He was 95.

BLOOMBEREG: China’s policy makers are expected to increase the budget deficit in the coming year, as a slowing economy and the downdraft from the trade war with the U.S. raise the need for a more active fiscal policy.

KABUL: A suicide bomber blew himself up in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Monday, senior security officials said, but there was no immediate word on casualties.

NEW YORK:  Top Saudi intelligence officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked a small group of businessmen last year about using private companies to assassinate enemies of the Kingdom, The New York Times reported.

SINGAPORE: World leaders will push for the rapid completion of a massive, China-backed trade deal that excludes the US at a summit this week, in a rebuke to rising protectionism and Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.

WASHINGTON:  Facebook's firing of Oculus VR co-founder Palmer Luckey last year was reportedly on the grounds of him supporting US President Donald Trump, a media report has said.

ISLAMABAD: Around 69 per cent Pakistanis between the ages of 15 and 65 do not know what the internet is, an information communication technology (ICT)-based survey has revealed.

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has condemned the act of vandalism at UK’s newly inaugurated Indian war memorial, calling for strict action against the culprits of the apparently racial attack on the occasion of the World War I centenary.