MUMBAI (AFP) -- The confirmed death toll from the collapse of a residential block in Mumbai rose to 60 on Sunday as the search ended with all the missing accounted for, officials said.The five-storey block in the Indian city's east, home to 22 families and owned by the municipal authority, came crashing down at daybreak on Friday."The toll has now risen to 60 and we have now called off the search for more bodies in the debris," said Mumbai deputy police commissioner Tanaji Ghadge, who will lead

ABOARD A US MILITARY AIRCRAFT, United States (AFP) -- US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel late Saturday ruled out any quick decision on extending US wartime command over South Korea troops, a move authorities in Seoul are seeking."I don't think we'll be in a position to make any final decision," Hagel told reporters aboard the plane that was taking him to South Korea.In case of war with North Korea, the alliance between Washington and Seoul currently calls for the US military commander to lead the

BEIRUT (AP) -- A Syrian government air raid struck a high school in a rebel-held city in the country's north on Sunday, killing at least 12 people, most of them students, activists said.The airstrike took place in the city of Raqqa, which is located on the Euphrates River and is the only provincial capital under rebel control in Syria's civil war, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Right said. President Bashar Assad's regime has relied heavily on its air force to strike opposition-he

BEIJING (AFP) -- A man who planned a protest on the anniversary of China's Tiananmen square crackdown went on trial Sunday for "inciting state subversion", his lawyer said.Gu Yimin denied the charge at the hearing in the eastern city of Changshu, said Liu Weiguo, one of his lawyers.State prosecutors said Gu's posting of pictures of the 1989 crackdown, and his application to stage a protest on its anniversary this year, amounted to "inciting state subversion", according to Liu."There is nothing i

MOSCOW (AFP) -- A Russian court on Sunday ordered a Greenpeace spokesman to be detained for two months over an open-sea protest against Arctic oil drilling, in a criminal case that has caused international concern.The court in the northern city of Murmansk on Thursday had already ordered the two-month detention of 22 Greenpeace activists pending the investigation into alleged piracy over a protest at a Gazprom oil rig on September 18.The same Lenin district court had also remanded in custody eig

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- A car bomb exploded on a crowded street in northwestern Pakistan Sunday, killing 37 people in the third blast to hit the troubled city of Peshawar in a week, officials said.The latest explosion appeared to have been a bomb planted in a parked car and detonated by remote control, said police officer Zahid Khan. It went off in a crowded market that is the city's oldest bazaar near a mosque and a police station, officials said.The blast damaged the mosque and nearby shops

The U.S. government hurtled toward a partial shutdown for the first time in 17 years as Congress deadlocked over Republicans' insistence on delaying the 2010 health-care law. The House voted 231-192 just after midnight today to stop many of the Affordable Care Act's central provisions for one year and tie that to an extension of government funding through Dec. 15. Senate Democrats said they will reject the plan, and President Barack Obama said he would veto it. "I've been elected to fight for th

DAMASCUS (AFP) -- International chemical weapons experts were preparing to launch an ambitious and dangerous disarmament mission in Syria on Sunday even as its relentless conflict raged on.In the latest violence, an air strike on a high school in a rebel-held city of northern Syria killed 12 people, most of them students, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.And ahead of the start of the disarmament mission on Tuesday, UN chemical arms investigators left their Damascus hotel to carry out

  한국과 미국의 외교장관은 27일 회담을 갖고 북한이 핵개발을 중단하고 기존 비핵화 의무를 준수해야 한다는 입장을 재확인했다.윤병세 외교부 장관과 존 케리 미국 국무장관은 이날 저녁 뉴욕의 한 호텔에서 만나 “북한이 국제사회의 지원을 바라면서 동시에 핵개발을 해서는 안 된다”는 쪽으로 의견을 모은 것으로 알려졌다.이는 북한이 촉구하고 있는 6자회담의 재개에 앞서 비핵화와 관련 구체적인 조치를 통해 진정성을 보여야 한다는 점을 강조한 것이다.회담에서 윤 장관은 “북한 비핵화의 실질적 진전을 이루기 위해 한･미 간 긴밀히 공조하는 것은 물론, 중국의 역할도 지속 확보해 나가야 할 것”이라고 말했다고 외교부가 전했다.이에 케리 장관은 우리 정부의 일관된 대북정책을 평가하고, “북한 비핵화를 달성하기 위해 한․미가 계속 긴밀히 협의해 나가자”고 답했다. 앞서 유엔총회 기조연설에서 윤 장관은 최근 시리아의 화학무기 해체를 위한 화학무기금지기구와의 협조를 제시, 북한의 핵무기 개발을 되돌리기

TEHRAN (AFP) -- Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday Iran is monitoring developments involving ally Syria after a Russian initiative for Damascus to give up its chemical weapons led to postponement of US strike plans."If this recent approach is serious, it will translate to a return from the headstrong and wrong approach" the United States had adopted by threatening to attack Syria, Khamenei said in remarks on state television."The Islamic Republic of Iran is carefully monitoring

BEIJING (AFP) -- Apple's lower-cost iPhone 5C will retail for more than $700 in China, putting it out of reach of most consumers and raising questions over the firm's ability to build sales in the world's biggest mobile market.The iPhone 5C is seen as part of the US tech giant's bid to counter cheaper handsets from rivals, particularly in China where it  has only a five percent share of the smartphone market.But the new phone will retail in China for 4,488 yuan ($733) for the 16GB version, accor

BEIJING (AFP) -- The number of dollar billionaires in mainland China has passed 300 for the first time, an annual ranking of wealth in the world's second-largest economy showed Wednesday.The Hurun Report, a luxury magazine publisher, named property tycoon Wang Jianlin as China's new richest person, saying he had more than doubled his worth to $22 billion.There were a total of 315 dollar billionaires in the country, it said, up 64 from a year ago.The average fortune of the top 1,000 stood at $1.0

PARIS (AFP) -- Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said Wednesday that France would fail to reach the deficit target it agreed with the EU for this year and lowered the government's growth forecast for 2014.Moscovici said France's 2013 public deficit will come in at 4.1 percent of GDP, higher than the 3.9 percent agreed with the European Union.But he said the 2014 deficit will come in at 3.6 percent and that France plans to push it back under the EU ceiling of 3.0 percent of GDP in 2015, which is

BARCELONA, Catalonia (AFP) -- As Catalans rallied Wednesday for a dramatic 400-kilometre (250-mile) independence protest, their zeal to break from the rest of recession-hit Spain was being fed by deep resentment over Madrid's economic policies.Many in Catalonia, renowned as Spain's industrial heartland, hold a grudge against the Spanish government, which they accuse of imposing unfair taxes and failing to fulfil promises of public investment.Catalan regional president Artur Mas protested the "un

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia could expand arms sales to Iran and revise the terms of U.S. military transit to Afghanistan if Washington launches a strike on Syria, a senior Russian lawmaker said Wednesday.Alexei Pushkov, the Kremlin-connected chief of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of parliament, told lawmakers that Moscow hopes that the U.S. will back Russia's proposal for Syria to put its chemical weapons under international control for their subsequent dismantling.During Wednesday'

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- A powerful car bomb exploded Wednesday near Libya's Foreign Ministry building in the heart of the eastern coastal city of Benghazi, security officials said, exactly one year after an attack there killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.The early morning blast targeted a building that once housed the U.S. Consulate under the rule of King Idris, who former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi overthrew in a 1969 bloodless coup. The explosion caused no serious casualt

BEIJING (AP) -- Premier Li Keqiang said Wednesday the basis of China's economic recovery is still fragile and promised to promote growth by opening markets to private competition and improving the investment climate for foreign companies.China's economic fundamentals are stable but the global economy faces a "complex situation," said Li in a speech at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in the northeastern city of Dalian. His comments were broadcast live on national television."The foundation

PARIS (AP) -- Tense negotiations have begun on a proposed U.N. resolution that would put Syria's chemical weapons under international control and end a diplomatic stalemate over a deadly Aug. 21 poison gas attack, a French official said Wednesday.The plan for Syria to relinquish its chemical weapons, initiated by Russia, appeared to ease the crisis over looming Western strikes against Bashar Assad's regime in Damascus, only to open up new potential for impasse as Moscow rejected U.S. and French

NEW DELHI (AP) -- Saying their crime shocked the conscience of India, the prosecutor in the fatal New Delhi gang rape called Wednesday for all four convicted rapists to be hanged, while one of the defendants shouted out his innocence as police drove him into the courthouse.It was not clear which of the four men was shouting, because his face was obscured behind the police van's heavy metal mesh, but he repeatedly called out, "I am innocent! I am innocent!" as the van drove past a scrum of report

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Greenpeace said Wednesday that Russia had denied its ship access to Russian Arctic waters to hide the extent of its lucrative energy exploration work in the fragile ecosystem.The global environmental lobby group said its Arctic Sunrise icebreaker intended to enter the Northern Sea Route to protest at work being conducted jointly by Russia's Rosneft energy giant and its US partner ExxonMobil.Arctic Sunrise confronted the Rosneft-contracted Akademik Lazarev last week near the Baren