WASHINGTON, July 14: US President Barack Obama has told Virginia voters that they hold the key to victory in November 6 election, and their vote will help him gain another four years at the White House.

“If I win Virginia, I’m going to get four more years, that I can say with some confidence,” ABC News quoted Obama, as telling supporters in Roanoke.

In 2008, Ob...

ISLAMABAD, July 14: Pakistan’s Defence Minister Syed Naveed Qamar has said that discriminatory nuclear policies of the international community would lead to a strategic imbalance in the region, therefore India must not be given undue and unjustified preferences over Pakistan, according to a report.

Qamar, while addressing a conference on the ‘Applications of Nuclear Science ...

ISLAMABAD, July 14: An unprecedented public consensus in the country is that the army “does not have the answers to Pakistan’s problems” and should stay out of governance and politics, said a leading daily on Saturday. An editorial in the Dawn said that in these times of “fiendish complexity and downright confusion, simple narratives break down time and again”.

ISLAMABAD, July 14: Pakistan’s Supreme Court has issued a notice to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in a case regarding the newly introduced contempt of court law.

The court also issued notices to the law minister, Senate chairman, Cabinet Division secretary and Establishment Division secretary.

Earlier, a three-judge bench of the apex court, including Chief Justice Ifti...

BEIJING, July 14: To enable villagers renovate their dilapidated houses in rural areas, the Chinese government has decided to support four million poor households this year, China Daily reported on Saturday. The ministries of housing and urban-rural development, finance and national development and reform commission said the subsidies from the central government would reach 31.87 billion yuan ($5 ...

NEW YORK, July 14: Yajaira Sierra Sastre says that dreaming “doesn’t cost anything”, so she’s spent all her life getting ready to be the first Puerto Rican woman in space - and now she’s a little closer to her goal after being chosen to take part in a new NASA project. “I’ve wanted to be an astronaut since I was a little girl. I told people at school that&...

BEIJING, July 14: China House, a place to host friends from all over the world and display China-related activities, will be set up in London during the 2012 London Olympics. Chinese Olympic Committee’s executive vice-president Yang Shu’an announced the plans to set up China House earlier this week in Beijing at the British embassy, China Daily reported on Saturday. “China House ...

MOSCOW, July 14: Russia’s state-run arms company has denied that any of its warships presently heading for Syria were carrying Mil Mi-25 helicopter gunships. Rosoboronexport said it had tried to deliver the helicopters last month in a civilian cargo vessel, and that they were still on board that ship.

A group of Russian warships from the Black Sea, Northern and Baltic fleets are c...

BEIJING, July 14: At least 12 people have died and more than three million affected in storms that hit China over the past few days, officials said. In eastern province of Shandong, four people have died, and more than 1,00,000 forced to evacuate from low lying areas, Xinhua reported. Floods have inundated crops, damaged houses and killed livestock. The disaster has caused an economic loss of more...

COLOMBO, July 14: India will build 43,000 houses for Sri Lanka’s war displaced communities in the north and east, the Indian High Commission here said on Saturday. This is part of the overall commitment by India to build 50,000 houses in Sri Lanka for those hit by the war that ended in 2009, Xinhua reported. According to the Indian mission, the beneficiaries will be selected through a transp...

LONDON, July 14: A 12-year-boy in Britain has been sentenced to four years in prison for raping two girls a year ago. He is one of the youngest people convicted of rape in the country. The boy attacked his first victim, then aged 10, while playing hide and seek in a park in Greater Manchester’s Bolton area, The Sun reported. He approached his other victim, then aged seven, while she was play...

MOSCOW, July 14: A 24-year-old surfer died on Saturday in a shark attack near Wedge Island in Western Australia province, media reports said. According to The West Australian newspaper, the attack was the fifth fatal incident involving sharks in the last 10 months. It was a four to five metre long Great White shark, a witness told Sky News. Other witnesses said the man was less than 50 metres from...

MOSCOW, July 14: A gang suspected of high-profile robberies in Russia’s southwestern region of Ingushetia included three police officers, the Russian interior ministry said. According to RIA Novosti, one of the gang members was killed and four arrested in a police manhunt in Ekazhevo village after the gang broke into the house of the regional education minister and stole about two million ru...

LONDON, July 14: One may expect a household electricity bulb to last over a decade. But a hundred years? Believe it or not, one of Britain’s oldest lightbulbs is still being in use after a century. The 230-volt, 55-watt DC Osram bulb is believed to have been made in July 1912, just months after the Titanic disaster, The Sun reported. According to owner Roger Dyball, it still lights his porch...