BEIJING, April 3 (Xinhua) — Beijing upgraded its alert for air pollution to orange Monday afternoon, the second highest warning. The smog, affecting Beijing and adjacent Tianjin and Hebei, is forecast to last until Friday. Beijing had issued the yellow alert early Monday morning, but the density of hazardous fine particle matter PM2.5 continued to […]

NAIROBI, April 3 (Xinhua) — Somali pirates have hijacked an Indian commercial ship with 11 crew members on board off the coast of Somalia, a regional maritime official confirmed on Monday. John Steed, the regional manager of Oceans Beyond Piracy, a non-government organization, said the Indian-flagged vessel was heading to Somalia shores from Dubai, the […]

SYDNEY, April 3 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s promise to “rebuild” his country’s military could have significant economic benefits for Australian state Victoria, it has been revealed. Six Melbourne-based companies will this week lobby the Trump administration for lucrative contracts in an attempt to grab a piece of the 70 billion U.S. dollars funding […]

SYDNEY, April 3 (Xinhua) — At least two people were confirmed dead, and six others were missing after Cyclone Debbie caused massive flood in east Australia. Three men remained missing in the state of Queensland and another three people, including a child, were feared dead after their car was swept away by flood waters near […]

ANKARA, April 3 (Xinhua) — Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Sunday that 113,260 have been arrested and 47,155 remanded over suspected links to the Gulen movement since the July 2016 coup attempt. Among the remanded are 10,732 police officers, 7,643 soldiers, 168 generals, 2,575 judges and prosecutors, 26,177 civilians and 208 local administrators, […]

MOSCOW, April 3 (Xinhua) — Russian and Belarussian experts Monday started a five-day observation flight over the Polish territory, a Russian official said. The flight, with a maximum range of up to 1,400 km, will be carried out along the coordinated route by a Russian An-30B jet in accordance with the Treaty on Open Skies, […]

BEIJING, April 3 (Xinhua) — China’s environmental inspectors intensified pollution checks around Beijing as a new round of smog hit the region. The new round of air pollution will continue in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region between April 3 and 7, with the cities of Tianjin, Tangshan, Langfang, Puyang and Anyang issuing orange alerts, the second highest […]