News In Brief
PTI, Bhubaneswar
India on Monday successfully conducted the first test of the BrahMos cruise missile aimed at increasing its life from 10 to 15 years.
The missile was test fired from a mobile launcher from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur along the Odisha coast at about 10.44 am, said sources in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Next Iraq govt will be ‘inclusive’: Sadr
AP, Baghdad
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose coalition won the largest number of seats in Iraq’s parliamentary elections, has sought to reassure Iraqis about their next government, saying it will be “inclusive” and mindful of their needs.
No single bloc won a majority in the May 12 vote, raising the prospect of weeks or even months of negotiations to agree on a government. Major political players began talks soon after the election’s partial results were announced last week.
Heavy rains, landslides kill five in Sri Lanka
Reuters, Colombo
Heavy monsoon rains in Sri Lanka have killed five people, prompting authorities to warn against landslides and floods in low-lying areas after spill gates had to be opened across the Indian Ocean island.
Lightning killed three people, a landslide a fourth, and the fifth death was the result of a fallen tree, said officials at the country’s Disaster Management Centre.
Taliban kill 5 workers
AP, Kabul
An Afghan official says the Taliban killed at least five members of a demining team in southern Kandahar province.
Zia Durrani, spokesman for the provincial police chief, says a sixth worker is missing and his fate is unknown following the attack on Monday morning in the district of Maiwand.
Durrani says the de-miners were working for the TAPI national project, clearing a segment for a planned gas pipeline from central Asia that’s headed to Pakistan and India through Afghanistan.
Palestinian President Abbas admitted to hospital
AFP, Ramallah
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas remained in hospital Monday, a spokeswoman said, a day after being admitted with complications following an ear operation.
A spokeswoman for the Istishari Arab Hospital near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank said the 83-year-old was doing well but there was no timeframe for his discharge as yet.
Abbas’s health is the subject of regular speculation, with no clear successor identified.
