Visiting Premier Li Keqiang promised Tuesday to open China's vast domestic market wider to Indian businesses and narrow a gaping trade deficit, a longstanding irritant with New Delhi. The trade push, which the countries say will supply "new engines" to lift the global economy, is part of efforts by the nuclear-armed powers to put a recent military dispute along their contested Himalayan border behind them. ...

Twenty children were among at least 91 people killed when a powerful tornado swept through an Oklahoma City suburb, tearing down blocks of homes and two schools, local officials said. The state medical examiner's office released the latest death toll but the number was climbing rapidly, as emergency crews combed through smashed homes and the collapsed remains of an elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma. ...

Israeli soldiers patrolling the disputed Golan Heights along the border with Syria fired back after coming under fire overnight, an Israeli Defense Forces statement said Tuesday. "Overnight, shots were fired at an IDF patrol on the border in the central Golan Heights, damaging a military vehicle," said a statement on the army's website. No one had been wounded, it added. "In response, IDF forces returned ...

North Korea released 16 Chinese fishermen and their boat Tuesday, Chinese state media said, after reports that armed assailants had taken the sailors hostage fuelled strains between the neighbours. "All the fishermen with the boat are safe on their way back," China's Xinhua news agency said, citing a Chinese embassy official in Pyongyang it said had heard the news from the ship's owner. Xinhua said the ...

Thousands of New Yorkers -- including mayoral candidate Christine Quinn -- marched to protest the shooting death of a gay man in the neighborhood that was the cradle of the modern US gay rights movement. "Homophobia's got to go," protesters chanted as they rallied Monday waving signs to honor the memory of "the gay angel Mark Carson" and "hate no, gun control yes." Mark Carson, 32, was killed with a bullet ...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will try to secure more military aid in talks with Indian leaders on Tuesday as he looks to beef up his security forces after international troops pull out next year. Karzai is to hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee after accepting an honorary degree on Monday night from the Lovely Professional University in the northern ...

British Prime Minister David Cameron headed off another Conservative rebellion after the opposition Labour Party helped him see off a "wrecking amendment" which had threatened his gay marriage bill. Tory MP Tim Loughton had proposed the amendment saying that if gay couples were allowed to marry, then heterosexual couples should also be able to have civil partnerships. But lawmakers in the lower House of ...

Iran's June 14 presidential election steps up a gear on Tuesday when the Guardians Council releases the approved list of candidates who have passed muster under the vetting process. The unelected council, controlled by religious conservatives appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, must ensure that all candidates meet certain conditions before being allowed to stand. These conditions include ...

US President Barack Obama threw his support behind Myanmar President Thein Sein in his drive to reform a former pariah state but warned that a wave of violence against Muslims must stop. As his guest became the first leader of his country in almost 50 years to visit the White House, Obama praised Myanmar's journey away from brutal junta rule and promised Washington would offer more political and economic ...

President Barack Obama will hold his first summit with President Xi Jinping in California next month, with Sino-US relations rattled by alleged Chinese cyber spying and tensions in the Pacific. Obama will welcome Xi to the plush Sunnylands estate resort in Palm Springs on June 7-8, as Washington seeks Chinese help to subdue North Korean belligerence and seeks a diplomatic breakthrough to end the slaughter in ...