Beijing, Jun 14: China has announced plans to provide visas to Indian professionals and their families stranded in India for over two years following the strict visa restrictions imposed by Beijing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Colombo: A top Sri Lankan official, who claimed before a parliamentary panel that Prime Minister Narendra Modi allegedly influenced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to award a wind power project to the Adani Group in this island nation, resigned on Monday, a day after retracting his earlier statement.

Singapore: China is continuing to harden its position along the borders with India, US Defence Secretary Lloyd James Austin said on Saturday, stressing that America stands by its friends as they uphold their rights as Beijing adopts the "war coercive" and "aggressive approach" to its territorial claims.

Dubai: The family of former Pakistan President General (retd.) Pervez Musharraf on Friday dismissed the rumors of his death and stated that his health is deteriorating and he is hospitalized in UAE.

Mexico City: The mayor of the Mexican city of Cuernavaca was proudly inaugurating a footbridge over a scenic stream Tuesday when the span collapsed, sending him and about two dozen other people plunging into a gully.

Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has decided to permit its Muslim citizens to travel to Saudi Arabia to peform Haj on condition that they pay USD 1,500 in foreign currency from abroad without affecting the nation's crisis-hit economy, according to media reports on Thursday.

A plane crashed in central China's Hubei province on Thursday, setting several houses on fire, the third aviation accident in the country in over two months.

Beijing: China on Wednesday praised India for making "great efforts" to help Colombo to tide over its worst financial crisis even as it refuted Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's remarks that Beijing has shifted its strategic focus from South Asia including Pakistan to South East Asia, saying the region still remained its priority.