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.

Colombo: Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Wednesday that he has urged IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva to "expedite" its assistance programme to Sri Lanka and underlined that no country except India is providing money to the crisis-hit island nation for fuel.

New Delhi: The destabilising and corrosive behaviour of Chinese Community Party (CCP) in the Indo-Pacific region is simply not helpful and some of the defence infrastructure that is being set up by China near its border with India is alarming, US Army's Pacific Commanding General Charles A. Flynn said on Wednesday.