Almost 300,000 people tweeted #Mecca_live as part of a campaign to get Snapchat to feature the Saudi city – which is closed to non-Muslim visitors – on their app. Snapchat launched its “live” feature last year. It allows users to contribute videos and pictures to a live stream, which, like other content on the app, disappears after a short period of time. While Snapchat focuses on locations of its own […]

VILNIUS: Indian students have started to explore new parts of Europe for higher education and many are headed to Lithuania. Lithuania has recorded a massive increase in the number of Indian students heading to its universities with the latest data showing that the number of Indian students studying full time in the Baltic country have increased from 37 in 2011 to 357 in 2014. In 2012, there were 57 students […]

The fire situation in B.C. remained relatively stable Monday after more than 50 new wildfires were reported over the weekend, forcing hundreds of people to leave their homes or be on evacuation alert. Smoke continues to blanket large portions of the south coast including Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. Air quality advisories have been issued and residents are being advised to avoid strenuous outdoor exercise or to […]

Beijing: A considerably long stretch of the Great Wall of China has disappeared due to natural erosion and unchecked human activity in the absence of preservation measures, says a report in Beijing Times. Research conducted by the China Great Wall Society showed that only around eight percent of the Great Wall built in Ming dynasty — the most visible section of the Great Wall today — are well-preserved. The report […]

As thousands gathered in the streets of Kuwait City to mourn the 27 worshippers killed Friday during an attack carried out at one of the city’s oldest mosques, footage of the suicide bomber believed to be responsible for the deadly blast ricocheted around the city via the messaging service WhatsApp. The footage, which depicts a CCTV monitor replaying the contents of a security camera at Imam Sadiq mosque, bears the […]

You may not know it, but you probably have some Neanderthal in you. For people around the world, except sub-Saharan Africans, about 1 to 3 per cent of their DNA comes from Neanderthals, our close cousins who disappeared roughly 39,000 years ago. Scientists said on Monday a jawbone unearthed in Romania, of a man who lived about 40,000 years ago, boasts the most Neanderthal ancestry ever seen in a member […]

Naiduila (China): China on Monday opened the second land crossing in Tibet via Nathu La to allow the first batch of Indian pilgrims undertaking the arduous Kailash-Manasarovar Yatra, in the latest confidence-building measure between the two neighbours. The opening of the second route through the Himalayan pass of Nathu La in Sikkim, 4,000 metres above sea level, was officially announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China last month […]

The world’s second tallest building, Shanghai Tower, will soon open in the Chinese financial capital with a twist a 120 degree twist, to be exact. A softened triangular “outer skin” is literally twisted around a circular core, sending the glass and steel tower spiralling 632 metres (2,086 feet) into the grey sky above the city. State-backed developer Shanghai Tower Construction and Development Co. views the modern design as a symbol […]

  A 10-storey war memorial proposed for Cape Breton Highlands National Park is plagued with controversy, but a star-studded list of honorary patrons continue to throw their names behind the project. The list of patrons boasts a former prime minister, celebrated artists and high-profile journalists. The Never Forgotten National Memorial Foundation wants to build a $25-million memorial to Canada’s war dead on a stretch of the trail between Ingonish and […]

Tigers, lions, a hippopotamus and other animals have escaped from the zoo in Georgia’s capital after heavy flooding destroyed their enclosures, prompting authorities to warn residents in Tbilisi to say inside on Sunday. At least eight people have been killed in the disaster, including three zoo workers, and 10 are missing. An escaped hippo was cornered in one of the city’s main squares and subdued with a tranquilizer gun, the […]