New Delhi / AFP India successfully launched on Wednesday a rocket carrying a record 20 satellites as its famously frugal space agency looks to grab a larger slice of the lucrative commercial space market. The rocket blasted off from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota carrying satellites from the US, Germany, Canada and Indonesia, the most in a single Indian mission. ...

  Diffa, Niger / AFP Outside the Diffa grand mosque in Niger’s southeast, two soldiers stand at the ready, rifles pointed at the wave of worshippers walking towards them. Unbidden, the men raise their “boubous”, the traditional wide-sleeved robes worn across West Africa. They need to show they’re not hiding explosives under the tunics. This is one of the ways ...

  United Nations / AFP The United Nations urged South Sudan’s government to hold accountable the perpetrators of February’s violent attacks on a camp sheltering nearly 50,000 displaced civilians in the northeastern oil hub Malakal. A May inquiry found that assailants, some wearing South Sudan army (SPLA) uniforms, entered the camp on February 17 and 18 through a breached fence and ...

  London / AFP Rival sides threw their efforts into the final day of campaigning on Wednesday, on the eve of Britain’s vote on EU membership that will shape the future of Europe. Prime Minister David Cameron conducted a spate of last-minute interviews to get his pro-EU message to voters before polls open at 0600 GMT on Thursday. “Nobody knows ...

  New Delhi / AFP At least 67 people have been killed by lightning in India over the past two days, disaster management officials said on Wednesday, as the annual monsoon rains sweep the country. Lightning strikes are relatively common in India during the June-October monsoon, which hit the southern coast earlier this month, but this week’s toll is particularly ...

  Los Angeles / AFP A US court convicted two men of attempting to help the IS group in Iraq and Syria, with one attempting to travel to the Middle East. A jury found Nader Elhuzayel and Muhanad Badawi, both 25, guilty of conspiring to provide material support to the extremist group, the US Justice Department said in a statement. ...

  MOSCOW / AP With President Vladimir Putin heading to China this weekend, officials in both countries extoll a blossoming “strategic partnership” between the two former communist rivals. But despite Moscow’s push to strengthen ties with Beijing amid a bitter strain in relations with the West, Russia-China trade has shrunk sharply and a slew of ambitious projects have remained largely on ...

  BEIJING / AP Diplomats from the US and North Korea are attending a six-nation security forum in Beijing on Wednesday, in a rare opportunity for contact between them after the North fired two suspected powerful new ballistic missiles. Despite their attendance at the event, the US State Department has said there were no plans for direct talks between the ...

  LOS ANGELES / AP For days, wildfires have raged amid spiking heat across Southern California and much of the West, driving hundreds of people from their homes. Yet homes have overwhelmingly remained safe so far, after aggressive and strategic firefighting and a dose of luck. In the foothill suburbs northeast of Los Angeles, a major wildfire gave a major ...

  ALKESH SHARMA / Emirates Business Cloud computing is the new means for companies to ensure success and beat the throat-cut competition in UAE’s burgeoning business ecosystem. Not only big enterprises but SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and start-ups also are harnessing wonders of the clouds to optimum levels in order to scale new heights. “There are many secure platforms ...