In the currency market, the rupee ended firmer at 90.75/79 to the dollar, compared with Tuesday's close of 90.86/91 amid lack of import payments. But dealers expect pressure on the local unit to continue due to rising international oil prices, which hit a nine-month high on Tuesday. The rupee touched a record low of 91.28 to the dollar in January, pressured by worries about higher payments for oil imports and the country's overall economic health. …

Shortly before the United States ended a two-month pause in missile strikes on militants in Pakistan last month, senior U.S. officials telephoned their Pakistani counterparts and told them Washington would be resuming its covert drone program despite mounting objections in Islamabad. Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were among those who spoke with Pakistani officials shortly before the eight-week pause in the drone …

Western schoolchildren are up to three years behind those in China's Shanghai and success in Asian education is not just the product of pushy "tiger" parents, an Australian report released Friday said. The study by independent think-tank The Grattan Institute said East Asia was the centre of high performance in schools with four of the world's top systems in the region - Hong Kong, South Korea, Shanghai and Singapore. "In Shanghai, the average …

Defending champion Milos Raonic of Canada advanced to the semi-finals of the $531,000 ATP San Jose Open on Friday by defeating South African sixth seed Kevin Anderson 7-5, 7-6 (7/3). Third seed Raonic fired 16 aces and never faced a break point in booking himself into a Saturday matchup against American Ryan Harrison, who earlier ousted Bulgarian Dimitar Kutrovsky 6-1, 6-4 at the indoor hardcourt tournament. Raonic claimed the first set with his …

A fire gutted an overcrowded jail in Honduras, killing more than 350 people, officials said Wednesday, as rescue teams found the charred bodies of inmates trapped in their cells by the blaze. Survivors described wrenching scenes of prisoners pleading for help as they were engulfed by choking smoke and flames, some unable to flee because they were still shackled to the bars of their cells in what is the world's worst prison fire in a decade. Those …

A foreigner was seriously wounded when a device he was suspected of carrying exploded in the Thai capital Bangkok on Tuesday, police said. Police investigators rushed to the scene after three men were seen fleeing from a house where a blast was reported in the east of the city. One of the men hurled an explosive device at a taxi which refused to stop and later tried to throw another device at police, triggering a blast which tore off his legs, …

China's defence budget will double between 2011 and 2015 and outstrip the combined spending of all other key defence markets in the Asia-Pacific region, global research group IHS said Tuesday. China's defence budget stood at $119.8 billion last year and will rise to $238.2 billion in 2015, marking a combined annual growth rate of 18.75 percent during the period, the US-based IHS said in a forecast. The 2015 figure exceeds the combined total of …

Mexican soldiers on Thursday seized more than 15 tons of methamphetamines and other substances used to manufacture illegal drugs from a farm in western Mexico, officials said. The confiscated drugs represent the biggest seizure in the country's more than five-year war against drug cartels, according to the Mexican army. The operation resulted from an inspection of the farm by army troops in the town of Tlajomulco de Zuniga, where police report …

The death toll from the devastating earthquake in the New Zealand city of Christchurch last February has been raised to 185, the coroner's office said Thursday. The coroner initially found 181 people were killed as a direct result of the 6.3-magnitude quake, but more deaths had been recorded as part of the toll in recent weeks after reviews of their cases, a spokesman for the coroner said. He said the most recent addition, taking the toll to 185, …

Solar radiation from a massive sun storm - the largest in nearly a decade - collided with the Earth's atmosphere on Tuesday, prompting an airline to reroute flights and skywatchers to seek out spectacular light displays. US carrier Delta Air Lines said it had adjusted flight routes for transpolar journeys between Asia and the United States to avoid problems caused by the radiation storm, a spokesman said. NASA confirmed the coronal mass ejection …