World

The United States and India are the two key players and it is time that these two countries restore normalcy and democracy in Maldives, Naseem said.

Wang Yi, who will remain foreign minister, succeeds Yang Jiechi, China's senior-most diplomat, who until now was the country's Special Representative on border talks with India.

Prime Minister Theresa May formally notified the EU of Britain's intention to leave by triggering Article 50 of the membership treaty on March 29 2017, setting the clock ticking on a two-year exit process.

The North's state KCNA news agency said on Sunday the Stockholm talks had discussed "bilateral relations and other issues of mutual concern", without providing further detail.

The protesters are calling for the arrest of Yameen and for the Supreme Court ruling, which the president has defied, to be enforced.

"Around 9:10am this morning a suicide car bomb exploded in Police District Nine of Kabul," interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish told AFP, adding the target of the attack was not clear.

As China's vice president, the 69-year-old Wang is expected to be a key element in furthering President Xi Jinping's agenda of shoring up Communist Party rule while ending corruption and poverty.

Sweden has been rumoured as a possible site for the summit, though a truce village on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone between the Koreas is seen as more likely.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in the genteel southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. They have been in a critical condition in hospital ever since.

The Dhaka to Kathmandu US-Bangla Airlines flight, with 67 passengers and four crew members on board, caught fire after it careened off the runway and ploughed into a football ground near the Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday.

The flag with horizontal stripes of black, red and yellow was affixed to a tree along with Canada's flag outside the residence of Governor-General Julie Payette.

The proposal to raise the minimum age for buying guns from 18 to 21 was not part of a modest set of Trump administration school safety plans announced on Sunday and which were closely aligned with National Rifle Association (NRA) positions.

The report said one schoolgirl became pregnant six times in four years. A 14-year-old had her phone number sold to paedophiles and was raped.

The Nepal Army has been pressed into rescue operations and the Tribhuvan International Airport has been closed.

Putin said he sought advice from security officers and was told the emergency plan for that type of situation called for the plane to be shot down.

In one of the largest showings in a recent string of protests, around 500 people turned up for a festive picnic-style rally held on a university field in Bangkok on Saturday.