Early monsoon rains have swept northern India, causing floods and landslides, killing at least 600 and leaving tens of thousands missing, officials report. About 100 towns and villages remain cut off since Sunday, and the death toll is expected to rise. Many of the missing are pilgrims and tourists that were at the foothills of the Himalayas at the Ganges river, which is sacred to Hindus, at the time... 

China has introduced “harsher punishments” for breaking the nation’s environmental protection laws: reckless violators of pollution standards in the world’s biggest and fastest-growing economy now face execution. A new judicial interpretation taking effect on Wednesday has tightened Chinese “lax and superficial” enforcement of environmental protection laws, Xinhua reported citing a government... 

The threat of imprisonment or murder will not stop the truth from coming out, Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who blew the lid on the massive National Security Agency surveillance program, told the Guardian in a live Q&A. The 29-year-old former NSA contractor in conjunction with Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian journalist who broke the story on the NSA’s two controversial data-collection programs... 

Brazilian astronomers made a sensational discovery. On the far side of the galaxy they found a star with characteristics resembling those of the Sun. This star is located 240 light-years away from the Earth. Interestingly, the observed star is two million years older than the Sun, and its observation will help scientists to study the evolution of the Sun. The study was conducted using a space satellite... 

A protester stands with a placard during a rally at a free-speech park called Speakers’ Corner in Singapore on June 8, 2013 In Singapore, up to 2,000 activists lead by local bloggers staged a rally against recently introduced licensing rules for news websites, including breaches of “racial or religious harmony”, which protesters see as an attack on freedom of expression. A crowd with posters... 

Dead baby pills: This is ground baby powder which tests discovered is 99.7 per cent human last year. South Korean officials have stopped 17,000 dead baby pills being imported since last August Thousands of pills filled with powdered human flesh have been discovered by customs officials in South Korea, it was revealed today. The capsules are in demand because they are viewed as being a medicinal ‘cure-all’. The... 

Being nursed back to health: The abandoned baby boy is pictured being fed in hospital after firefighters rescued him from a sewage pipe after he was apparently flushed down a toilet in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province The mother of the newborn baby boy flushed down a toilet in China watched in secret as rescuers dramatically plucked him alive from a sewer pipe. The 22-year-old woman is believed to have raised... 

An Indian woman walks past graffiti against rape written on a wall in New Delhi on April 22, 2013. An American female tourist has been gang-raped by a group of truckers in India’s northern state of Himachal Pradesh, police say. The 30-year-old woman was picked up by three men in a truck late on Monday while hitchhiking to her hotel in Manali town, a tourist resort in the foothills of the Himalayas. The... 

China has dismissed US claims hackers procured blueprints for America’s most advanced weaponry. Beijing stated the allegations underestimate the Chinese people’s intellect and that China is perfectly capable of producing its own weapons. A US Science Board report leaked this week alleged the Chinese hackers had obtained access to the designs of two dozen major US weapons systems in what amounted... 

The discovery of a Monsanto-created, genetically modified strain of wheat in the US that was never approved by the United States Department of Agriculture has imperiled US exports of a staple world food commodity. Japanese authorities have already opted to cancel part of a tender offer to buy US western white wheat and have suspended imports of both that variety and feed wheat, Reuters reported on... 

Maoist rebels at a training camp in eastern India A team of India’s top anti-terrorism investigators and security experts has launched an investigation into a recent deadly ambush by Maoist rebels in the central state of Chhattisgarh, officials say. Indian officials say six-member National investigation Agency team held several meetings with the police and senior administration officials in the troubled... 

The designs for more than two dozen major weapons systems used by the United States military have fallen into the hands of the Chinese, US Department of Defense officials say. Blueprints for the Pentagon’s most advanced weaponry, including the Black Hawk helicopter and the brand new Littoral Combat Ship used by the Navy, have all been compromised, the Defense Science Board claims in a new confidential... 

Yaojiaba, China A Chinese man has used Google maps to locate his family, 23 years after he was abducted. Luo Gang, who was kidnapped when he was just five years old, used the online tool to locate two bridges – the only landmarks he remembered from his hometown. Luo, 28, was snatched in a small town in Sichuan province while on his way to kindergarten. He was then taken hundreds of miles east,... 

Officials within the United States government say hackers from China have renewed their assault on US targets only three months after a highly-touted investigation linked the People’s Liberation Army to a series of cyberattacks waged at American entities. According to the New York Times, computer security experts and US officials alike say the PLA’s sophisticated cyber squadron is attempting to... 

Countries classified today as developing will dominate global savings and investment in less than a generation, according to the World Bank. India and China are forecast to provide 38% of the total investment by 2030. In 17 years time developing countries will provide for more than 50% of the total global stock of capital, up from about 33% they do today, the World Bank said in its Global Development...