PARIS: Europe´s busiest train station, Paris´ bustling Gare du Nord, may get a much-needed facelift after a government tribunal Friday approved part of a 600-million-euro ($663-million) plan to enlarge and modernise the 155-year-old edifice. A noisy hive of passengers and shoppers, the station serves as a stop for the Eurostar from London, the Thalys from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, …

Mexico City: A freight train smashed into a bus in Mexico Friday, killing eight people and injuring seven, authorities said. The bus driver tried to beat the approaching train at a railroad crossing in the village of La Valla, in the central state of Queretaro, but miscalculated, emergency officials said. Images from the scene showed the wreckage of the bus …

MEXICO CITY: A small boat carrying African migrants off the coast of southern Mexico sank Friday, leaving one dead and two missing, authorities said. The boat was traveling off the southern border state of Chiapas when it listed to one side, pitching its occupants into the water, the state prosecutor´s office said in a statement. Authorities mounted a search operation …

LONDON: Legendary Hollywood actor Robert De Niro renewed his criticism of Donald Trump on Friday, telling a London audience the US president was trying to “destroy” American institutions “to save himself”. In a wide-ranging question-and-answer event at the London Film Festival, De Niro said Trump was attempting to “upend” Americans´ views of typically non-partisan entities like the CIA and FBI. …

Alexei Leonov, a legendary Soviet cosmonaut who was the first man to perform a spacewalk in 1965, died in Moscow on Friday aged 85 after a long illness. The Russian space agency Roscosmos said it was saddened to announce the death of “cosmonaut No 11” who was twice decorated with the country’s top honour, the Hero of the Soviet Union. …

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday urged the NBA to stand up to China, wading into a row as Beijing pressures the basketball league after a team official expressed support for pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong. The top US diplomat was applauded for the comments in a speech to a Christian group in Nashville as he denounced …

WASHINGTON: US troops near the northern Syrian border came under artillery fire from Turkish positions on Friday, a Pentagon spokesman said, warning that the US was prepared to meet aggression with “immediate defensive action.” The US military confirmed an explosion around 9.00pm (1800 GMT) within a few hundred meters of its post near the town of Kobani, in an area …

WASHINGTON: Acting US homeland security chief Kevin McAleenan has resigned, US President Donald Trump announced late Friday, becoming the latest in a long list of top officials to leave the administration. “Kevin McAleenan has done an outstanding job as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security. We have worked well together with Border Crossings being way down,” Trump said in a tweet. …

MAHABALIPURAM: Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Indian host Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged at an informal summit to cooperate against “radicalisation”, India said late Friday, after the Asian giants with historically prickly ties had exchanged sharp words over Kashmir. The seaside meeting aimed at mending relations after India irked China by its splitting of Jammu and Kashmir state into …

SARGODHA: Police in Sargodha on Friday arrested two serial killers involved in the gruesome murder of at least seven taxi drivers, according to officials privy to the developments. District Police Officer Sargodha told the media at a press conference that the suspects used to book taxi rides and afterwards give drugs to the taxi driver. The suspects then proceeded to …