International News

The Biden administration announced that it is admitting Israel into the United States Visa Waiver Programme (VWP), allowing visa-free entry to Israeli citizens from November 30.

More than 100 people were killed and 150 injured in a fire at a wedding party in Hamdaniya district in Iraq's Nineveh province that left civil defence searching the charred skeleton of a building for survivors into the early hours of Wednesday.

US astronaut Frank Rubio, who broke the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by an American, and two Russian cosmonauts began their journey back to Earth on Wednesday from the International Space Station (ISS), six months late.

Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians rushed on Wednesday to flee the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia after a lightening military operation by Azerbaijan that has recast the contours of the post-Soviet South Caucasus.

A New York judge found Donald Trump and his family business fraudulently inflated the value of his properties and other assets, in a major defeat for the former US president that could severely hamper his ability to do business in the state.

Russia's most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, lost his appeal on Tuesday against a new 19-year prison term that extends his total sentence to more than 30 years.

India's foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said on Tuesday that India has told Canada it was open to looking into any "specific" or "relevant" information it provides on the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The main political party representing Serbs in northern Kosovo declared three days of mourning on Tuesday for people killed in a gunbattle with Kosovo police, after the worst violence for years in the contested area.

As thousands of Armenians fled their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh saying they feared ethnic cleansing, the US called on Azerbaijan to protect the rights of civilians and allow in humanitarian and monitoring missions.

Police detained protesters on Tuesday in India's tech hub of Bengaluru while demonstrating against the sharing of water from a river that flows through two states.

Ukraine's special forces said on Monday they had killed Moscow's top admiral in Crimea along with 33 other officers in last week's missile attack on the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in the port of Sevastopol.

Mexico's government sent over 1,500 security officials including National Guard, army and police to the south of the country on Monday in a bid to shore up security in an area under increasing pressure from organised crime.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted talks on Monday with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan at which he hinted at the prospect of creating a land corridor between their two countries via Armenia, which opposes the idea.

Sixteen students and workers have been freed after they were kidnapped by gunmen who attacked their university in northwest Zamfara state last week, university authorities said on Monday.

Ethnic Serb gunmen in armoured vehicles stormed a village in north Kosovo on Sunday, battling police and barricading themselves in a monastery in a resurgence of violence in the restive north that killed four people.

Thousands of ethnic Armenians fled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday, queuing up for fuel and jamming the road to Armenia after their decades-old separatist state was defeated by Azerbaijan in a lightning military operation.

One woman was injured and buildings and port infrastructure were severely damaged in Russia's overnight missile and drone attack on the port of Odesa in southern Ukraine, Ukraine's military said on Monday.

Sixteen people were killed in a coal mine accident in Panzhou city in southern China's Guizhou province on Sunday, according to a filing by the mine's owner, Guizhou Panjiang Refined Coal Co, with the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Monday.

A NASA space capsule carrying the largest soil sample ever scooped up from the surface of an asteroid streaked through Earth's atmosphere on Sunday and parachuted into the Utah desert, delivering the celestial specimen to scientists.

Danish Toymaker Lego has abandoned its effort to ditch oil-based plastics from its bricks after finding that its new material led to higher carbon emissions, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

France will pull its soldiers out of Niger following a July coup in the West African country, President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, dealing a huge blow to French influence and counter-insurgency operations in the Sahel region.

The 120,000 ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will leave for Armenia as they do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan and fear ethnic cleansing, the leadership of the breakaway region told Reuters on Sunday.

A NASA capsule carrying the largest soil sample ever collected from an asteroid is due to return to Earth on Sunday, expected to streak through the atmosphere and parachute into the Utah desert to deliver its celestial specimen to scientists.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy awarded two Polish volunteers state awards during a stopover on Saturday, but did not meet any officials as relations between the two countries are strained over grain imports.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to promote cooperative relations with China in a letter to President Xi Jinping, the North's state media KCNA reported on Sunday.

A group of about 30 "heavily armed" men opened fire at Kosovo police in a northern Kosovo village early on Sunday, killing a policeman, and the same armed men also stormed a nearby Serbian Orthodox monastery in the first such major regional violence since May.

US Ambassador to Canada David Cohen confirmed that "shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners" had informed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the possible involvement of Indian agents in the murder of a Canadian citizen in June.

China is willing to work with South Korea to promote a strategic partnership to develop with the times, President Xi Jinping told South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Saturday, amid rising tensions surrounding Russia, the United States and North Korea.

The Lebanese army said on Saturday that it had fired tear gas at Israeli forces in response to attacks by smoke bombs fired by the Israelis in the Bastra area of southern Lebanon.

Norwegian police have arrested a former commander of the Wagner mercenary group on suspicion that he tried to illegally cross the border back into Russia after seeking asylum in Norway earlier this year.

A large chunk of a motorway in southwest Sweden collapsed overnight, causing three people to be taken to hospital with light injuries, police said on Saturday.

South Korea's opposition leader ended a 24-day hunger strike on Saturday, a party spokesperson said, two days after parliament voted to let prosecutors serve an arrest warrant against him for alleged bribery.

The increased frequency of China's military activities around Taiwan recently has raised the risk of events "getting out of hand" and sparking an accidental clash, the island's defence minister said on Saturday.

At least one Ukrainian missile struck the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea navy in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on Friday, and a major cyberattack interrupted internet services on the peninsula, Russian-installed officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday makes his first visit to close ally Canada, where he is guaranteed a warmer welcome than he received from some US politicians sceptical about providing more military aid.

A small but restive volcano near the Philippine capital Manila spewed above average sulfur dioxide and volcanic smog on Friday, prompting authorities to close schools in dozens of cities and towns and to urge people to stay indoors.

India on Thursday suspended new visas for Canadians and asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence in the country, sharply escalating a spat triggered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's accusations linking New Delhi to a Sikh separatist's murder.

US President Joe Biden is establishing a new office of gun violence prevention at the White House to implement existing laws and work with local authorities to pass gun safety legislation at the state level.

Azerbaijan envisages an amnesty for Karabakh Armenian fighters who give up their arms, though there have been some Karabakh military units that have said they will continue their resistance, an Azeri presidential adviser told Reuters.

A Russian attack on a town west of Donetsk near Ukraine's eastern front has injured 13 people, including one pulled out from under rubble, an official from the area was quoted as saying early on Friday.

A bus carrying members of a high school marching band on a trip to a music camp ran off a highway and tumbled down a steep ravine in New York state on Thursday, killing two people and injuring dozens of others, several of them severely.

Lawmakers in India's upper house of Parliament on Thursday gave final consent to a bill to reserve 33 per cent seats in the lower house and state assemblies for women a day after the landmark legislation was approved by the lower house.

Russia launched a massive air attack on the capital Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities on Thursday, injuring at least 18 people and damaging infrastructure facilities across the country, officials said.

India has suspended visa services for Canadian citizens from Thursday, visa consultancy service provider BLS International said on its website, citing a notice from the Indian mission.

Azerbaijan said on Thursday that Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh had arrived for talks after the breakaway region was forced into a ceasefire that stoked calls for the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Former US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that if elected again he would shift resources from federal law enforcement agencies and send thousands of overseas-based troops to the US-Mexico border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appearing in-person at the United Nations Security Council for the first time since the conflict with Russia, sought to shore up support for Kyiv's right to defend itself during a contentious meeting on Wednesday.

Indian lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favour of a landmark bill to reserve a third of the seats in the lower house of parliament and state assemblies for women.

India on Wednesday urged its nationals in Canada, especially students, to exercise "utmost caution" as ties deteriorate after each nation expelled one of the other's diplomats in an escalating row over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader.

Ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh agreed to a Russian proposal for a ceasefire on Wednesday, 24 hours after Azerbaijan began an offensive to take control of the enclave that killed dozens and injured hundreds.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy implored world leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly to stand united against Russia's invasion and said Moscow had to be pushed back so the world could turn to solving pressing global challenges.

India's opposition Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has offered unequivocal support to a bill reserving a third of seats in the lower house of the parliament and state assemblies for women, a day after it was introduced into parliament.

Strong winds and a rare, intense heatwave in early spring fanned dozens of bushfires across Australia's southeast, prompting extreme fire danger warnings on Wednesday for the greater Sydney region, home to more than 5 million people.

A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck near Geraldine in the centre of New Zealand’s South Island on Thursday, government seismic monitor Geonet said, but initial reports indicate no injuries or significant damage.

The Brazilian Navy said on Tuesday it had seized 3.6 metric tons of cocaine on a boat off the coast of northeastern Pernambuco state, in the largest single off-shore capture of the drug by Brazil.

US President Joe Biden appealed to world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to stand with Ukraine against Russian invaders, hoping Republicans in Congress will also take notice.

US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, will plead not guilty to federal gun charges, his attorney said in a court filing on Tuesday.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday disclosed a hacking incident, a breach at one of the world's most high-profile international institutions.

Russia struck three industrial warehouses in a drone strike on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv early on Tuesday, causing a huge fire and killing at least one person, local officials said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday the cabinet had approved a bill to reserve one-third seats in the lower house of parliament and state assemblies for women, reviving a proposal that has been hanging for decades.

Hundreds of people protested in the eastern Libyan city of Derna on Wednesday, venting anger against authorities and demanding accountability one week after a flood killed thousands of its residents and destroyed entire neighbourhoods.

India has expelled a Canadian diplomat with five days' notice to leave the country, just hours after Ottawa expelled the South Asian nation's top intelligence agent and accused it of a role in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed with Japan on its continuous safety review of the discharge of treated water from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the IAEA said on Monday in New York.

One of Sudan's main landmarks, a skyscraper that towered over the River Nile and housed the headquarters of a major oil company, has been reduced to a smouldering wreck amid heavy fighting between rival military factions in the capital.

There has been some improvement in safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi told Russia's RIA news agency in remarks published early on Tuesday.

At least 24 people were killed in a passenger bus accident in Peru on Monday, according to the company operating the vehicle.

People whose homes were swept away by flooding in Libya's eastern city of Derna a week ago faced the dilemma on Sunday of whether to stay and risk infection or flee through areas where landmines have been displaced by the torrents.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his forces had recaptured an eastern village on the southern flank of Bakhmut, in what would be Ukraine's second significant gain in three days in its grueling counteroffensive against the Russian army.

A spring heat wave across large parts of Australia's southeast, including Sydney, will intensify on Monday, the weather bureau said, with temperatures expected to peak up to 16 degrees Celsius above the September average.

Thousands of protesters kicked off "Climate Week" and filled the streets of Midtown, Manhattan, on Sunday ahead of the UN General Assembly this week, calling for President Joe Biden and world leaders to end fossil fuel use.

Lee made landfall as a post-tropical cyclone packing hurricane-force winds in Canada's Nova Scotia province, flooding roads, downing trees and cutting out power for tens of thousands of people along the North Atlantic coast.

The chief of the World Health Organisation urged Beijing to offer more information on the origins of COVID-19 and is ready to send a second team to probe the matter, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Russia said it had thwarted a coordinated Ukrainian attack on Crimea early on Sunday, while drones also targeted Moscow, disrupting air traffic in the capital, and causing a fire at an oil depot in the southwest of the country.

At least 11,300 people have died and another 10,100 are missing from the coastal city of Derna one week after Storm Daniel hit northeastern Libya, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported.

Fourteen people on a small jet died when the plane crashed in Brazil's northern Amazonas state on Saturday, the state's governor said.

Russia launched a combined drone and missile attack on Ukraine early on Sunday, targeting chiefly the southern parts of the Odesa region and hitting an agriculture facility there, Ukraine's Air Forces said on the Telegram messaging app.

A train with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on board has left the railway station in Russia's Far Eastern city of Artyom bound for home, wrapping up his visit to Russia, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Ankara could "part ways" with the European Union if necessary when asked about the contents of a European Parliament report on Turkey.

Germany has decided to keep taking in migrants and refugees arriving in Italy, the interior minister said late on Friday, two days after it announced the suspension of a voluntary agreement with Rome to receive new arrivals.

A man was arrested in the earlier hours of Saturday morning after being spotted climbing into the Royal Mews adjacent to Buckingham Palace in London, police said.

Moscow has dismissed the conviction of Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin in a US court for participating in a US$93 million (AED 341.59 million) insider-trading scheme as "politically motivated".

Iranian security forces released Mahsa Amini's father on Saturday after briefly detaining and warning him against marking the anniversary of her death, a human rights group said.

Ovidio Guzman, the son of imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was extradited to the United States on Friday to face fentanyl trafficking charges, in a boost for the Biden administration's push to curb the spread of the deadly opioid.

Libyans from across the fragmented country have driven through old front lines regardless of bitter enmities to deliver aid to flood-stricken Derna this week, putting aside years of conflict between their leaders.

British police said on Friday they had charged three people with the murder of 10-year-old girl Sara Sharif found dead at her home last month, including her father.

Ukraine's military said on Friday that its troops have captured a village near Bakhmut, the eastern city that fell into Russian hands in May after being besieged for many months.

A UNESCO committee has decided not to add Venice to the organisation's World Heritage List in Danger, disregarding a recommendation from experts and sparing the Italian government from an embarrassing verdict on the city's condition.

Villagers in some of the most isolated areas hit by Morocco's earthquake were still living in makeshift tents and relying on donkeys to bring vital supplies on Thursday as they waited for state aid to reach them nearly a week after the disaster.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a sanctioned fighter jet plant in Russia on Friday as part of a rare visit that the US and its allies fear could strengthen Russia's military in Ukraine and bolster Pyongyang's missile programme.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is releasing $2 million from its emergency fund to support the victims of floods in eastern Libya, its director general said on Thursday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to his country during their talks in Russia, state media reported on Thursday, with Kim expected to continue his trip with visits to military production facilities.

A luxury cruise ship that ran aground this week in a remote Greenland location with 206 people on board was pulled free by a fishing trawler on Thursday, a passenger and Denmark's armed forces said.

Experts have fanned out in India's southern state of Kerala to collect samples of fluid from bats and fruit trees in a region where the deadly Nipah virus has killed two people and three more have tested positive.

Ukraine said on Thursday it downed 17 out of 22 Russian drones attacking its territory overnight, and that a child was killed in the country's south by artillery shelling.

Survivors of a flood that swept away the centre of a Libyan city picked through the ruins on Thursday in search of loved ones from among thousands of dead and missing, while authorities feared an outbreak of disease.

President Vladimir Putin promised help to North Korea build satellites and showed Kim Jong Un around Russia's most modern space launch facility on Wednesday before talks that were expected to include military matters.

At least 30 people have been killed in a fire at an apartment block in Vietnam's capital Hanoi, local media reported on Wednesday, citing the city's police.

Authorities closed down some schools and offices and declared more than seven villages as containment zones in the southern Indian state of Kerala after it recorded two deaths from the rare and deadly brain-damaging Nipah virus.

Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan's jail detention related to charges of leaking state secrets was extended for another two weeks, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

North Korea fired two ballistic missiles off its east coast, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Japanese Coast Guard said on Wednesday, just hours before leader Kim Jong Un was expected to meet President Vladimir Putin in Russia.

Thousands of people have been killed and at least 10,000 are missing in Libya in floods caused by a huge Mediterranean storm that burst dams, swept away buildings and wiped out as much as a quarter of the eastern coastal city of Derna.

A cruise ship carrying 206 people has run aground in a remote location in eastern Greenland and was not immediately able to free itself, the Danish military's Joint Arctic Command (JAC) said on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday indicated he was bracing for a long war in Ukraine, saying that Kyiv could use any ceasefire to rearm and that Washington would continue to see Russia as an enemy no matter who won the 2024 US election.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has arrived in Russia, a source told Reuters on Tuesday, for what the Kremlin said would be a comprehensive discussion with President Vladimir Putin amid warnings from Washington they should not agree on an arms deal.

An American caver who had become trapped more than 1,000 metres underground in southern Turkey after falling ill was rescued early on Tuesday, after a days-long international rescue operation.

Villagers in parts of Morocco devastated by the country's biggest earthquake in over a century camped outside for a fourth night on Monday, as the death toll rose to more than 2,800 people.

About a quarter of Libya's eastern city of Derna was wiped out after dams burst in a storm, the administration in the area said on Tuesday, and the Red Cross said 10,000 people were feared to be missing across the country in floods.

Rescuers raced against time on Monday to find survivors in the rubble more than 48 hours after Morocco's deadliest earthquake in more than six decades, with more than 2,100 killed in a disaster that devastated villages in the High Atlas Mountains.

At least 26 people died and several others were missing after a ferry capsized on a reservoir in north central Nigeria on Sunday.

Residual rains from former typhoon Haikui, now a tropical storm, drenched southern China for the seventh day as slow-moving storm clouds drifted from Guangdong on the coast to Guangxi, flooding low-lying areas, blocking roads and trapping residents.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to have departed aboard a special train bound for Russia and a summit with President Vladimir Putin, South Korean media reported on Monday, citing unnamed senior government sources.

Niger's junta has accused France of deploying troops in several West African countries as part of preparations for a possible military intervention together with the regional bloc ECOWAS in Niger.

At least 40 people were killed in an airstrike on a market in southern Khartoum, Sudan, the local volunteer group Southern Khartoum Emergency Room said in a statement on Sunday.

Rescuers searched on Sunday for survivors of Morocco's deadliest earthquake in more than six decades, with more than 2,000 people killed by the disaster that has laid waste to villages in the mountains near Marrakech.

India on Sunday formally handed over the G20 presidency to Brazil at the closing ceremony of the annual summit of the grouping, that was held in New Delhi this weekend.

Russia fired nearly three dozen drones at Kyiv early on Sunday, with blasts ringing out across the Ukrainian capital and the surrounding region for around two hours and debris falling across several city districts, Ukrainian officials said.

Morocco's deadly earthquake prompted Algeria, which cut ties with its neighbour two years ago, to put aside the countries' bad relations and open its air space to aid flights.

A former British soldier suspected of terrorism offences who escaped from prison earlier this week was recaptured in London on Saturday, police said.

Azerbaijan's defence ministry said on Saturday that Armenian forces had fired on its troops overnight, and that Azerbaijan army units took "retaliatory measures".

Morocco's deadly earthquake hit near Marrakech, a city beloved of Moroccans and foreign tourists for its medieval mosques, palaces, and seminaries richly adorned with vivid mosaic tiling amid a labyrinth of rose-hued alleyways.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's placard at the opening of the G20 summit on Saturday referred to India as "Bharat", raising speculation of a change of name for the South Asian nation.

The African Union was made a permanent member of the G20, comprising the world's richest and most powerful countries, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the bloc's summit in New Delhi on Saturday.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook Morocco on Friday, killing at least 1,037 people and damaging buildings and landmarks in several cities, including Marrakech, according to local authorities.

Four people were killed and scores wounded on Friday in Russian air strikes on Ukraine, including a deadly attack in which a missile slammed into a police building in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's hometown.

Ukraine's foreign ministry condemned "sham elections" being staged by Russia in occupied Ukrainian territories on Friday, saying they were "worthless" and would have no legal standing.

The Asian financial hub of Hong Kong was drenched on Friday by the heaviest rain since records began 140 years ago, killing one person and injuring 83, media reported, as unusually wet weather caused by typhoons brought more disruption to southern China.

Leaders of the Group of 20 major economies began arriving in New Delhi on Friday for their annual gathering as negotiators struggled to bridge differences over the war in Ukraine, seeking to build consensus for a successful summit host India wants.

It is difficult to predict if leaders of the G20 grouping gathering for a summit in New Delhi this weekend can reach a consensus on a declaration, European Council President Charles Michel said on Friday.

North Korea has launched its first operational "tactical nuclear attack submarine" and assigned it to the fleet that patrols the waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan, state media said on Friday.

Japan launched a lunar exploration spacecraft on Thursday aboard a homegrown H-IIA rocket, hoping to become the world's fifth country to land on the moon early next year.

The US envoy to the United Nations met Sudanese refugees fleeing ethnic and sexual violence on Wednesday and said the US would "do everything in our power to prevent and respond to mass atrocities" in Sudan's war.

Russian drone strikes have damaged port infrastructure, a grain silo and administrative buildings in the Izmail district of Ukraine's Odesa region, its governor, Oleh Kiper, said on Thursday.

A man has been arrested after trying to "run" across the Atlantic Ocean in a homemade vessel resembling a hamster wheel.

The death toll from heavy rains in southern Brazil rose to 36, local authorities said, as a tropical cyclone battered and soaked the region, flooding homes and swelling rivers.

Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, will be boarding Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity and blasting off to space on Sunday.

Singapore is reviewing penalties for violent offences following an outcry over a 12-day prison sentence for a student who strangled his girlfriend until she blacked out.