World

Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran held formal talks in Beijing on restoration of diplomatic relations. In a statement, Iran’s foreign ministry said Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan met and discussed steps towards reopening the embassies and consulates of the two countries. It…

Israeli forces have attacked dozens of worshipers on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem and arrested at least 400 Palestinians. The Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement that seven Palestinians sustained wounds from rubber-tipped bullets and beatings in clashes with Israeli police at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.…

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has filed an appeal against his conviction and jail sentence in a criminal defamation case. The court in Gujarat state granted him bail until the next hearing on 13 April. Rahul Gandhi had been sentenced to two years in jail for 2019 comments about Prime…

Nine soldiers were killed when two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters crashed during a training exercise in Kentucky on Wednesday night, officials said Thursday morning. The crash occurred at around 10 p.m. local time (11 p.m. ET) in Trigg County, west of Fort Campbell, the Army base said in a…

At least eight devotees were killed and around a dozen rescued on Thursday after about 25 people fell into a well at a Hindu temple in India, police said. The worshippers plunged into the stepwell – a stair-lined communal water source – after the floor covering it collapsed in the central city…

Many Muslims in the United States who were observing Ramadan broke their fast and offered Taraweeh prayer at Times Square in New York for the second year in a row. Muslim social media influencer SQ organised the weekend event in association with Muslims Giving Back and Droplets of Mercy. Dahlia…

Israel has demolished 953 Palestinian homes the highest number in seven years in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem during last year. According to report released by the EU mission in the Palestine, more than twenty eight thousands people have been displaced as a result of the demolitions. The…

Airports and bus and train stations across Germany were at a standstill on Monday, causing disruption for millions at the start of the working week during one of the largest walkouts in decades as Europe’s biggest economy reels from inflation. The 24-hour “warning” strikes called by the Verdi trade union and railway…

Spain’s first major wildfire of the year raged in the eastern Valencia region on Friday, destroying more than 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) of forest and forcing 1,500 residents to abandon their homes, authorities said. An unusually dry winter across parts of the south of the European continent has reduced moisture in…

India’s parliament on Friday disqualified the leader of the main opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, a day after a court jailed him for two years in a defamation case loosely linked to the prime minister, parliament said in a statement. Gandhi “stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha”, parliament said,…

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping were set to hold a second day of talks on Tuesday, the Russian leader Vladimir Putin said he was open to discussing China’s proposals on the fighting in Ukraine. The sit-down was to be unexpectedly mirrored in Kyiv, where Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was en route to…

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met on Sunday with Emirati leaders in Abu Dhabi, his second Gulf visit since last month’s earthquake in his country prompted renewed efforts to bring Damascus back into the Arab fold. The trip — Assad’s second to the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) in as many years — comes after…

Chinese President Xi Jinping met his “dear friend” Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, seeking both to deepen economic ties with an ally he sees as a useful counterweight to the West and to promote Beijing’s role as a potential peacemaker in Ukraine. Xi was the first leader to meet…

A speeding bus veered off a major expressway in central Bangladesh and plunged into a ditch, killing at least 19 people and injuring dozens, police said. The death toll could rise further as some of the injured passengers are in critical condition, said Anowar Hossain, a police official of Shibchar, where the…

China will reopen its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in three years since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted by allowing all categories of visas to be issued from Wednesday. The removal of this last cross-border control measure imposed to guard against COVID-19 comes after authorities last month declared…

Four years before Li Qiang gained notoriety as the force behind the two-month COVID-19 lockdown of Shanghai, the man who became China’s premier on Saturday worked quietly behind the scenes to drive a bold revamp of the megacity’s sclerotic stock market. Li’s back-channelling — sources said he bypassed the China…

Israeli troops martyred 11 Palestinians Wednesday in a raid on the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, while more than 80 suffered gunshot wounds, the Palestinian health ministry said. The Israeli army said the raid targeted suspects “in a hideout apartment” accused of shootings in the West Bank. It added…

A desert bloom triggered by heavier than usual winter rains has carpeted the sands of northern Saudi Arabia with purple flowers, drawing sightseers from across the Arabian Peninsula. Muhammad al-Mutairi drove nearly six hours from his hometown in the centre of the kingdom to see the rare burst of colour…

Saudi Arabia will send its first-ever woman astronaut on a space mission later this year, state media has reported, in the latest move to revamp the kingdom’s ultra-conservative image. Rayyana Barnawi will join fellow Saudi male astronaut Ali Al-Qarni on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) “during the second quarter…

A gunman opened fire on Monday night at Michigan State University’s main campus, killing three people and injuring five, some severely, before he was found dead hours later, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot, police said. Few official details about the gun violence were immediately available, but Chris Rozman, interim deputy chief of…

A huge earthquake killed more than 2,300 people and injured thousands more on Monday in Turkey and northwest Syria, flattening apartment blocks and heaping more destruction on Syrian cities already devastated by years of war. The magnitude 7.8 quake, which hit before sunrise in bitter winter weather, was the worst…