International News

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday he was not thinking about dissolving parliament, brushing aside speculation he could call a snap election in the coming months to solidify his standing within his ruling party.

King Charles travels to Germany on Wednesday in his first state visit abroad since becoming British monarch, as part of efforts to turn the page on years of rocky relations between Britain and the European Union after its exit from the bloc.

China threatened to retaliate on Wednesday if U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meets Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen during her planned transit of the United States next month.

Russia has begun exercises with its Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system and several thousand troops, in what is likely to be seen as another attempt by Moscow to show off its nuclear strength.

French protesters blocked train tracks and highways, and clashed with police in some cities, as they marched across the country on Tuesday against President Emmanuel Macron and his deeply unpopular pension bill.

At least 39 migrants from Central and South America died after a fire broke out late on Monday at a migrant holding center in the Mexican northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, the government's National Migration Institute (INM) said on Tuesday.

Ukraine's president said Russian troops were holding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant "hostage" and its safety could not be guaranteed until they left it, while his forces shut the frontline town of Avdiivka as they planned their next move.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paused his signature plan to overhaul Israel's judiciary after a day of nationwide turmoil when workers joined a general strike against the proposal and hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets.

Three children were killed in a shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday morning before police "engaged" the suspected attacker, leaving the suspect dead, local officials said.

France faces a new nationwide day of strikes and protests on Tuesday after some of the country's worst street violence in years marred rallies over the past week.

The 18 Leopard 2 battle tanks pledged by Germany to support Ukraine in its war against Russia have arrived in Ukraine, a security source said on Monday, confirming a report by Spiegel news magazine.

Scottish nationalists picked Humza Yousaf to be the country's next leader on Monday after a bitterly fought contest that exposed deep divisions in his party over policy and a stalled independence campaign.

Trade union protesters angered over President Emmanuel Macron's move to raise the retirement age without a final vote in parliament blocked the Louvre museum in Paris on Monday, frustrating crowds of visitors.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to halt his bitterly contested judicial overhaul, an official from his Likud party said on Monday, a day after the sacking of his defence chief over the plan sparked mass street protests.

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast on Monday morning, the latest in a series of launches as a U.S. aircraft carrier is set to arrive in South Korea.

A top security adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Russian plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would destabilise that country, which he said had been taken "hostage" by Moscow.

Rescuers combed through rubble on Saturday after a powerful storm tore across Mississippi late on Friday, killing at least 25 people there and one person in Alabama as it leveled hundreds of buildings and spawned at least one devastating tornado.

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday he had been disqualified from parliament because he has been asking the prime minister tough questions about his relationship with Gautam Adani, founder of the embattled Adani conglomerate.

At least 23 people were killed and dozens injured as a tornado and strong thunderstorms ripped across Mississippi late on Friday, the state's emergency management agency said, with the twister leaving a trail of damage for more than 100 miles (160 km).

Firefighters said on Saturday they had stopped Spain's first major wildfire of the year from spreading further through the eastern Valencia region.

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.

King Charles' state visit to France has been delayed after trade unions called for another day of nationwide strikes and street protests during his stay, the French presidency said on Friday.

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.

Ukrainian troops, on the defensive for four months, will soon launch a counterassault as Russia's huge winter offensive weakens without capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukraine's top ground forces commander said.

North Korea has tested a new nuclear-capable underwater attack drone that can generate a radioactive tsunami, state media reported on Friday, as it blamed joint military drills by South Korea and the US for raising tensions in the region.

Syria and Saudi Arabia have agreed to reopen their embassies, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, a step that would mark a leap forward in Damascus' return to the Arab fold.

An Indian court sentenced opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday to two years in jail on charges of defamation for a 2019 speech in which he referred to thieves as having the surname Modi.

Russian drones attacked Ukrainian cities and missiles blasted an apartment block, but a months-long ground assault on the eastern town of Bakhmut could be stalling in the face of fierce resistance, according to Ukrainian and British military experts.

A combative Boris Johnson fought for his political career on Wednesday, as the former British prime minister said "hand on heart" he did not lie to parliament over COVID-19 lockdown parties at a hearing with lawmakers.

Hundreds of thousands of people were set to strike and demonstrate in France on Thursday after President Emmanuel Macron vowed to push on with a deeply unpopular pension reform despite escalating anger across the country.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will visit China next week following a formal invitation by President Xi Jinping, as the Asian country seeks to position itself as a mediator in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

President Joe Biden plans to have a brief meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's biggest political rival during an official visit to Canada that begins on Thursday, a senior administration official said.

At least four people were killed early on Wednesday in a Russian drone strike near Kyiv which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said showed Moscow was not interested in peace.

A new study has revealed that people who got COVID-19 vaccination after getting infected tend to have a weaker immune response to the shots compared to those who never had the virus, potentially leaving them less protected against reinfection. 

Scientists have issued a "final warning" on the climate crisis, as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, pushing the world towards irreversible damage that only immediate, drastic action can prevent.

Greece reopened some train routes on Wednesday, three weeks after a deadly train crash forced authorities to suspend all rail service across the country over safety concerns.

At least 13 people were killed and more than 90 injured in Pakistan and Afghanistan after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck late on Tuesday, government officials said.

The death rate in China's capital Beijing surpassed its birth rate in 2022, official data showed on Tuesday, pushing its natural population growth into negative territory for the first time since 2003.

China's President Xi Jinping and Russia's President Vladimir Putin set their sights on shaping a new world order as the Chinese leader left Moscow on Wednesday, having made no direct support for Putin's war in Ukraine during his two-day visit.

French President Emmanuel Macron will break his silence on Wednesday to outline plans after his administration survived a no-confidence motion in parliament over a deeply unpopular pension reform,the government spokesman said.

Pakistan's parliament is to meet in a special joint session on Wednesday to "take important decisions" to enforce the state's authority, media reported, in the midst of prolonged anti-government defiance by former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping planned more talks on Tuesday after a Kremlin dinner where the isolated Russian president curried favour with his most powerful ally in the face of Western opposition to the war in Ukraine.

Workers erected barricades around a Manhattan courthouse on Monday as New York City braced for a possible indictment of Donald Trump over an alleged hush-money payment to an adult film star during his 2016 campaign.

Ukraine's defence ministry said on Monday that an explosion in Dzhankoi in the north of the Crimean peninsula destroyed Russian cruise missiles intended for use by Russia's Black Sea fleet.

Journalists at various news outlets in Ecuador have been sent envelopes containing electronic devices fitted with explosives, the attorney general's office said on Monday, adding it has opened a terrorism investigation in the incidents.

Chinese President Xi Jinping flew into Moscow on Monday where he was expected to press Beijing's role as a potential peacemaker in the Ukraine conflict while Russian President Vladimir Putin hoped for support against Western pressure.

A Singapore shoe recycling project will be subject to surprise inspections following a Reuters investigation that found footwear it donated to the scheme was not recycled, Singapore's minister of culture said on Monday.

Dozens of supporters and aides of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan have been arrested as part of a crackdown on those involved in recent clashes with the security forces.

Justice ministers from around the world will meet in London on Monday to discuss scaling up support for the International Criminal Court after it issued an arrest warrant last week for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A speeding bus veered off a major expressway in central Bangladesh and plunged into a ditch, killing at least 19 people and injured dozens, police said.

President Vladimir Putin made a surprise weekend visit to the war-ravaged port of Mariupol, state media reported, the Kremlin leader's first trip to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine's Donbas region since the conflict began.

At least 14 people were killed in a strong earthquake that shook a coastal region of Ecuador and northern Peru on Saturday, causing structural damage to multiple homes, schools and medical centres.

Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan officially marked his presence in court in the country's capital on Saturday, his aide said, complying with judicial orders after a standoff with police.

North Korea claims that about 800,000 of its citizens volunteered to join or reenlist in the nation's military to fight against the United States.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump posted to YouTube and Facebook on Friday, in a return to the tech platforms he used to power his political rise until he was cut off following the January 6, 2021, attack on Congress by his followers.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant on Friday against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of being responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of children from Ukraine.

Russia said on Friday that all fighter jets supplied to Ukraine by Western nations would be destroyed after NATO members Poland and Slovakia pledged to send MiG-29 jets to Kyiv.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will be in Russia from March 20-22 for a state visit after he was invited by President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan plans to go to court on Friday to support a plea he made to halt a police operation to arrest him for failing to attend a hearing, an aide said.

New Zealand said on Friday it would ban TikTok on devices with access to the country's parliamentary network due to cybersecurity concerns, becoming the latest nation to limit the use of the video-sharing app on government-related devices.

Police fired tear gas at protesters on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France, where some 7,000 people demonstrated against the government's pension changes in a spontaneous and unplanned rally.

North Korea said that Thursday's launch was its largest Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), fired during a drill to demonstrate a "tough response posture" to ongoing US-South Korea military drills, state media reported.

The United States has released a de-classified video showing Russia's intercept of a US military surveillance drone downed over the Black Sea two days ago.

Flights to and from Greece will be grounded and ships will remain docked at ports on Thursday, as Greek workers walk off the job to protest over the country's deadliest train crash on record which killed 57 people on February 28.

An atmospheric river dumped more torrential rain on California on Wednesday, forcing evacuations, power outages and road closures, while the remnants of a powerful Nor'easter blizzard buried much of upstate New York and New England under snow.

Yoon Suk Yeol arrived in Tokyo on Thursday, hours after North Korea fired a ballistic missile, as he looks to use the first visit to Japan by a South Korean president in 12 years to find common ground at a time of heightened tension in the region.

The US military said a Russian fighter plane clipped the propeller of one of its spy drones and made it crash into the Black Sea on Tuesday in the first such direct encounter between the two powers since Russia invaded Ukraine over a year ago.

A Pakistani high court ordered police on Thursday to postpone an operation to arrest Imran Khan for another day, defusing a surge in violence that saw supporters of the former prime minister fighting pitched battles with security forces.

Hundreds of Google employees staged a walkout on Wednesday at the company's office in Zurich, Switzerland, after more than 200 workers were laid off.

Pakistani security forces withdrew from around Imran Khan's home on Wednesday, putting a halt to clashes that had erupted after police tried to arrest the former prime minister for not showing up in a case against him related to selling state gifts.

North Korea's latest missile launches were a military drill designed to train crews to carry out their mission at any time and "annihilate the enemy" if necessary, the country's state media KCNA said on Wednesday.

Russia said on Tuesday it had agreed out of "goodwill" to extend the Black Sea deal that facilitates Ukraine's grain exports, but a key part of the agreement was still not being implemented to Moscow's satisfaction.

Ukraine's future hinges on the outcome of battles in the east, including in and around Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, with both sides describing brutal fighting in the small city as Russia intensifies a winter campaign to capture it.

India's Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the government's plea seeking more compensation from Union Carbide Corporation for victims of a gas leak in the central Indian city of Bhopal that resulted in one of the world's worst industrial disasters.

China said that it will reopen its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in the three years since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic by restoring the issuance of all types of visas from Wednesday.

The United States, Australia and Britain, on Monday, unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines from the early 2030s.

Ukrainian forces faced relentless Russian attacks on Bakhmut in its eastern Donetsk region, with both sides reporting mounting enemy casualties as they battled across a small river that bisects the ruined town and now marks the front line.

Mozambique and Malawi were on Monday counting the cost of Tropical Storm Freddy, which ripped through southern Africa for the second time in a month over the weekend, leaving a trail of destruction and killing at least 17 people.

The Kremlin said on Monday it was not ruling out Russian President Vladimir Putin attending a summit of leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) developed and emerging economies on September 9-10 in New Delhi.

New Zealand will move out of a state of emergency on Tuesday as the country starts to recover from damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle last month, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty said on Monday.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has announced new steps to ban oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean and limit onshore drilling in Alaska, to protect whales, seals, polar bears, grizzly bears and caribou.

Ukraine and Russia claimed on Saturday that hundreds of enemy troops were killed over the previous 24 hours in the fight for Bakhmut, with Kyiv fending off unabating attacks and a small river that bisects the town now marking the new front line.

Indonesia's Merapi volcano erupted on Saturday, spewing hot clouds up to seven kilometres, the country's disaster management agency said in a statement.

At least six people have died in Peru over the last few days as a powerful cyclone unleashed torrential rains, battering hundreds of homes and causing major disruptions in northern areas of the Latin American country, authorities said.

Four crew members aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule splashed down off Florida's Gulf coast on Saturday, returning safely from a five-month science mission on the International Space Station.

A blast hit the capital of Afghanistan's northern Balkh province on Saturday, police said, killing one person and wounding five a few days after the death of the province's governor in an explosion claimed by Da'esh.

Support provided to Syria following the recent deadly earthquakes must be directed towards finding a political solution to the civil war, now entering its 12th year.

Emergency services in Australia's Queensland state evacuated residents to higher ground on Saturday as record-breaking floods sparked by heavy rain lashed the region's northwest.

Li Qiang took office on Saturday as China's premier, the country's No.2 post, putting him in charge of reviving an economy battered by three years of COVID-19 curbs.

Belgian federal government employees will no longer be allowed to use the Chinese-owned video app TikTok on their work phones, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Friday.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to resume diplomatic ties and reopen embassies, they said in a joint statement carried by the Saudi state news agency SPA.

A gunman believed to have been acting alone killed several people on Thursday in a church in the German city of Hamburg, police said, as they focussed their investigation on the motive for the attack.

Xi Jinping secured a precedent-breaking third five-year presidential term on Friday during a parliamentary session in which he further tightened his control as China faces mounting challenges at home and globally.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un ordered the military to intensify drills to deter and respond to a "real war" if necessary, state media said on Friday, after the leader oversaw a fire assault drill that it said proved the country's capabilities.

Russia's first missile blitz on Ukrainian cities in weeks was met in Kyiv with defiance and disgust over the targeting of civilians, while Ukrainian forces defending the eastern town of Bakhmut continued to thwart Russian attempts to break through.

Visitors from the GCC nations, and Jordan, will be the first to benefit from the UK’s new Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme, ahead of a worldwide expansion of the scheme throughout 2024.

Georgia's ruling party said on Thursday it was dropping a bill on "foreign agents" after two nights of violent protests against it amid criticism the draft was inspired by a Russian law and represented an authoritarian shift.

The UK is set to experience more snowfall on Thursday as the country remains in the grip of an Arctic blast.

Russian missiles struck cities across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, the Black Sea port of Odesa and the second city of Kharkiv early on Thursday, while Ukrainian defenders repelled fierce assaults on the beleaguered town of Bakhmut.

A Virginia prosecutor said on Wednesday he would not seek charges against a 6-year-old boy who police said shot his first-grade teacher at school earlier this year.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Greece on Wednesday and workers went on strike in the biggest show of public anger yet over the country's deadliest train disaster that killed 57 people last week.

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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.