Salvador Ramos, the accused of the horrific Texas elementary school shooting which killed 21, including 19 children, had a minor argument with his grandmother over the payment of a phone bill, Ramdos's grandfather Rolando Reyes said, expressing shock at how his grandson is at the centre of one of the most tragic mass shootings in the United States.

​After failing to seize Ukraine's capital Kyiv or its second city Kharkiv, Russia is aiming for Ukraine's eastern Donbas, said reports on Wednesday. According to Ukraine's military, Russian forces have shelled more than 40 towns in the Donbas region, threatening to shut off the last main escape route for civilians trapped in the path of their invasion.

Shortly after Russia warned the world about the considerable risk over a nuclear war, Ukraine hit back saying that the Kremlin has lost its "last hope". "I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate it," Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by news

Ukraine “is not afraid of anything or anyone,” Volodymyr Zelensky, its leader, was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.

A survivor of a landslide in central Colombia which killed at least 16 people this week described how the early morning rush of mud and water tore him from his home, as local officials warned tens of thousands could still be at risk.

A 48-year-old caregiver in England’s Blackpool, Lancashire, was recently caught on camera raping a 99-year-old dementia patient. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 10 years.

Assailants struck Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah's car with bullets early on Thursday but he escaped unharmed, a source close to him said, amid intense factional wrangling over control of the government.

Douglas Emhoff, whose official title is second gentleman, was pulled away by his security detail during commemorations of Black History Month at Dunbar High School in Washington, DC. Pupils were also told to leave.

At Kabul's only Covid-19 treatment hospital, staff can only heat the building at night because of lack of fuel, even as winter temperatures drop below freezing during the day.

A Hindu teacher was on Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court over charges of blasphemy in Pakistan's southern Sindh province.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said sanctions and other measures will be ready in the event of a Russian attack on Ukraine, and his government will ask parliament for sanctions on Russian individuals and companies.

South Korea reported record high in daily Covid-19 cases with the Omicron variant of the virus driving the surge. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 38,691 new cases of the virus on Monday, a nine-fold increase from the levels seen in mid-January, when Omicron became the country’s dominant strain.

The United States and its allies have prepared a list of Russian elites in or near President Vladimir Putin's inner circle to punish with sanctions if Russia sends troops into Ukraine, a senior U.S. official said

Pakistan’s Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Yusuf Raza Gilani resigned on Monday after backlash over his absence from the house, which allowed the government to narrowly manage to get a controversial bill passed from the opposition-dominated upper house.

Two police officers were shot dead on a rural road in western Germany while on a routine patrol early Monday, police said. Two suspects were detained hours later. The shooting happened during a traffic check near Kusel at about 4:20 am, police in Kaiserslautern said.

North Korea confirmed it had fired a Hwasong-12 "mid-range ballistic missile", state media reported Monday, the first time it has tested a weapon that powerful since 2017.

With the US focused on the crisis with Russia over Ukraine, and diplomatic talks with Moscow yielding no breakthrough, there is a debate in the wider American strategic community about the possible impact of a conflict in the European theatre on the US’s role in Indo-Pacific theatre.

The United Arab Emirates intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels early Monday as the Israeli president visited the country, authorities said, the third such attack in recent weeks.

North Korea said Friday its two latest rounds of weapons tests this week were successful while vowing to bolster its nuclear “war deterrent” and speed up the development of more powerful warheads.

A family of four Indian nationals found frozen to death near to the Canada/US border has been identified, with Canadian authorities saying the family had moved around the country for a period of time and was driven to the border by someone in a case being described as that of human smuggling.

As diplomatic talks over Ukraine fail to yield a breakthrough, and tensions with Russia deepen, the United States has ordered family members of its diplomats to leave Ukraine, and advised all US citizens to do the same, citing “the increased threat of Russian military action”.

On a query regarding if everyone will eventually get Omicron, WHO's technical lead said that Omicron is less severe than Delta but it can still lead to the full spectrum of the disease.

With two nuclear powered aircraft carrier strike groups patrolling the Philippines Sea and another one forwardly deployed to Yokosuka, Japan, the US has sent a strong message to China to stay away from Taiwan while the former is locked with Russia over Ukraine.

Five million residents of a central Chinese city started home confinement Tuesday in a new lockdown to curb the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to state media.

The United Nations on Monday criticized Kazakhstan after government soldiers there were seen wearing the UN peacekeepers' blue helmets during last week's violent unrest. "We have conveyed our concern to the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan directly on this issue, and we've received assurances from them that this issue had been addressed," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

Investigators on Monday sought answers for why safety doors failed to close when fire broke out in a New York high-rise, allowing thick smoke to rise through the tower and kill 17 people, including eight children, in the city’s deadliest blaze in more than three decades.

European Parliament President David Sassoli passed away on Tuesday due to a "serious complication" related to his immune system, reported news agency AFP. The 65-year-old had been hospitalised on Monday. Sassoli had been president of the 7\European Parliament since 2019.

Sri Lanka is facing a deepening financial and humanitarian crisis that could lead it to bankruptcy in 2022 as inflation rises to record levels, said a media report.

China reported more cases of the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant on Monday, with authorities on high alert over flare-ups in major cities just weeks ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

While the risk of hospitalisation from the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is lower than that for Delta, the fact that it’s extremely transmissible is driving up admissions because of the sheer volume of cases, Canada’s chief public health officer has said

Security forces in Kazakhstan killed "dozens" of protesters overnight as they tried to storm administrative buildings in the country's biggest city Almaty, police told local media on Thursday, as demonstrators rallied against the government for the third day.

North Korea fired a "hypersonic missile" this week that successfully hit a target, state news agency KCNA reported on Thursday, its second such test as the country pursues new military capabilities amid stalled denuclearisation talks.

Afghanistan’s Taliban regime has said that it will not allow fencing by Pakistan in any form along the Durand Line, issuing a stern warning to Islamabad, amid escalating tensions between the neighbouring countries on the contentious issue of border fencing, a media report said.

A woman suing Prince Andrew for sexual assault agreed in a confidential 2009 settlement with Jeffrey Epstein to release “any other person” involved in the case from litigation in exchange for $500,000. 

More than one million people in a city in central China were being confined to their homes on Tuesday after three asymptomatic coronavirus cases were recorded in the country's latest mass lockdown.

Musk’s fortune jumped by $33.8 billion on Monday to $304.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Jeff Bezos, second on the list, has a $196 billion fortune.(REUTERS)

A divided nation will experience an ominous split-screen moment Thursday when President Joe Biden uses the anniversary of the January 6 attack on Congress to warn of threats to US democracy and Donald Trump goes live with his conspiracy theories.

Days after a teen was arrested for trespassing into the grounds of Windsor Castle where Britain's Queen Elizabeth is spending Christmas with her family, a video of the 19-year-old saying he wanted to “assassinate the Queen” in “revenge for Jalianwala Bagh” has surfaced.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will not vaccinate his 11-year-old daughter against COVID-19, he said on Monday, maintaining the firm anti-vaccine stance that has drawn criticism from public health experts and hit his poll numbers.

After struggling with the coronavirus for far too long, the world understands all too well Belgium’s word of the year, “knaldrang!” — the urge to party, the need to let loose. Yet as New Year celebrations approach, the omicron variant is casting more gloom.

The Chinese government on Thursday announced a lockdown in the city of Xian to curb a local outbreak of the Covid-19. China, which follows a zero-tolerance approach, asked Xian’s 13 million residents to remain indoors and asked citizens to designate one person for getting essential supplies for households.

An explosion took place close to the gate of the passport office in the Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday, an Afghan official said.

Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has been ordered by the High Court in London to provide a British record of more than 554 million pounds ($733 million) to settle a custody battle with his ex-wife over their two children.

The incident took place at the Narayan Mandir in Karachi’s old city of Narainpura on Monday evening, they said. A man, identified as Muhammad Waleed Shabbir, has been arrested for damaging the statues of the deities, a senior police officer official, Sarfaraz Nawaz, said.

"Every morning I wake up and find that my children aren't near me," Umm Raghad told AFP from a displacement camp in the northwestern province of Idlib. "They go out early to collect scraps of plastic from the streets, such as bags and shoe soles," the mother-of-three said, her face half-covered by a thick black scarf.

Singapore’s Civil Aviation Authority will stop the sales of tickets for Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) flights coming to Singapore from December 23 to January 20. The authorities have taken the decision for arrivals under its quarantine-free travel programme.

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck the Northern California coast on Monday, bringing significant shaking but likely minimal damage to the sparsely populated area. A tsunami was not expected to follow, the National Weather Service said.

A 39-year-old man arrested in the United States for a murder allegedly believed that eating his victim would “cure his brain”. The murder accused, James David Russell from Idaho, was charged with cannibalism after his alleged statement. This may be the first cannibalism charge in Idaho.

A human rights organisation has said that North Korea has executed seven people over three years for watching or distributing South Korean videos. North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un presided over the public execution, it alleged.

Citizens of North Korea have been banned from laughing for 10 days to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of former Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il. Thursday, December 17, marks the 10th anniversary of his death.

Twenty-seven people were feared dead after a blaze swept through a commercial building housing a mental health clinic in the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, fire officials said.

All nine people on board a private aircraft - seven passengers and two crew members - died after the plane crashed in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday. Puerto Rican music producer Flow La Movie was among the nine who died in the incident.

The new omicron coronavirus mutant speeding around the world may bring another wave of chaos, threatening to further stretch hospital workers already struggling with a surge of delta cases and upend holiday plans for the second year in a row.

The summit of Russia, India, China (RIC) can be held in the near future, said Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov Mikhail Metzel on Wednesday. According to TASS news agency, the Russia-India-China format was addressed during a videoconference meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of China Xi Jinping.

The love for football has earned the women and girls in Afghanistan the ire of the Taliban that took over the country earlier this year. They recount the horror of their arduous and harrowing journey to safety in Britain.

Top health officials in the United States have warned that the newly detected Omicron variant of coronavirus is spreading rapidly in the country and could bring a severe wave of infections by January, according to the new modeling analysed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The House voted Tuesday to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress after he ceased to cooperate with the Jan. 6 Committee investigating the Capitol insurrection — making it the first time the House has voted to hold a former member in contempt since the 1830s.

Eric Garcetti, US President Joe Biden's nominee for next envoy to New Delhi, has said that he intends to double-down on Washington's efforts to strengthen India’s capacity to secure its borders.

Max Verstappen won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the Formula One world championship for Red Bull on Sunday after passing the Mercedes of title rival Lewis Hamilton on the last lap.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the collapse of the Soviet Union spelled the end of "historical Russia," revealing he drove a taxi to make ends meet following the USSR's fall.

Iran appears to be preparing for a space launch as negotiations continue in Vienna over its tattered nuclear deal with world powers, according to an expert and satellite images.

More than half a billion people are being pushed into extreme poverty because they have to pay for health services out of their own pockets, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a press release highlighting the impact of Covid-19 on people's ability to obtain health care facilities.

Rescuers plan to work through the night in the Sicilian town of Ravanusa to try to find survivors of a suspected gas explosion that killed at least three people.

Scientists are developing a chewing gum laced with a plant-grown protein that serves as a "trap" for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, reducing viral load in saliva and potentially lowering transmission.

The UK’s health minister on Monday told Parliament that the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 is now in transmission within the community across regions of England, as he confirmed a total of 336 cases of the mutation first detected in South Africa.

Future pandemics could be even more lethal than Covid-19 so the lessons learned from the outbreak must not be squandered and the world should ensure it is prepared for the next viral onslaught, one of the creators of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine said.

The state of New York has confirmed five cases of the coronavirus Omicron variant, Governor Kathy Hochul said Thursday, bringing the total number of US detections of the new strain to eight.

A post was shared on the Twitter handle of the Embassy of Pakistan in Serbia, criticising Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan over non-payment of salary for three months and inflation in the country.

When the Taliban overran Kabul in mid-August, seizing power for the second time, the years-old mystery over the whereabouts of the movement's Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada deepened further.

Brazil and Japan joined the rapidly widening circle of countries to report cases of the omicron variant Tuesday, while new findings indicate the mutant coronavirus was already in Europe close to a week before South Africa sounded the alarm.

Alice Sebold, author of the best-selling novel "The Lovely Bones," on Tuesday apologized to a Black man who spent 16 years in prison for her 1981 rape, only to see his conviction overturned last week.

As the rising power of criminal gangs plunges Haiti deeper into chaos, healthcare workers are becoming overwhelmed by the number of women being raped by these violent groups, and by the sheer horror of the victims' ordeals.

Singapore has deferred quarantine free-vaccinated travel lane (VTL) arrangements with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as a precautionary move to reduce the risk of importation and spread of the new Omicron Covid-19 variant.

Cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in countries on opposite sides of the world Sunday and many governments rushed to close their borders even as scientists cautioned that it's not clear if the new variant is more alarming than other versions of the virus.

The World Health Organisation on Sunday urged countries around the world not to impose flight bans on southern African nations due to concerns over the new omicron variant. WHO's regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, called on countries to follow science and international health regulations in order to avoid using travel restrictions.

Scotland Yard officers launched a murder investigation on Thursday following the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old British Sikh teenager on a west London street. The victim was named locally as Ashmeet Singh. The Metropolitan Police said they were called to Raleigh Road in Southall on Wednesday night to reports of a stabbing and attended along with paramedics from London Ambulance Service (LAS).

Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay an official visit to New Delhi on December 6 for the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders after their meeting on the side-lines of the BRICS Summit in Brasilia in November, 2019.

Austria became on Monday the first country in western Europe to reimpose lockdown since vaccines were rolled out, shutting non-essential shops, bars and cafes as surging caseloads raised the spectre of a second straight winter in deep freeze for the continent.

Tech giant Apple announced Tuesday it is suing Israel’s NSO Group, seeking to block the world’s most infamous hacker-for-hire company from breaking into Apple’s products, like the iPhone. Apple said in a complaint filed in federal court in California that NSO Group employees are “amoral 21st-century mercenaries who have created highly sophisticated cyber-surveillance machinery that invites routine and flagrant abuse.

"Me and my husband can go hungry but we are worried about our children they cry because they are hungry and that is so difficult,” a 35-year-old Zarghuna, mother of two, said while narrating her struggle ever since the Taliban took over Afghanistan on August 15

Hours before it started, they were already there - people sitting on lawn chairs or wrapped in blankets, awaiting an event the city's mayor described as straight out of Norman Rockwell. The Waukesha Christmas Parade, a tradition in its Milwaukee suburb for six decades, was to be particularly special this time around after its pandemic-related cancellation last year.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced on Monday that his government will allow India to send a humanitarian shipment of 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat to neighbouring Afghanistan through its territory after the finalisation of the transit modalities.

At least 45 people, including 12 children, died as a bus carrying mostly North Macedonian tourists crashed in flames on a highway in western Bulgaria on Tuesday, officials said. Seven people who leapt from the burning bus were rushed to hospital in Sofia and were in stable conditions, hospital staff said. Bulgaria's interior ministry said 45 people died

The rape and murder case of a 9-year-old girl in the US was solved after 62 years, thanks to advanced DNA technology. The victim was raped and murdered by a man 11 years older than her after she went missing from her home in 1959.

A ferry with 20 people board capsized in eastern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, killing at least six students, the Navy said. Six students drowned while others survived by swimming at Kinniya's Kurunnankenni village as they were travelling to attend school, the Navy said.

The Supreme Court of Bangladesh has relieved a woman judge of court duties after she made a controversial observation in her judgement that the police should not register a rape case 72 hours after the offence was committed, according to media reports.

In China, she enjoyed the privileges that flowed from being married to a senior member of the governing elite. Her husband was a top police official in the security apparatus that keeps the Communist Party in power, so trusted that China sent him to France to take up a prestigious role at Interpol.

It's a change so subtle it went unnoticed for almost three years. But President Emmanuel Macron ordered a change to the colour of the French flag to find echoes of heroism in France's past. Keen-eyed observers can see that the French red-white-and-blue tricolour flying above the Elysee Palace and also placed behind Macron at news conferences and speeches now has a darker navy blue rather than the previous bright blue.

Hackers from Pakistan used Facebook to target people in Afghanistan with connections to the previous government during the Taliban's takeover of the country, the company's threat investigators said in an interview with Reuters.

As countries rush to vaccinate their population against coronavirus, Australia is looking at millions to be paid as compensation for vaccine-related injuries. According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, thousands have registered to claim compensation under the federal government’s no-fault indemnity scheme.

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Joe Biden that US support for Taiwanese independence would be "like playing with fire", state media said Tuesday, as the two held a long-awaited video call. "Taiwanese authorities have repeatedly tried to 'rely on the US for independence'," Xi Jinping was quoted as saying by state media agency Xinhua.

David Warner, Mitchell Marsh and Josh Hazlewood emerged as heroes on the big night in Dubai as Australia ended their 14-year-long wait for a maiden T20 World Cup trophy. Australia made light work of a 173-run target as Kane Williamson's stunning 85 went in vain for New Zealand in the final of T20 World Cup 2021 on Sunday.

Taliban forces held a military parade in Kabul on Sunday using captured American-made armoured vehicles and Russian helicopters in a display that showed their ongoing transformation from an insurgent force to a regular standing army.

A bomb exploded on a mini-bus Saturday on a busy commercial street in a Kabul neighborhood mainly populated by members of Afghanistan’s minority Hazara community, emergency workers and the bus driver said. At least one person was killed and five wounded.

Clashes inside Ecuador's largest prison early Saturday left at least 52 inmates dead in the latest violence to hit the Litoral Penitentiary, which recently saw what authorities said was the country's worst-ever prison bloodbath.

The Taliban's move to eradicate the drug trade in Afghanistan and ban opium production has faced challenges on several fronts. With the country being one of the biggest producers of opium and a lack of alternative livelihood, farmers continue to cultivate opium despite the Taliban's warning.

With the hope of a new life and work, Afghans continue to leave their country, now ruled by the Taliban, in packed cars. They are apparently getting help from human traffickers. The remote town of Zaranj

A Canadian woman in her 70s could be the first patient to be ever diagnosed as suffering from 'climate change' as doctors blame her health condition on the deadly heatwaves earlier this year. Dr Kyle Merritt of Kootenay Lake Hospital, who diagnosed the patient, told Times Colonist 

For those who are new to the 'climate change' conversation, ‘Net Zero’ is a phrase that has become common in the environmental lexicon. World leaders who met at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26 (Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC), spoke of their pledges and commitment towards ‘Net Zero’ and ‘Global Net Zero’.

The Chinese capital Beijing further tightened measures on Monday to contain the recent spike in Covid-19 cases, asking residents who travelled to other areas of the country that reported a surge to put off their return plans as cases continued to climb nationally, raising concerns about the efficacy of the Zero-Covid policy.

Bonhomie and friendship were on full display at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Boris Johnson. The hugs and freewheeling chat between the two leaders were enabled by ironing out the vaccine recognition issue that had become a sore point for India days ahead of the summit.

As Taliban-ruled Afghanistan descends into an economic crisis, a proscribed practice has reared its ugly head in many parts of the country -- that of selling young girls into marriage.

Nine firefighters died on Sunday in Brazil's Sao Paulo state after the roof of a cave in which they were training collapsed, authorities said, raising the death toll from three. "There were nine dead and one person rescued. No more victims at the site," the Sao Paulo fire department said on Twitter.

World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said while vaccines would help end the Covid-19 pandemic, the ultimate vaccine against pandemics and all health threats was leadership.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday prepared to tackle major policy decisions, including trying to pass an extra budget, after leading his ruling party to an unexpectedly strong election win to solidify his status in a fractious party.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 16th G-20 Summit in Rome, which was held on the subject of climate change and the environment on Sunday. PM Modi concluded his two-day trip to Italy and landed in Glasgow in the United Kingdom on Monday 

A day after former Pakistan cricketer Waqar Younis sparked a fresh controversy, when he said watching Pakistani opener Mohammad Rizwan offering namaz “in front of Hindus was very special to him”, the veteran pacer apologised on Twitter.

America’s former envoy to the UN Nikki Haley and a powerful Republican lawmaker, Mike Waltz, have called for an alliance between India and the US that would allow both countries to maintain and expand their global strength amidst China's aggressive postures in the region.

The puppet, operated by three people, has travelled through much of Europe after setting off from the Turkish-Syrian border in July and has been greeted by thousands of people along the way, including Pope Francis in Rome.

Pakistan government has released 350 activists of the banned outfit Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid has announced, averting another showdown with the radical Islamist party that was threatening to hold a "long march" to Islamabad.

The United Nations Mission to Sudan has issued an emphatic rebuke of what it called an ongoing coup and attempts to undermine the northeast African nation's fragile democratic transition. The first reports about a possible military takeover began trickling out of Sudan before dawn on Monday.

More than 250,000 homes in France were without electricity on Thursday after gale-force winds swept the north of the country overnight, power grid operator Enedis said.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi travelled to Kabul on Thursday along with spy agency ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed to hold talks with Afghanistan's interim government led by the Taliban.

The authorities in Moscow on Thursday announced a plan to shut restaurants and non-food stores and introduce other restrictions later this month as Russia registered the highest daily numbers of new coronavirus infections and deaths since the start of the pandemic.

A huge gathering comprising members of a regional political party, Awami Action Committee and rights activists gathered in Gilgit, the capital city of illegally-occupied Gilgit Baltistan to oppose Islamabad's policies, which they say are intrusive, exploitative and discriminatory.

North Korea test-fired a new, smaller ballistic missile from a submarine, state media confirmed on Wednesday, a move that analysts said could be aimed at more quickly fielding an operational missile submarine.

Mount Aso, a volcano on Japan's main southern island of Kyushu, erupted on Wednesday, Japan's Meteorological Agency said, spewing volcanic ash 3,500 metres (2.17 miles) into the sky.

At least 13 Syrian military personnel were killed in a roadside bomb attack, as their bus crossed a bridge in central Damascus during early morning rush hour on Wednesday, state television reported.

A Brazilian senate committee will on Wednesday ask that President Jair Bolsonaro be charged with "intentional" crimes over his management of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has left 600,000 of his compatriots dead.

The Chinese military on Sunday condemned the United States and Canada for each sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait last week, saying they were threatening peace and stability in the region.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said the Comilla incident that triggered massive communal unrest in the country may have been caused by a third party.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as Islamic State (IS) has called the Shia Muslims "perilous" and warned that they will be targeted by the terror group everywhere.

The visitors stop to read signs pointing out where hotels and restaurants stood before the salty waters of Lake Epecuen broke through a protective embankment during a storm in 1985 and submerged the village for the next two decades.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Gita Gopinath has said that to maintain steady growth, India will have to keep up the vaccination rate, adding that public infrastructure investment will propel economic recovery, reported NDTV.

Several incidents of attacks on Durga Puja pandals and idols have been reported from Bangladesh, as per local media reports.Communal tension has gripped parts of Bangladesh during the ongoing Durga Puja celebrations in the country.

A fire in southern Taiwan has killed 46 and injured dozens of people, after it engulfed a residential building overnight on Thursday. The 13-story building caught on fire around 3 am, fire department officials in the city of Kaohsiung said.

Tropical depression Pamela dissipated in Mexico on Wednesday night after slamming into the country’s Pacific coast as a hurricane, though forecasters warned that its remnants still posed a threat for parts of Texas and Oklahoma.

The United States and the Taliban had "productive discussions" on the issue of humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan during meetings in Qatar over the weekend, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday, describing the talks as "largely positive."

Two US Postal Service workers were fatally shot Tuesday at a postal facility in Memphis and a third employee identified as the shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot, authorities said. It was the third high-profile shooting in or near that west Tennessee city in weeks.

Britain's failure to impose a lockdown in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic cost thousands of unnecessary deaths and ranks among the country's worst public health blunders, lawmakers concluded Tuesday in the nation's first comprehensive report on the pandemic.

Iraq said on Monday it has detained a top leader of the Islamic State group and a longtime al-Qaida operative in a cross-border operation. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi tweeted the news, identifying the man as Sami Jassem, who oversees the Islamic State group's financial operations and served as the deputy leader of IS under the late Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The WHO COP26 Special Report on Climate Change and Health, launched today in the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, spells out the global health community’s prescription for climate action based on a growing body of research that establishes the many and inseparable links between climate and health.

The international community must find ways to inject cash directly into Afghanistan’s economy to avert its total collapse as a growing humanitarian crisis impacts half the population, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday.

A small plane crashed into a residential area of a California city on Monday, killing at least two people as a blaze devoured two houses and several vehicles. Aerial footage showed firefighters hosing down the charred remains of the residences in Santee, a suburb of San Diego.

The Indian Navy will participate in the second phase of Malabar exercise along with the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF), Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the United States Navy (USN). The multilateral maritime exercise will take place in the Bay of Bengal from October 12-15, 2021

An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 struck south of the island of Hawaii on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there was no tsunami warning afterward and no immediate reports of damage.

A shootout at a busy bar in St Paul, Minnesota, early Sunday left a woman dead and 14 other people wounded, authorities said. The shooting happened shortly after midnight at the Seventh  Street Truck Park bar. Police said preliminary information indicated several people fired gunshots.

The Taliban delegation urged the United States of America (USA) to unfreeze Afghanistan's central bank reserves during a meeting with US representatives in Doha on Saturday. This was the first official dialogue between the two sides since the Taliban took over the administration in Kabul.

In a surprise move, the Pakistan Army on Wednesday transferred the powerful spy agency ISI's chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, and appointed him as Peshawar Corps Commander. However, his replacement for the key post of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief was not immediately announced.

Long lines are snaking down streets across the UK as drivers struggle to fill up their cars, causing widespread traffic misery. The government is blaming the public, urging people not to panic.

In a reversal of Trump administration policy, the State Department on Tuesday disclosed the number of nuclear weapons in the US stockpile. It said this will aid global efforts to control the spread of such weapons.

As Cyclone Shaheen battered Oman and Iran, killing at least 13 people and submerging streets and houses, a video of a dramatic plane landing amid turbulent winds is circulating on social media as visuals from Oman. 

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's daughter will run for president in the 2022 election and her father's long-time aide, who has filed his vice presidential candidacy, will be her running mate, ABS-CBN news reported

China flew more than 30 military planes towards Taiwan on Saturday, the second large display of force in as many days. Taiwan's Defense Ministry said 39 aircraft entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone in two sorties, one during the day and one at night. 

Taliban forces raided an Islamic State affiliate's hideout in the Afghan capital and killed several insurgents, hours after a deadly bombing outside a mosque in Kabul, the Taliban said Monday.

Eyes closed in rapture, a Haitian migrant pressed a paperback bible to the crown of her head during a Mass at an improvised shelter in the Mexico-US border region where thousands of her compatriots recently arrived hoping to cross.

North Korea has successfully fired a new anti-aircraft missile, state media said Friday, the latest in a flurry of weapons tests by the nuclear-armed nation. The anti-aircraft missile had a "remarkable combat performance" and included twin rudder controls and other new technologies

The US has been very honest about its concerns with Pakistan for a long time about the terrorist safe havens along with the border areas of Afghanistan, the Pentagon has said. Afghanistan and the US have criticised Pakistan in the past for allowing Taliban fighters to cross into Pakistan where they are provided safe havens and also receive medical treatment.

Texas-based Travis Warner had his heart in his mouth after he underwent a Covid-19 test at a centre in Lewisville. It was not the Covid-19 test result that shocked him, which was negative, but the bill. Travis Warner was charged $56,384, including $54,000 (over Rs 40 lakh) for an PCR test and the rest for an antigen test and facility fee, npr.org reported.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday announced that it will reopen the international border for citizens and permanent residents from next month. Australia has also recognised China's Sinovac and India-made Covishield vaccines and has advised that these vaccines should be considered as ‘recognised vaccines’ 

Designated terrorist groups such as ISIS and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have continued to gain in strength in Syria, India has said, reiterating that there can be no military solution to the longstanding conflict in the country.

The Afghan central bank ran down most of its US dollar cash reserves in the weeks before the Taliban took control of the country, according to an assessment prepared for Afghanistan's international donors, exacerbating the current economic crisis.

96-year-old former secretary at a concentration camp will go on trial in Germany Thursday, one of the first women implicated in Nazi-era crimes to be prosecuted in decades.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was convicted by a court for illegal campaign financing of his unsuccessful 2012 reelection bid.

A riot in a penitentiary in the coastal city of Guayaquil killed 24 inmates and injured 48 more, Ecuadorian officials said.

Pakistani security forces on Tuesday killed 10 militants, including four insurgent commanders, in a planned raid in restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's South Waziristan district, according to a media report.

Japan's former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida has won the governing party leadership election and is set to be become the next prime minister. Kishida replaces outgoing party leader Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is stepping down after serving only one year since taking office last September.

Taliban on Wednesday warned the US of 'consequences' over its use of drones in Afghan airspace. Calling itself 'sole legal entity' and 'custodian of Afghanistan's land and airspace', the Taliban alleged that Afghan airspace was being 'invaded' by US drones.

An Afghan business leader who employs hundreds of women on her saffron fields has vowed to speak up for the rights of her workers, and "not remain silent" under Taliban rule. The hardliners have increasingly excluded women from public life since sweeping to power in mid-August, pushing many female entrepreneurs to flee the country or go into hiding.

Up to 90 per cent of British fuel stations ran dry across major English cities on Monday after panic buying deepened a supply chain crisis triggered by a shortage of truckers that retailers are warning could batter the world's fifth-largest economy.

While the world waits in anticipation to see how the apparently “reformed” Taliban rule Afghanistan, one of the founders of the movement has said the executions and harsh punishments will return soon but will avoid the public show.

China has called for sanctions on Afghanistan to be lifted and says its foreign exchange reserves should not be frozen to exert “political pressure” on the Taliban. “Economic sanctions on Afghanistan must end,” 

Following a successful bilateral meeting with US Vice President Kamala Harris, Prime Minister Modi presented her with thoughtful and special mementos, including a copy of old notifications related to her grandfather PV Gopalan in a wooden handicraft frame.

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake caused damage in the city of Melbourne on Wednesday in an unusually powerful temblor for Australia. The quake hit northeast of Australia's second-most populous city near the town of Mansfield at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), Geoscience Australia said.

Russia’s ruling party will get 324 of the 450 seats in the next national parliament, election authorities announced Tuesday. The number is less than the pro-Kremlin party, United Russia, won in the previous election but still an overwhelming majority.

The US decision to sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia has put at risk longstanding but fragile global pacts to prevent the proliferation of dangerous nuclear technologies, according to experts.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers said on Tuesday there was no evidence of Islamic State or al-Qaeda militants being in the country, days after Islamic State claimed responsibility for bomb attacks in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

Scientists say the hole in the Earth's protective ozone layer over the Southern Hemisphere is larger than usual this year and already surpasses the size of Antarctica

US President Joe Biden's decision to form a strategic Indo-Pacific alliance with Australia and Britain to counter China is angering France and the European Union. They're feeling left out and seeing it as a return to the Trump era.

With Afghanistan thrown into a major upheaval and economic crisis, the people facing unemployment and acute poverty have taken to the streets to sell their valuables in exchange for some cash to make ends meet.

Fighters in Afghanistan's Panjshir vowed to battle the Taliban to the last man, but nearly two weeks after the hardline Islamists celebrated victory, parts of the rugged valley lie empty and abandoned. In many villages, only old men and livestock remain.

Haiti's government is starting to crumble as Prime Minister Ariel Henry faces increased scrutiny from authorities investigating the president's slaying, with one top official resigning Wednesday as he accused Henry of obstructing justice in a sharply worded letter.

Eritrean soldiers and Tigrayan militias raped, detained and killed Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray amid a long-standing conflict, a Human Rights Watch report detailed.

Australians squirmed as US President Joe Biden thanked their prime minister for joining a major new defence alliance -- but appeared to forget his name.

The Taliban's abrupt return to power has left hundreds of Afghan diplomats overseas in limbo: running out of money to keep missions operating, fearful for families back home and desperate to secure refuge abroad.

The Ukrainian government has decided to introduce Covid-19 "vaccine passports" verifying citizens' vaccination status, the health ministry said. The passports will allow businesses such as cinemas, gyms, theatres and swimming pools to operate without social distancing requirements .

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's armed Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, said on Monday that a first ship carrying Iranian fuel oil to help Lebanon through its financial crisis had docked in Syria on Sunday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reviewed the Joint Strategic Exercise at Mulino Training Ground in Novgorod on Monday during Zapad 2021, a multi-nation military exercise in Russia.