International News

Rare protests broke out in China’s far western Xinjiang region, with crowds shouting at hazmat-suited guards after a deadly fire triggered anger over their prolonged COVID-19 lockdown as nationwide infections set another record.

Hundreds of Indonesians prayed out in the open next to rice paddies and in the streets on Friday, as the death toll from an earthquake that flattened their town in western Java rose to 310.

NASA's uncrewed Orion spacecraft - equipped with 16 cameras on its exterior and interior— has released new images of the moon's surface.

Frustration simmered on Friday among residents and business groups in China navigating stricter COVID-19 control curbs as the country reported another record high of daily infections just weeks after hopes had been raised of easing measures.

Twitter will roll out verified gold and grey check marks as it relaunches the coveted blue check service next Friday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a tweet, after holding off the rollout earlier this week.

Much of Ukraine remained without heat or power after the most devastating Russian air strikes on its energy grid so far, and in Kyiv residents were warned to brace for further attacks and stock up on water, food and warm clothing.

Pakistan on Thursday named Lieutenant-General Asim Munir as chief of its army.

Indonesian authorities struggled on Thursday to get aid to thousands of people displaced by a deadly earthquake in western Java, as rain-triggered landslides and difficult mountainous terrain hampered the efforts of rescue teams.

Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as prime minister on Thursday, capping a three-decade political journey from a protege of veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad to protest leader and finally, opposition leader.

Pakistan's outgoing army chief rejected on Wednesday as "fake and false" claims by ousted prime minister Imran Khan that a U.S.-backed conspiracy had toppled his government, and also said the military would play no role in national politics in future.

Britain's next national election will be an effective referendum on Scottish independence, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Wednesday after the UK's top court blocked her party's bid for a new independence vote.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday to take action to stop Russian air strikes targeting vital infrastructure that have once again plunged Ukrainian cities into darkness and cold as winter sets in.

The European Space Agency on Wednesday named the first ever "parastronaut" in a major step towards allowing people with physical disabilities to work and live in space.

Driving rain and the danger of landslides disrupted Indonesian rescue workers on Wednesday as they searched for survivors of an earthquake that killed 268 people, with an official warning that time was running out for anyone trapped in rubble.

The United Kingdom's top court ruled on Wednesday that the Scottish government cannot hold a second referendum on independence without approval from the British parliament, dealing a hammer blow to nationalists' hopes of holding a vote next year.

Two explosions at bus stops on Jerusalem's outskirts killed one person and wounded at least 14 others on Wednesday, health officials said.

Seven people were killed and several wounded in a shooting at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, on Tuesday night, authorities said, just days after a gunman killed five and injured 17 at a Colorado nightclub.

Ukraine promised shelters with heat and water and encouraged its people to save energy as a harsh winter loomed amid relentless Russian strikes that have left its power structure in tatters.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.0 struck western Turkey on Wednesday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said, while the interior minister said there were no immediate reports of deaths or significant damage.

King Charles hosted his first state visit since becoming British monarch on Tuesday, welcoming Cyril Ramaphosa to Buckingham Palace, where the South African president invoked Nelson Mandela as he paid tribute to the close ties between the two countries.

Saudi Arabia has declared a national holiday on Wednesday, November 23, in celebration of its stunning 2-1 victory over Argentina in the FIFA World Cup.

An earthquake that struck Indonesia's West Java killed at least 268 people, many of them children, with 151 still missing, disaster relief officials said on Tuesday.

At least one person was killed when a car bomb exploded inside a police compound in southern Thailand on Tuesday, a police official said.

Beijing shut parks, shopping malls and museums on Tuesday while more Chinese cities resumed mass testing for COVID-19, as China fights a fresh nationwide spike in cases that has deepened concerns about its economy.

Authorities in the Solomon Islands said no tsunami warning would be issued after two earthquakes on Tuesday afternoon, including one with a magnitude of 7.0 just off the southwest coast.

Ukrainians are most likely to live with blackouts at least until the end of March, the head of a major energy provider said on Monday, as the government started free evacuations for people in Kherson to other regions.

International passengers flying into India will no longer need to submit the 'Air Suvidha' online registration form.

A 5.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 160 people and wounded hundreds in Indonesia's West Java province on Monday, with rescuers trying to reach survivors trapped under the rubble as aftershocks hit.

A strong earthquake struck the Greek island of Crete in the early hours of Monday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has warned that whoever fired artillery at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was "playing with fire" as his team prepared to inspect it on Monday for damage from the weekend strikes.

Students in schools across several Beijing districts buckled down for online classes on Monday after officials called for residents in some of its hardest-hit areas to stay home, as COVID cases in China's capital and nationally ticked higher.

Nepalis were voting on Sunday in a general election that few expect to bring drastic change - or a government able to quickly revive the economy.

New coronavirus case numbers held steady in China near April peaks on Sunday as many shops and restaurants in Beijing's most populous district were shut and schools in the area said classes would go online for the coming week.

Countries adopted a hard-fought final agreement at the COP27 climate summit early on Sunday that sets up a fund to help poor countries being battered by climate disasters - but does not boost efforts to tackle the emissions causing them.

Britain's new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, made his first visit to Kyiv on Saturday, pledging to continue the firm support for Ukraine that was a focus of policy under his predecessors.

Russia's surge in missile strikes in Ukraine is partly designed to exhaust Kyiv's supplies of air defences and finally achieve dominance of the skies above the country, a senior Pentagon official said on Saturday.

Indian Police raided the houses of several journalists on Saturday in an investigation of anonymous online threats to around a dozen journalists in Indian Kashmir, a top police official said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to counter US nuclear threats with nuclear weapons as he inspected a test of the country's new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), state media KCNA said on Saturday.

Elon Musk started a Twitter poll late on Friday asking followers to vote on whether to reinstate former US President Donald Trump's account on the platform, with early results showing roughly 60% voting yes.

India launched its first privately developed rocket, the Vikram-S, on Friday, a milestone in the country's effort to create a commercial space industry.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she will discuss China's human rights record and geostrategic tension when she meets President Xi Jinping on Friday.

Nancy Pelosi is wrapping up a long career of congressional leadership in which she became the only woman to serve in the powerful post of US House of Representatives speaker.

Flood-weary residents in Australia's southeast were urged to remain on high alert for major flooding through the weekend, authorities said, as swollen rivers continued to roll downstream despite the ease in severe weather conditions.

North Korea fired what was apparently an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) a day after it launched a smaller missile and warned of "fiercer military responses" to the US, boosting its regional security presence.

The renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative was welcomed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, which had been due to expire on Saturday.

The first draft of a deal being hashed out at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt would keep a target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius but left many of the most contentious issues in the talks unresolved ahead of a Friday deadline.

China plans to speed up COVID-19 vaccinations and will release information to the public in due course, the head of China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Thursday as it warned of "fiercer military responses" to US efforts to boost its security presence in the region with its allies, saying Washington is taking a "gamble it will regret".

Ukraine said it faced fierce attacks in the east from Russian forces reinforced with troops withdrawn from Kherson in the south, while NATO and Poland concluded a missile that crashed in Poland was probably a stray fired by Ukraine's air defences.

A tanker was hit by a projectile off the coast of Oman on Tuesday causing minor damage to the hull with no injuries or spillage of the gas oil cargo, Eastern Pacific Shipping, which manages tanker Pacific Zircon, said on Wednesday.

NASA's huge next-generation rocketship was on course Wednesday for a crewless voyage around the moon and back hours after blasting off from Florida on its debut flight, half a century after the final lunar mission of the Apollo era.

Leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) nations deplored Russia's aggression in Ukraine "in the strongest terms" on Wednesday and demanded its unconditional withdrawal in a declaration adopted at the end of a two-day summit.

Donald Trump, who has mounted relentless attacks on the integrity of US voting since his 2020 election defeat, on Tuesday launched a bid to regain the presidency in 2024, aiming to pre-empt potential Republican rivals.

NATO and G7 countries said on Wednesday they would remain in close contact to decide any possible reaction to a blast caused by a rocket that fell in Poland close to the Ukraine border and killed two people.

Russia pounded cities and energy facilities across Ukraine on Tuesday, killing at least one person and causing widespread power outages in what Kyiv said was the heaviest wave of missile strikes in nearly nine months of war.

Civil defence forces have put out a fire that broke out in the departure hall of Iraq's Baghdad international airport.

Ground teams at Kennedy Space Center prepared on Tuesday for a third try at launching NASA's towering, next-generation moon rocket, the debut flight of the U.S. space agency's Artemis lunar program, 50 years after Apollo's last moon mission.

The world population surged past 8 billion people on Tuesday, the United Nations said, warning that more hardship is in store for regions already facing resource scarcity due to climate change.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday called on the Group of 20 (G20) major economies meeting in Indonesia to step up their leadership and stop Russia's war in his country under a peace plan he has proposed.

Australian health authorities have recommended against getting a fifth COVID-19 vaccine shot, even as they urged those eligible to sign up for their remaining booster doses as the country's latest COVID wave grows rapidly.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden met on Monday for long-awaited talks that come as relations between their countries are at their lowest in decades, marred by disagreements over a host of issues from Taiwan to trade.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday visited the newly recaptured southern city of Kherson, the biggest prize yet won by Ukrainian forces, where he has accused Russian forces of committing war crimes before they fled last week.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday dismissed a news agency report that he had been taken to hospital with a heart condition, scolding Western journalists for what he cast as false reporting.

Turkey blamed Kurdish groups on Monday for an explosion that killed six people on a busy Istanbul shopping street, and police detained a Syrian woman suspected of having planted the bomb among a sweep of 47 arrests.

Six people are dead after two vintage military planes collided midair on Saturday and crashed in flames before a crowd of thousands who came to see them fly at a World War Two commemorative air show in Dallas, officials said on Sunday.

Joe Biden said on Sunday he was "incredibly pleased" with the turnout in the US election after Democrats clinched control of the Senate, a major victory for the president as he looks to his next two years in office.

Utility companies in Kherson were working to restore critical infrastructure mined by fleeing Russian forces, with most homes in the southern Ukrainian city still without electricity and water, regional officials said on Sunday.

Two vintage military planes collided in midair on Saturday at a World War II commemorative airshow in Dallas, federal officials said, crashing to the ground before exploding into flames.

Southeast Asian heads of government held talks on Saturday with visiting global leaders, including US President Joe Biden, who hailed the launch of a new US-ASEAN pact as a critical step towards tackling "the biggest issues of our time".

Turkey is committed to seeking a peace dialogue between Russia and Ukraine, Turkish media cited President Tayyip Erdogan as he accused the United States and other Western countries of provoking Moscow.

A sister of jailed hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah said she had appealed directly to Egypt's president for an amnesty for her brother, whose protest has overshadowed a global climate summit in Egypt this week.

Southeast Asian heads of government were due to hold talks on Saturday with visiting global leaders, including US President Joe Biden, as the region tries to navigate the growing rivalry between China and Western powers.

 A 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook Guatemala late on Friday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, though there were no immediate reports of damage

Donald Trump is again at war with his party, angrily denouncing potential rivals, airing old grievances and acting more like the insurgent who stormed to victory six years ago than a former president.

Residents welcomed China shortening COVID-19 quarantine by two days for close contacts of infected people and for inbound travellers as it eased some of its strict pandemic rules on Friday.

A South Korean police official being investigated over the deadly Halloween crush was found dead at his home in Seoul on Friday, the Yonhap news agency reported.

India's Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of six people, including one woman, who were convicted in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

Ukrainian troops have reclaimed dozens of landmine-littered settlements abandoned by Russian forces in southern Ukraine and were advancing on Kherson on Friday, officials said, two days after Moscow said it was pulling out of the strategic city.

Tropical Storm Nicole swept across Florida on Thursday, weakening but still carrying a powerful punch with a mix of heavy rains and fierce winds that downed power lines, flooded homes and left at least two people dead.

Afghan women will no longer be allowed in parks, a spokesperson for the Taliban's morality ministry said.

Chinese authorities stepped up COVID-19 lockdowns and other curbs to halt clusters from spreading as China's case load soared to its highest since this year's Shanghai lockdown, with Beijing and Zhengzhou seeing record daily cases.

U.S. President Joe Biden hopes to limit deterioration of ties with China when he meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week, but he will be honest about U.S. concerns, including over Taiwan and human rights, a senior administration official said on Thursday.

A Middle East Airlines (MEA) passenger plane bound from Jordan to Beirut was hit by a stray bullet while landing in Beirut on Thursday, with no injuries reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend a gathering of leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) nations on the resort island of Bali next week, Indonesian and Russian officials said on Thursday.

Hurricane Nicole closed in on Florida's Atlantic shoreline early on Thursday with a brew of heavy downpours, fierce winds and a treacherous surge of ocean surf that threatened coastal areas still reeling from the last major storm six weeks ago.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he intends to run for re-election and would likely make a final decision by early next year, after declaring the results of Tuesday's midterm elections good for democracy.

Paris commuters and visiting tourists are set to face serious disruptions on Thursday as metro workers go on strike, with a third of subway lines completely closed and most others working only at peak hours.

A man was detained by police on Wednesday after eggs were thrown at King Charles and Camilla, his wife and queen consort, as they carried out an engagement in northern England.

Control of the US Senate may once again be decided in Georgia, weeks after Election Day as a tight race between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker could be headed to a December 6 runoff.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday ordered his troops to withdraw from the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson and take up defensive lines on the opposite bank of the River Dnipro.

Democrats won elections for governor in the "blue wall" states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Tuesday, enabling them to defend against Republican-dominated state legislatures on issues such as abortion rights and fair elections.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivered an unexpected moment of levity at the COP27 climate conference on Wednesday, reading the beginning of the wrong speech before realising, chuckling and starting again with a different opening line.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck Nepal early Wednesday, killing at least six people, destroying multiple houses in the western district of Doti and shaking the Indian capital New Delhi.

NASA will batten down its big new moon rocket on the launch pad to ride out a hurricane expected to hit near Cape Canaveral, Florida, and its targeted liftoff time next week has been postponed by two days, the US space agency said on Monday.

North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile into the sea on Wednesday, as South Korea said it had identified debrisfrom an earlier launchas part of a Soviet-era SA-5 surface-to-air missile.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his forces would not yield "a single centimetre" in battles for the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk while Russian-installed officials said Ukrainian forces were moving into a southern town with tanks.

Former US President Donald Trump suggested on Monday he would mount a 2024 presidential run as soon as next week, saying at a political rally in Ohio on Monday he would make a "big announcement" on November 15.

New coronavirus cases surged in Guangzhou and other Chinese cities, official data showed on Tuesday, with the global manufacturing hub becoming China's latest COVID1-9 epicentre and testing the city's ability to avoid a Shanghai-style lockdown.

One day before midterm elections that could usher in a new era of divided government in Washington, President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump will hold competing rallies in a final effort to mobilize supporters.

Ukraine is bracing for fresh Russian attacks on its infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Sunday, after Kyiv’s mayor urged residents to prepare for a worst-case scenario by making emergency plans to leave town and stay with friends or family.

Primary schools will reopen in India's capital New Delhi this week and curbs will be lifted on certain construction activities, authorities said on Monday, after pollution levels improved to the 'very poor' category from 'severe'.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol apologised on Monday for the deadly Halloween crush in Seoul, pledging to hold to account any officials found to be responsible for sloppy responses and to reform police and safety management systems.

North Korea said on Monday that its recent missile launches were simulated strikes on South Korea and the US as the two countries held a "dangerous war drill".

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will on Monday use a speech at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt to tell world leaders to deliver on their promises to tackle global warming.

At least 19 people died when a passenger plane crashed into Lake Victoria in Tanzania on Sunday while trying to land at a nearby airport, the prime minister and airline said.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will headline rallies in New York and Florida, respectively, on Sunday, in a bid to fire up their core supporters, just two days before a closely contested midterm race in which Republicans are pushing to flip both chambers of Congress.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Sunday he welcomed the government's offer to launch a judicial commission to investigate the attack in which he was shot in the leg on Thursday.

Delegates at the UN's COP27 climate summit in Egypt agreed to discuss whether rich nations should compensate poor countries most vulnerable to climate change for their suffering.

Pope Francis wound up his trip to Bahrain on Sunday by visiting the oldest Catholic church in the Gulf, telling bishops, priests and nuns to remain united as they ministered to the faithful.

The United States is privately encouraging Ukraine to signal an openness to negotiate with Russia, the Washington Post reported, as the State Department said Moscow was escalating the war and did not seriously wish to engage in peace talks.

China on Sunday reported its highest number of new COVID-19 infections in six months, a day after health officials said they were sticking with strict coronavirus curbs, likely disappointing recent investor hopes for an easing.

British police said on Saturday evidence showed an extreme right-wing terrorist ideology had motivated a petrol bomb attack on an immigration centre in the southern English port town of Dover on October 30.

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.