DAMASCUS: Twelve more bodies were recovered Saturday after a boat carrying migrants from Lebanon sunk off Syria's coast, raising the overall toll to 89, Syrian state media said, in one of the eastern Mediterranean's deadliest such shipwreck...

BANGKOK: Laos police have made their third-biggest single seizure of illegal drugs by netting 33 million methamphetamine pills, a United Nations official said Saturday.In recent years the reclusive communist nation has become a gateway for...

KYIV: Moscow replaced its top logistics general on Saturday after a series of setbacks as Kremlin-held regions of eastern and southern Ukraine voted for a second day on becoming part of Russia.The changing of the guard comes amid a major mo...

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan police dispersed hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday, a day after severely curtailing protest rights in response to months of unrest sparked by the island nation's sharp economic downturn.President Ranil Wickremesinghe...

MANILA: The Philippines' disaster agency said on Saturday it was on high alert as a tropical storm was expected to bring heavy rainfall and severe winds to northern provinces, some of which have already been hit by a cyclone last month.Trop...

PARIS: Having won over critics in New York and London, Victoria Beckham (pix) takes the step to the pinnacle of the luxury world with her debut at Paris Fashion Week, which opens Monday.“It’s the arrival of a very beautiful label. We rejoic...

TEHRAN: At least 35 have been killed in more than a week of protests that erupted in Iran after the death of a young woman in police custody, state media reported.“The number of people who died in recent riots in the country has risen...

SIHANOUKVILLE: The death toll from a capsized boat off Cambodia's coast rose to three Chinese nationals on Saturday, with a further nine rescued in Vietnamese waters and eight still missing, Cambodian authorities said.The boat with 41 Chine...

WASHINGTON: An Arizona judge ruled on Friday that a 1901 ban on nearly all abortions in the state can be enforced after being blocked for about 50 years, a decision that drew immediate criticism from abortion-rights activists and Democrats...

PHNOM PENH: Cambodian rescuers were still searching on Saturday for at least 10 missing Chinese nationals after a boat with more than 40 people on board sank near islands off the coastal town of Sihanoukville, the provincial government said...

TOKYO: A typhoon lashed central Japan on Saturday with torrential rain and fierce winds, killing two and leaving tens of thousands of households without power, the Kyodo news agency reported.Shizuoka city, southwest of the capital, Tokyo, w...

SYDNEY: Australian police on Saturday located the body of a five-year-old boy trapped in floods west of Sydney, the latest death from a prolonged period of heavy rainfall.The boy and four other people had been travelling in a car that was s...

NEW YORK: Uyukar Domingo Peas, an Ecuadorian Indigenous activist, says if there are still “reservoirs of natural resources” in the world, it is “because we have protected them for thousands of years.”Peas has been fighting against the destr...

HAMILTON/BERMUDA: Hurricane Fiona barreled towards Canada on Friday with Nova Scotia province on high alert after the storm swept past Bermuda, where it left much of the population without power but caused little damage.The US National Hurr...

ISTANBUL: Australia cannot accept a situation where large countries determine the fate of smaller countries but it wants a peaceful and predictable Southeast Asian region, the country’s top diplomat said Friday. Penny Wong told the 77th ses...

MEXICO CITY: Protesters hurling rocks and homemade explosive devices clashed with security forces at a Mexican military base during a demonstration Friday over the disappearance of 43 students in 2014.Mexico City officials said nearly 40 la...

TOKYO: Typhoon Talas approached eastern Japan Saturday, bringing heavy rains and killing one person a week after another major storm battered the country.Japan is currently in its typhoon season, and faces around 20 such storms a year, rout...

NEW DELHI: Pakistan on Friday tried to calm creditor fears after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made a desperate plea for “substantial debt relief” from rich countries.“Given the climate-induced disaster in Pakistan, we are seeking debt reli...

WASHINGTON: The Biden administration is in the middle of discussions to expedite the construction of Australia’s first nuclear-powered submarines as guaranteed in the AUKUS defence pact, reported Sputnik.According to the Wall Street Journal...

NEW YORK: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that Israel has decided not to be a partner of Palestine in the peace process and that it will be treated as such, reported Xinhua.“It is clear that Israel, which is ignoring the res...

KAMPALA: A total of four people have died from the highly contagious Ebola virus in Uganda, where the authorities declared an outbreak earlier this week, health officials said on Friday.“Three new deaths were recorded,“ the health ministry...

DAMASCUS: At least 77 migrants drowned when a boat they boarded in Lebanon sank off Syria's coast, Syria's health minister said Friday, in one of the deadliest such shipwrecks in the eastern Mediterranean.Lebanon, which since 2019 has been...

RUSSIA said on Friday it was exempting some bankers, IT workers and journalists from being drafted into the army to serve in Ukraine under President Vladimir Putin's mobilisation.Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (pix) said on Wednesday that R...

LONDON: The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 has gone up in England and Wales for the first time in two months, official statistics showed on Friday.The results are based on data for the week ending September 14 from the gover...

KABUL: A blast outside a mosque attended by Taliban members in the Afghan capital killed four people minutes after Friday prayers had ended, according to a hospital.The explosion occurred near the entrance of Wazir Akbar Khan mosque, not fa...