AFP : Israeli strikes hit Gaza on Saturday after renewed US criticism over its conduct of the war and a...
AFP : Turkey has opened the ancient Chora church, one of Istanbul’s most celebrated Byzantine buildings, to Muslim worshippers after it was used as a museum for more than 70 years, making it the second such major conversion under President Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan, a champion of pious Muslims in Turkey and head of a party with Islamist roots, turned Istanbul’s world-renowned Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque in 2020 in a ceremony attended by tens of thousands of...
AFP : Six months into an offensive against Myanmar ‘s military government, opposition forces have made massive gains, but civilian...
Reuters : The death toll from severe flooding in southern Brazil has risen to 113, civil defense said on Thursday,...
AFP : Heatstroke has killed 61 people in Thailand so far this year, more than in all of 2023, the...
BBC : Col Rabih Alenezi says he was ordered to evict villagers from a tribe in the Gulf state to...
BSS : One person has died in a massive blaze on an industrial park housing a gas storage facility in eastern Thailand with hundreds ordered to evacuate, officials said Thursday. The fire in a gas storage tank at the Maptaphut Industrial Port in Rayong province started around 10:35am local (0335 GMT), according to officials. Four people were hurt in the blaze, with one person later dying of their injuries in hospital, the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) said in...
AFP : The boundary dispute between India and Nepal has heated up once again after the Nepali government last week announced a new currency note featuring a map that shows three border areas claimed by New Delhi. The dispute involves the territories of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura, which are currently under Indian control. The new map adds 335 square kilometres of land to Nepal, and the country’s central bank is expected to take up to a year to print and...
Aljazeera : The number of people in Myanmar forced from their homes by conflict now exceeds more than 3 million in what the United Nations has described as a “bleak milestone” for the country. The UN said the number displaced had surged by 50 percent in the last six months as fighting escalated between the military and armed groups trying to remove the generals who seized power in a coup in February 2021. “Myanmar has this week marked a bleak...
AFP : Teams in flood-ravaged southern Brazil scrambled Tuesday to deliver humanitarian aid to Porto Alegre and other inundated municipalities, where queues formed for drinking water as forecasters warned of more downpours. The worst natural calamity ever to hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul has claimed at least 95 lives, with 372 people reported injured and 131 still missing, according to the civil defense force that handles disaster relief. “The tolls continue to rise and unfortunately we anticipate...
Reuters : Eleven Indian states and territories including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat began voting on Tuesday in the third phase of general elections, with the country’s Election Commission urging people to ensure a strong turnout. India began voting on April 19 in a seven-phase election in which nearly one billion people are eligible to vote, with votes set to be counted on June 4. Modi is seeking a rare, third straight term in a vote which...
Al Jazeera : The Israeli army appears set to launch its long-threatened assault on Rafah as it instructs Palestinians to...