KABUL: The US military will hand over its main Bagram Air Base to Afghan forces in about 20 days, an official said on Tuesday, as Washington presses on with withdrawing the last of its troops from the country. The vast base, built by the Soviets in the 1980s, is the biggest military facility used by […]
China reported the world’s first human infection of the H10N3 bird flu strain on Tuesday but said the risk of it spreading widely among people was low. A 41-year-old man was admitted to hospital with fever symptoms in the eastern city of Zhenjiang on April 28 and was diagnosed with H10N3 a month later, China’s […]
China announced on Monday that each couple would be permitted to have up to three children, a major policy shift from the existing limit of two children after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world’s most populous country. The change was approved during a politburo meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping, […]
DUBAI: Israel’s top diplomat to the United Arab Emirates attended a ceremony in Dubai on the grounds of the Arabian Peninsula’s first permanent exhibition to commemorate the Holocaust. Hours earlier, he’d attended an event establishing a joint venture between an Israeli and Emirati company. The receptions on Wednesday were the clearest indication since a ceasefire […]
KABUL: Australia on Tuesday abruptly announced it will shutter its embassy in Afghanistan this week, expressing fears over the “increasingly uncertain security environment” in Kabul as foreign troops withdraw. The Taliban, who have ramped up violence across the country in recent weeks, reacted by saying they would provide a “safe environment” to diplomats and humanitarian […]
Mutinous soldiers arrested Mali’s transitional president and prime minister on Monday, hours after a government reshuffle left out two members of the junta that had seized power in a coup nine months earlier, the African Union and the United Nations said. A joint statement issued along with the West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS […]
Torrents of lava poured into villages after dark in eastern Congo with little warning, leaving at least 15 people dead amid the chaos and destroying more than 500 homes, officials and survivors have said. The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo on Saturday night sent about 5,000 people fleeing from the city of Goma across the nearby […]
Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Saturday dissolved Parliament and announced the dates for mid-term polls, which will be held in two phases starting November 12 in line with Article 76 (7) of the Constitution. The move follows an emergency cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Friday, when he recommended […]
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into force early on Friday, ending a bruising 11 days of violence that caused widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip and brought life in much of Israel to a standstill. Celebrations were heard on Gaza streets in the minutes after the truce began as cars honked their horns […]
The Gaza Strip’s already feeble health system is being brought to its knees by the fourth war in just over a decade. Hospitals have been overwhelmed with waves of dead and wounded from Israel’s bombardment. Many vital medicines are rapidly running out in the tiny, blockaded coastal territory, as is fuel to keep electricity going. […]