International

Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting Chairman Tarique Rahman returned from nearly 17 years in exile on Thursday, a homecoming the party hopes will energise supporters with Rahman poised to be the top contender for prime minister in February.

Syria will start swapping old banknotes for new ones from January 1, 2026, Central Bank Governor Abdelkader Husrieh said on Thursday, under a plan to replace Assad-era notes to try to strengthen the currency's value.

At least 5 were killed and 35 others injured when a bomber detonated an explosive inside a mosque in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria's Borno state, during evening prayers, police said.

A helicopter has crashed on Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, killing five people, the civil aviation authority said on Thursday, while local media reported that the aircraft was on a medical rescue mission.

Fourteen countries including Britain, Canada, and Germany have condemned the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, saying they violated international law and risked fuelling instability.

The US Justice Department has found more than a million more documents potentially tied to convicted American financier Jeffrey Epstein, delaying a full release for weeks while officials redact details to protect victims, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

Russia plans to put a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade to supply its lunar space programme and a joint Russian-Chinese research station, as major powers rush to explore the earth's only natural satellite.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck Taiwan's southeastern coastal county of Taitung on Wednesday, the island's weather administration said, although there were no immediate reports of damage.

A pair of explosions and a fire, apparently sparked by leaking gas, has ripped through a nursing home near Philadelphia on Tuesday, killing at least two people and prompting an intense search for victims in a collapsed portion of the building, officials said.

A private jet carrying the chief of staff of Libya’s army reported an electrical failure and requested an emergency landing shortly before crashing near Ankara, Turkey’s head of communications has announced on Wednesday.

At least six people, including a 2-year-old burn victim, have died when a small Mexican Navy aircraft crashed on Monday off the Texas coast near Galveston during a humanitarian mission to transfer the child for treatment in the United States.

Australia's most populous state has passed sweeping new gun and anti-terror rules on Wednesday following the mass shooting on Bondi Beach, tightening firearm ownership, banning public display of terror symbols and strengthening police power to curb protests.

At least five people died when a small Mexican Navy aircraft crashed on Monday off the Texas coast near Galveston during a mission for an organisation that helps child burn victims, including transferring them for treatment in the US.

Two workers have been killed due to an outburst of methane and rock masses at the Pniowek coal mine in southern Poland, owner JSW said on Monday evening.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said on Monday he will discuss Iran's nuclear activities during his visit next week with US President Donald Trump.

US President Trump announced plans for a new "Trump class" of battleships on Monday, marking the start of an expanded naval buildup and signaling increased scrutiny of defence contractors over production delays and cost overruns.

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed on Monday to hold a December 24 meeting of defence officials towards resuming a months-old ceasefire, as fierce border fighting between them entered a third week with at least 80 people killed so far.

US President Donald Trump named Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry on Sunday as his special envoy to Greenland, drawing renewed criticism from Denmark and Greenland over Washington's interest in the mineral-rich Arctic island.

A passenger bus crash has killed at least 16 people on Indonesia’s main island of Java just after midnight Monday, officials said.

Japan has taken the final step to allow the world's largest nuclear power plant to resume operations with a regional vote on Monday, a watershed moment in the country's return to nuclear energy nearly 15 years after the Fukushima disaster.

The remaining 130 Nigerian schoolchildren abducted in November from a school have been released, President Bola Tinubu's spokesperson said on Sunday, following one of the country's biggest mass kidnappings of recent years.

Australian police say homemade pipe and tennis ball bombs were thrown at a crowd at Bondi Beach before a mass shooting but failed to detonate, according to court documents released on Monday.

Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak, jailed for corruption in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, will learn on Monday if he can serve the remainder of his sentence at home in the first of two rulings this week that will test current premier Anwar Ibrahim's campaign against graft.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was booed by an angry crowd gathered at the famous Bondi beach on Sunday to honour the victims of a gun attack a week earlier.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy aide said on Sunday that he was sure the chances of peace in Ukraine were not improved by changes to US proposals made by the Europeans and Ukraine.

Nine people were killed and 10 wounded in an early morning shooting in a township south-west of Johannesburg and authorities have launched a manhunt for the suspects, the South African Police Service said on Sunday.

The US Justice Department released thousands of heavily redacted documents related to the late financier and convicted offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday that extensively featured Democratic former President Bill Clinton.

Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi mourners, including the country's interim government leader, attended the funeral on Saturday of a slain youth leader and election candidate amid tight security.

The US military launched large-scale strikes against dozens of IS targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for an attack on American personnel, US officials said.

A Pakistani court on Saturday sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to 17 years in prison each in a corruption case involving the under-priced purchase of luxury state gifts, the court and Khan's lawyers said.

Seven elephants were killed and one injured when a Delhi-bound train collided with a herd in northeast India early on Saturday, district police chief VV Rakesh Reddy said.

Five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on a school sheltering displaced people in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, the head of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Mohamed Abu Selmia, told Reuters on Friday.

Nine people have been injured, four of them seriously, after a person released smoke bombs at a Taipei subway station and then attacked bystanders, the official Central News Agency said.

President Vladimir Putin offered no compromise on his terms for ending the war in Ukraine on Friday and accused the European Union of attempting "daylight robbery" of Russian assets.

Police and paramilitary troops fanned out across Dhaka and other cities in Bangladesh on Friday after violent protests overnight over the death of a popular youth leader, with concerns of further unrest ahead of national elections in which he was due to run.

The suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University last weekend is dead, a US attorney said, as authorities investigate whether the same person killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor two days after the rampage at Brown.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Poland's MAGA-aligned President Karol Nawrocki in Warsaw on Friday as the Ukrainian leader tries to shore up relations with a key ally at a crucial moment for Kyiv's war effort.

There is no evidence indicating that the two suspects involved in the Bondi Beach attack received any form of military training while in the Philippines, the country's National Security Adviser said on Wednesday.

At least 12 people were killed and three others abducted when gunmen attacked a mining site in Atoso village in Nigeria's restive Plateau state, a local group leader said on Wednesday.

Russia launched a "massive" drone attack on Ukraine's central Cherkasy region, injuring six people and triggering a blackout in part of Cherkasy city, the local governor said on Thursday.

The United Nations and aid groups have warned on Wednesday that humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories, particularly Gaza, were at risk of collapse if Israel does not lift impediments that include a "vague, arbitrary, and highly politicised" registration process.

Israel has approved a deal that will supply natural gas to Egypt, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, describing it as the country's largest-ever gas deal.

The United States has approved $11.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan on Wednesday, the largest ever US weapons package for the island which is under increasing military pressure from China.

President Donald Trump has expanded a list of countries subject to a full travel ban on Tuesday, prohibiting citizens from an additional seven countries, including passports from Syria and Palestine, from entering the United States.

The lower house of Indian parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of an atomic energy bill that will allow private participation in the country's nuclear power sector.

Doctors in England began a five-day strike on Wednesday over pay and working conditions during a surge in flu cases and with no end in sight to an increasingly bitter dispute with the government.

An Israeli settler shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian in the town of Tuqu' on Tuesday after the funeral of another teenager, the town's mayor said.

France's Louvre museum in Paris partially reopened on Wednesday despite its staff unanimously voting to extend a strike they began on Monday over pay and working conditions.

Authorities in India's capital Delhi rolled out strict measures on Wednesday in an attempt to curb pollution, including a ban on vehicles not compliant with latest emission control norms and regulating attendance in private and government offices.

India summoned Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to New Delhi to convey its strong concerns on Wednesday over what it described as a deteriorating security situation in Bangladesh, particularly threats targeting the Indian Mission in Dhaka.

A man who allegedly opened fire on Sydney's famed Bondi Beach has been charged with 59 offences, including murder and terrorism, police said on Wednesday.

Myanmar’s junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is "in good health," a day after her son told Reuters he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing.

The alleged gunman shot dead by police during Sunday's attack on Australia's Bondi beach was originally from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad and his family did not know about his 'radical mindset', Indian police said on Tuesday.

 US President Donald Trump has ordered on Tuesday a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, in Washington's latest move to increase pressure on Nicolas Maduro's government, targeting its main source of income.

The Israeli military have shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian during a raid on the town of Tuqu' on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry said, the latest deadly incident in a recent surge of violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

US President Donald Trump has sued the BBC on Monday for defamation over edited clips of a speech that made it appear he directed supporters to storm the US Capitol, opening an international front in his fight against media coverage he deems untrue or unfair.

Four people are facing criminal charges in connection with what Attorney General Pam Bondi described on Monday as a foiled bomb plot that contemplated multiple targets, including US immigration agents and their vehicles.

Hong Kong's High Court on Monday found pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai guilty of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and to publish seditious material under a China-imposed national security law that could see him jailed for life.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will resume talks with US President Donald Trump's envoys in Berlin on Monday, after the US side said a "lot of progress" had been made on ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.

At least 37 people have been killed in flash floods triggered by torrential rains in Morocco's Atlantic coastal province of Safi, Moroccan authorities said on Monday.

A Sydney resident who wrestled a gun from one of the alleged attackers during the mass shooting at Bondi Beach is recovering in hospital after undergoing surgery for bullet wounds to his arm and hand, his family said.

Seventeen people were killed and 20 injured after a bus carrying school children fell off a cliff in a rural area in northern Colombia, the local governor said on Sunday night.

Australia signalled plans for tougher gun laws on Monday as the country began mourning victims of its worst mass shooting in almost 30 years, in which a father and son duo killed 15 people at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

The man held as a "person of interest" in the Brown University shooting that left two students dead and nine injured will be released from custody, authorities said on Sunday night.

At least 12 people were killed and almost 30 wounded when gunmen opened fire at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday in what Australian police and officials described as a terrorist attack.

A man has been taken into custody on Sunday at a Rhode Island hotel and held as a "person of interest" in the Brown University shooting that left two students dead and nine wounded amid year-end final exams at the Ivy League school, authorities said.

Israel's assassination of a senior Hamas commander threatens the viability of the ceasefire in Gaza, the chief negotiator of the group said on Sunday, calling on US President Donald Trump to demand Israel comply with the terms of the truce.

Ukraine has relinquished its ambition of joining the NATO military alliance in exchange for Western security guarantees as a compromise to end the war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of talks with US envoys in Berlin.

Thailand announced a curfew in its southeastern Trat province on Sunday as fighting with Cambodia spread to coastal areas of a disputed border region, two days after US President and would-be peacemaker Donald Trump said the sides had agreed to stop.

India tightened anti-pollution measures in Delhi and adjoining areas after the capital's air quality deteriorated to the season's worst.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, fresh from a meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin, said he hopes to discuss a Ukraine-Russia peace plan with US President Donald Trump, adding that "peace is not far away".

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko freed 123 prisoners on Saturday including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava after two days of talks with an envoy for President Donald Trump, a US statement said.

The death toll from floods and landslides that struck three provinces on Indonesia's Sumatra Island has exceeded 1,003, with 218 people still missing, according to the latest data released Saturday by the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa and the surrounding region suffered major blackouts on Saturday after a large overnight Russian attack on the power grid across the country.

Two people were killed overnight in a Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian city of Saratov, regional governor Roman Busargin said on Saturday.

Thailand's leader vowed to keep fighting on the disputed border with Cambodia as fighter jets struck targets on Saturday, hours after US President Donald Trump said he had brokered a ceasefire.

The European Union agreed on Friday to indefinitely freeze Russian central bank assets held in Europe, removing a big obstacle to using the cash to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia.

Severe rainfall has triggered major flooding in the US state of Washington, prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands of residents.

At least 30 people have been killed, including patients, and 70 injured after an airstrike by the country's ruling junta hit a hospital in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, according to a rebel group, an aid worker and a witness.

Japan has lifted a tsunami advisory issued after an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 hit the country's northeastern region on Friday, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

Thailand's caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul revealed on Friday he was scheduled to speak to US President Donald Trump late in the day, as border clashes between Cambodia and Thailand continued for a fifth day.

Bangladesh will hold parliamentary elections on February 12, its first national vote since a deadly student-led uprising forced then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India last year.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado said she planned to take her award back to Venezuela, but declined to say on Thursday when she would return to her home country after leaving in great secrecy to receive the honour.

Torrential rain swept across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, flooding hundreds of tents sheltering families displaced by two years of war, and leading to the death of a baby due to exposure, local health officials said.

The US has seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, a move that sent oil prices higher and sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Caracas.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday took aim at young people parading themselves on social media a day after a world-first ban on under-16s went live, saying the rollout was always going to be bumpy but would ultimately save lives.

Bangladesh's Election Commission will announce on Thursday the date of parliamentary elections scheduled for February, a commission official said, after a student-led uprising toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024.

The US has seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, a move that sent oil prices higher and sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Caracas.

A US judge in Manhattan on Wednesday allowed for the public release of records from a grand jury investigation into Jeffrey Epstein because of a law recently passed by Congress, the latest in a string of similar rulings.

An environmental group has filed suit on Wednesday seeking to prevent the US Interior Department from placing an image of President Donald Trump's face on annual entrance passes for national parks and federal recreational areas that go on sale next year.

At least 22 people were killed late on Tuesday after two buildings collapsed in Fez, one of Morocco's oldest cities and a key tourist destination, with the state broadcaster saying the blocks had shown signs of cracking.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is prepared to hold elections within three months if the US and Kyiv's other allies could ensure the security of the vote.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Wednesday that Moscow was pleased with the developing military ties between the two countries and ready to help Jakarta in the field of nuclear energy.

An Air India investigation into why one of its Airbus planes conducted eight commercial flights without an airworthiness permit found "systemic failures", with the airline admitting it needed to do better on compliance, a company document showed.

Australian teenagers have taken to social media for the last time to bid farewell to their followers and mourn the loss of the platforms that shaped much of their lives before a world-first ban took effect on Wednesday.

Twelve people have been killed in a residential fire in the southern Chinese city of Shantou, state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

The Arab Parliament joined the Arab League in condemning the storming of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) headquarters in East Jerusalem by Israeli forces.

Fighting between Cambodia and Thailand escalated along their contested border on Tuesday, as the Southeast Asian neighbours both said they would not back down in defending their sovereignty.

India has ordered IndiGo to cut 10 per cent of its planned flights after the airline scrapped at least 2,000 services last week because of poor pilot roster planning, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded.

Australia at midnight (1300 GMT) on Wednesday became the first country in the world to ban social media for children under 16, blocking them from platforms including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

Pope Leo stressed the need to continue with dialogue aiming at a "just and lasting peace" during a meeting on Tuesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Vatican said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have signed a High-Speed Electric Rail Link agreement that will connect Riyadh and Doha.

A fire broke out at a seven-storey building in Indonesia's capital Jakarta on Tuesday, local broadcaster Kompas TV reported, with 13 people confirmed dead and some still trapped inside.

Gunmen stormed a security checkpoint in Pakistan's northwest near the Afghan border, killing six soldiers, three police and security sources said on Tuesday.

Japanese authorities have lifted tsunami warnings on Tuesday hours after a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake shook northeastern regions, injuring at least 30 people and forcing about 90,000 residents to evacuate their homes.

More than 100 people, including dozens of children, were killed in attacks on a kindergarten in Sudan that continued even as parents and caretakers rushed the wounded to a nearby hospital, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

The United Nations appealed on Monday for a 2026 aid budget only half the size of what it had hoped for this year, acknowledging a plunge in donor funding at a time when humanitarian needs have never been greater.

The leaders of France, Germany and Britain staged a strong show of support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in London on Monday at what they described as a "crucial time" for Kyiv, under US pressure to agree a proposed peace deal with Russia.

A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan's northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate.

Israeli police raided the headquarters of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency in East Jerusalem on Monday and raised Israel's flag, in what the agency called a challenge to international law.

Thailand said it launched airstrikes into Cambodia on Monday as fighting broke out in multiple areas along their disputed border, after both countries accused the other of breaching a ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump.

India's IndiGo is battling growing passenger fury over delays in finding and delivering thousands of stranded bags, with social media flooded with photos of luggage piling up at airports after last week's large-scale flight disruptions.

Norwegian police said on Monday they had arrested a suspected shooter after receiving reports of gunfire at Oslo's largest shopping centre.

Nigeria's government has secured the release of 100 students who were abducted last month in Niger state in one of the country's worst mass kidnappings to date, local broadcaster Channels Television reported on Sunday.

An Australian firefighter was killed overnight after he was struck by a tree while trying to control a bushfire that had destroyed homes and burnt large swathes of bushland north of Sydney, authorities said on Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he will meet President Donald Trump later this month, saying a second phase of the US president's Gaza plan was close.

US President Donald Trump's outgoing Ukraine envoy said a deal to end the Ukraine war was "really close" and now depended on resolving two main outstanding issues: the future of Ukraine's Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Benin's interior minister said on Sunday armed forces had foiled a coup attempt after a group of soldiers in the West African nation claimed on national television to have seized power.

Fourteen people were killed and 34 injured when a passenger bus overturned on a national highway in southern Algeria.

At least 25 people, including tourists, were killed in a fire at a popular entertainment facility in India’s Goa state, the state’s chief minister said on Sunday.

India capped airfares on Saturday as hundreds of passengers gathered outside Bengaluru and Mumbai airports after IndiGo cancelled 385 flights on the fifth day of a crisis at the country's biggest airline that has crippled air travel.

Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged heavy fire along their border late on Friday, officials from both countries said, killing at least five people amid heightened tensions following failed peace talks last weekend.

Negotiations on consolidating the US-backed truce in the war in Gaza are at a "critical" moment, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Saturday.

Residents in the Indonesian region of Aceh Tamiang climbed over slippery logs and walked for about an hour on Saturday to get aid, as the death toll from floods and landslides that hit Sumatra island this month rose to more than 900 people.

A railway hub near Kyiv was attacked during a large-scale Russian drone and missile attack that damaged the depot and railway carriages, Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said on Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began summit talks in New Delhi on Friday, as New Delhi rolled out the red carpet for the Russian leader.

Air travel across India was in turmoil for a fourth day after IndiGo cancelled around 500 flights on Friday, including all from the capital New Delhi, after failing to plan for new pilot flying time regulations.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Friday that ceasefire talks with Israel are primarily aimed at stopping Israeli hostilities on Lebanese territory, after the Israeli prime minister's office said it seeks economic cooperation.

The US has announced plans to expand the number of countries covered by its travel ban to more than 30, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Thursday.

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.