The Hong Kong protest coalition that organised record-breaking democracy rallies two years ago yesterday said it was disbanding in the face of China’s sweeping clampdown on dissent in the city.

South Korea and the United States will begin their annual joint military drills today, the South’s military said yesterday, amid North Korea’s

RELIGIOUS STUDENTS: The Taliban originated among young Afghans who studied in Sunni Islamic schools called madrassas in Pakistan after fleeing Afghanistan during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation.

Japan will never wage war again, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged on Sunday, as he commemorated the end of World War Two while members of his cabinet visited a shrine seen by critics as a symbol of the country’s past militarism.

Taliban insurgents entered the Afghanistan capital Kabul on Sunday, an interior ministry official said, as the United States evacuated diplomats from its embassy by helicopter.

All 16- and 17-year-olds in England will be offered their first COVID-19 vaccine dose by August 23, according to a target set by British Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

At least 20 people were killed and 79 injured in a fuel tank explosion in the Akkar region in northern Lebanon, the Lebanese Red Cross said on its Twitter account early on Sunday.

The Taliban on Sunday seized the last major city outside of Kabul held by the country’s increasingly isolated central government, cutting off the capital to the east and tightening their grip on the nation as tens of thousands fled their rapid advance.

At least 304 people died and hundreds were injured after a major earthquake struck southwestern Haiti on Saturday, authorities said, reducing churches, hotels, schools and homes to rubble in the latest tragedy to hit the impoverished Caribbean nation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the Taliban to immediately halt their offensive in Afghanistan, and warned that “Afghanistan is spinning out of control.” 

1914 - The Panama Canal opened with the passage of the vessel Ancon, although it was not formally inaugurated until July 1920.

The Taliban pushed closer to Kabul on Saturday, capturing a key city near Afghanistan's capital as American troops flew in to help evacuate embassy personnel and other civilians.

A day ahead of India’s 75th Independence Day, the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said August 14 would be observed as “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day” in memory of the struggles and sacrifices of the people.

One woman was dead and two people were missing on Saturday after torrential rains touched off a landslide and engulfed at least two houses in western Japan, with rivers overflowing their banks as rain continued to pound the area.

July was the hottest month globally ever recorded, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Friday (Aug 13), in the latest data to underline the climate crisis.

The US Department of Homeland Security issued a new terrorism threat advisory on Friday ahead of the anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks and amid a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic.

Canada plans to resettle more than 20,000 vulnerable Afghans including women leaders, human rights workers and reporters to protect them from Taliban reprisals, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said on Friday.

The US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized a booster dose of Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc for people with compromised immune systems.

The Afghan government should engage with the Taliban to reach an inclusive settlement, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Thursday as the militant group made rapid gains amid spiralling violence and worries of a refugee crisis.

Six people, including a child, were killed in a mass shooting in the city of Plymouth in southwest England on Thursday evening, in an incident described by the British Home Secretary as "shocking".