Representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban met in Doha for talks on Saturday, AFP correspondents said, as violence rages in the country with foreign forces almost entirely withdrawn.

Syrian President Bashar Assad was sworn in Saturday for a fourth seven-year term in the war-torn country.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah today said that all gaps in the country’s border fencing will be filled by next year to completely stop infiltration and other anti-national activities.

Rescue workers searched flood-ravaged parts of Germany and Belgium for survivors on Saturday after burst rivers and flash floods this week collapsed houses and claimed at least 157 lives.

US President Joe Biden on Friday said social media platforms like Facebook "are killing people" for allowing misinformation about coronavirus vaccines to be posted on its platform, as the administration continued criticizing the company.

The Delta variant of Covid-19 is now the dominant strain worldwide, accompanied by a surge of deaths around the United States almost entirely among unvaccinated people, US officials said Friday.

More than 1,000 people were missing in flood-stricken regions of western Germany and Belgium on Friday, where waters were still rising with the death toll already well over 100 and communications in some areas cut. 

A Russian Antonov An-28 passenger plane carrying up to 17 people disappeared from radars while flying over the Siberian region of Tomsk, Russian news agencies cited local officials as saying.

Russian investigative news outlet "Proekt" said it was closing down a US-registered legal entity a day after authorities in Russia banned its activities, but would find a way to continue its investigations into Russia's elite.

The number of people who lost their lives in the heavy floods in the western part of Germany increased to at least 81 on Friday, according to German broadcaster ARD, in what is Germany's worst mass loss of life in years.

Once a week Ghulam Ahmed, 38, takes time out from his cryptocurrency consulting business to log into a WhatsApp group with hundreds of members eager to learn how to mine and trade cryptocurrency in Pakistan. 

President Joe Biden on Thursday appeared to rule out the possibility of sending US troops to Haiti to stabilize the Caribbean nation following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

Canada may permit fully vaccinated travellers into the country by early September, the country's prime minister said on Thursday, if the current trend in vaccination rate and public health conditions continue.

One more suspected Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operative was arrested from Barasat near Kolkata, Indian police said today.

Myanmar's junta rejected on Wednesday a UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for reconciliation with the persecuted Rohingya minority, slamming "one-sided allegations" over its treatment of the stateless community.

At least eight people have died and dozens of people are missing in Germany after heavy flooding turned streams and streets into raging torrents, sweeping away cars and causing some buildings to collapse.

After loosing 53 cars during xenophobic attacks in South Africa in 2019, Johannesburg car dealership owner Okey Uchendu never thought he would see his business destroyed again by civil unrest in less than two years.

The Kremlin's most senior Afghanistan official accused the Afghan government of hypocrisy on Wednesday and said it needed to start proper negotiations with the Taliban about the country's future before it was too late.

Taliban fighters in Afghanistan said on Wednesday they had taken control of one of the main border crossings with Pakistan, perhaps the most strategic objective they have captured so far in a rapid advance across the country as U.S. forces pull out.

Singapore unveiled on Wednesday one of the world's largest floating solar panel farms, spanning an area equivalent to 45 football fields and producing enough electricity to power the island's five water treatment plants.