International

Dozens of people were killed in a pre-dawn stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela in northern India on Wednesday, police sources said, as tens of millions gathered to take a dip in sacred river waters on the most auspicious day of a six-week Hindu festival.

At least 14 civilians were killed and 29 wounded in attacks by Turkish-backed forces in northern Syria on Monday and Tuesday, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces group said.

A small aircraft carrying oil workers in South Sudan's Unity State crashed on Wednesday, killing 20 people, an official said.

Israeli airstrikes in Nabatieh, a major town in southern Lebanon, injured 24 people on Tuesday, the Lebanese health ministry said.

A nuclear power plant was among the targets of a massive Ukrainian drone attack against Russian oil and power facilities, Russian officials and media outlets reported on Wednesday.

Australian police said on Wednesday they had foiled a planned antisemitic attack after discovering a caravan containing explosives in an outer Sydney suburb in New South Wales state.

Rwandan-backed M23 rebels appeared to have consolidated their control over Goma, with eastern Congo's largest city mostly quiet on Wednesday apart from sporadic gunfire in some outlying districts, residents said.

A US judge on Tuesday temporarily paused part of the Trump administration's sweeping directive to pause federal loans, grants and other financial assistance, granting a win to advocacy groups who said the policy would be devastating.

An Airbus plane belonging to South Korean carrier Air Busan caught fire on Tuesday at Gimhae International Airport in the country's south while preparing for departure to Hong Kong, fire authorities said.

The western Indian state of Maharashtra has formed a panel to study a proposal to ban petrol and diesel vehicles in Mumbai city amid worsening air quality and only allow electric or gas driven vehicles, it said in an order.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed along the main roads leading north in Gaza on Monday, jubilant to be returning home after months of living in temporary shelter but fearing what might remain of their homes amid the bombed-out ruins.

Overnight Russian air attacks wounded eight people, set a private business on fire and damaged residential buildings around Ukraine, local officials said on Tuesday.

UN Chief Antonio Guterres on Monday voiced concern over the US freeze on foreign aid, urging additional exemptions for critical development and humanitarian activities.

Chinese startup DeepSeek said on Monday it will temporarily limit registrations due to a cyberattack after the company's AI assistant amassed sudden popularity.

India and China have agreed to resume direct air services after nearly five years, India's foreign ministry said on Monday, signalling a thaw in relations between the neighbours after a deadly 2020 military clash on their disputed Himalayan border.

The head of the World Food Programme in Afghanistan says the agency can only feed half the millions of Afghans in need after cuts in international aid and an impending freeze in US foreign funding.

Thirty-seven suspected terrorists, including suspected members of IS, have been arrested across east Africa over the last two months, the global police body Interpol said on Monday.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians began moving along the main roads leading north in Gaza on Monday as Israel opened roadblocks after Hamas agreed to hand over female Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud and two other hostages.

The US and Colombia pulled back from the brink of a trade war on Sunday after the White House said the South American nation had agreed to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule with a massive win in a presidential election that Western governments have rejected as a sham, according to preliminary results on Monday.

The US said on Sunday that the agreement between Lebanon and Israel would remain in effect until February 18, after Israel said on Friday it would keep troops in the south beyond the Sunday deadline set out in a US-brokered ceasefire that halted last year's war with Hezbollah.

South Korea's prosecutors indicted President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday on charges of leading an insurrection with his short-lived imposition of martial law on December 3, the main opposition party said.

Israeli forces killed 15 people in south Lebanon on Sunday as a deadline for their withdrawal passed and thousands of people tried to return to their homes in defiance of Israeli military orders, Lebanese authorities said.

Hamas handed over four Israeli female soldiers to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza City on Saturday morning.

Pete Hegseth narrowly secured enough votes on Friday to become the next US defence secretary, a major victory for President Donald Trump after fierce opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans to his controversial nominee.

Israeli forces will remain in southern Lebanon beyond a 60-day deadline stipulated in a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah because its terms have not been fully implemented, the Israeli prime minister's office said on Friday.

Hamas has announced the names of four Israeli women soldiers to be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in the second swap under the ceasefire deal in Gaza.

At least eight people died and seven more were injured in a blast at an ordnance factory in the western Indian state of Maharashtra on Friday.

Record high winds from Storm Eowyn battered Ireland and Northern Ireland on Friday, leaving almost one-third of Irish homes and businesses without power and forcing cancellation of hundreds of flights and the closure of schools and public transport.

The US will leave the World Health Organization on January 22, 2026, the UN said, after being formally notified of the decision by President Donald Trump, who has accused the agency of mishandling the pandemic and other international health crises.

Russian air defences repelled a massive Ukrainian drone attack overnight, intercepting and destroying 121 drones targeting 13 regions, including Moscow, Russia's Defence Ministry said, making no mention of casualties or damage.

A federal judge blocked Donald Trump's administration from implementing the Republican president's executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the United States, calling it "blatantly unconstitutional."

A British teenager who killed three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event was jailed for at least 52 years on Thursday, for an attack Prime Minister Keir Starmer called one of the most harrowing moments in Britain's history.

Palestinians in northern Gaza prepared tent encampments for displaced families on Thursday, two days before they were expected to return to their home areas in accordance with the timeline of a ceasefire deal agreed between Israel and Hamas.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Thursday called for the US to continue supplying Ukraine and said Europe would pay the bill.

The Kremlin said on Thursday it saw nothing particularly new in a threat by US President Donald Trump to hit Russia with new sanctions and tariffs if it did not agree to end the war in Ukraine.

A new wildfire that broke out north of Los Angeles on Wednesday rapidly spread to more than 38 square km, fuelled by strong winds and dry brush, forcing mandatory evacuation orders for more than 31,000 people.

Russia unleashed a drone and missile strike on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, killing one, wounding 31 others and leaving tens of thousands without power or heat, officials said on Thursday.

The Trump administration has urged government employees to inform on each other and their departments in order to root out any attempts to hide diversity programs.

Turkey has detained 11 people as part of an investigation into a fire that killed 79 people and injured dozens at a ski resort in the Bolu mountains, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on Wednesday.

The climate crisis and an unlimited expansion of artificial intelligence could be existential threats for humanity, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday, adding AI should serve humanity and not the other way around.

Prince Harry claimed a "monumental" victory over Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper group on Wednesday after the publisher settled his lawsuit, admitting unlawful actions at its Sun tabloid for the first time and paying substantial damages.

US President Donald Trump has pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for running an underground online marketplace where drug dealers and others conducted more than $200 million in illicit trade using bitcoin.

Israeli security forces backed by helicopters raided the volatile West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, killing at least nine Palestinians in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a, "large-scale and significant military operation".

US President Donald Trump has announced a private sector investment of up to $500 billion (AED1.8 trillion) to fund infrastructure for artificial intelligence, aiming to outpace rival nations in the business-critical technology.

Israel's army chief Herzi Halevi said on Tuesday he would resign on March 6, taking responsibility for the massive security lapse on October 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen from Gaza carried out a cross-border attack on Israel.

A fire at a ski resort hotel in Turkey's Bolu mountains killed 76 people and injured dozens on Tuesday, forcing panicked guests to jump out of windows in the middle of the night.

The United States will exit the World Health Organization (WHO), President Donald Trump said on Monday, saying the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.

A landslide in Indonesia's Central Java city of Pekalongan killed 16 people and injured 10, an official at the country's regional disaster mitigation agency and police said on Tuesday.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attended on Tuesday a Constitutional Court hearing of his impeachment trial where he denied ordering military commanders to drag lawmakers out of parliament during his short-lived bid to impose martial law.

President Donald Trump has pardoned nearly everyone criminally charged with participating in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, in a show of solidarity with supporters who stormed the seat of American power in his name.

Donald Trump vowed to usher in a new era of American greatness, minutes after he was sworn in as president for the second time to complete an extraordinary political comeback.

US President Joe Biden issued pre-emptive pardons on Monday for people Republican successor Donald Trump has targeted for retaliation.

US President-elect Donald Trump will call for a "revolution of common sense" during his inaugural address, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday citing excerpts of his prepared remarks.

An Indian court awarded the life sentence on Monday to a police volunteer convicted of the assault and murder of a junior doctor at the hospital where she worked in the eastern city of Kolkata, rejecting demands for the death penalty saying it was not a rare crime.

Eight people died and seven were injured in a fire at a nursing home outside Belgrade on Monday which authorities said was caused by arson, Serbian state TV RTS reported.

South African police have launched a manhunt for a Lesotho gang member believed to have controlled operations at an illegal gold mine where 78 bodies were recovered last week during a police siege, from which he escaped.

US President Joe Biden welcomed a ceasefire in Gaza on Sunday and said hundreds of trucks were entering the seaside enclave to help its civilians.

A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip took effect on Sunday after a nearly three-hour delay, pausing a 15-month-old war that has brought devastation and seismic political change to the Middle East.

At least 86 people were killed and more injured in northern Nigeria on Saturday when a petrol tanker truck overturned, spilling fuel that exploded, the country's national emergency agency said.

Hundreds of supporters of South Korea's arrested president, Yoon Suk Yeol, stormed a court building early on Sunday after his detention was extended, smashing windows and breaking inside, an attack the country's acting leader called "unimaginable".

Russian forces unleashed a combined drone and missile strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Saturday, killing three people in a central district, officials said.

Donald Trump's incoming US presidential administration plans to intensify immigration enforcement nationwide soon after he takes office on Monday, Reuters reported.

Israel's cabinet approved a deal with Hamas for a ceasefire and release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday, a day ahead of the agreement's scheduled start.

The US Supreme Court upheld on Friday a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not sell the short-video app by Sunday.

The Palestinian group Hamas is expected to release the first hostages under a Gaza ceasefire deal on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Friday, after 15 months of war that demolished the enclave.

A Russian missile attack killed at least four people and damaged an educational facility in the city of Kryvyi Rih in southern-central Ukraine on Friday, the regional governor said.

Pakistan launched its first home-made observation satellite on Friday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northern China.

A Pakistani court sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan to 14 years imprisonment on Friday in a land corruption case, a setback to talks between his party and the government aimed at cooling political instability in the country.

The Israeli cabinet will meet to give final approval to a deal with Palestinian group Hamas for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and release of hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Friday.

The Gaza Strip ceasefire should begin on Sunday as planned, despite the need for negotiators to tie up a "loose end" at the last minute, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday.

A SpaceX Starship rocket broke up in space minutes after launching from Texas on Thursday, forcing airline flights over the Gulf of Mexico to alter course to avoid falling debris and setting back Elon Musk's flagship rocket programme.

A student killed a female teacher and classmate with a knife and injured another classmate at a high school in northern Slovakia on Thursday.

Israel intensified strikes on Gaza, with at least 70 people killed overnight, hours after a ceasefire and hostage release deal was announced, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing Hamas, on Thursday, of reneging on some of the agreements.

Blue Origin's giant New Glenn rocket blasted off from Florida early Thursday morning on its first mission to space, an inaugural step into Earth's orbit for Jeff Bezos' space company as it aims to rival SpaceX in the satellite launch business.

President Joe Biden capped a half-century political career on Wednesday with a final Oval Office speech as he hopes to seal a legacy overshadowed by Democrats' failure to stop Donald Trump from returning to the White House.

India on Thursday became the fourth nation in the world to achieve space docking, a technological milestone that underscores its ambitions to expand its share in the rapidly growing $400 billion global space market.

Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani announced that the joint mediation efforts of Qatar, Egypt and the United States secured a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel.

Negotiators reached a deal on Wednesday for a ceasefire in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, an official briefed on the negotiations said, after 15 months of conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Bangladesh’s Supreme Court acquitted former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in a 2008 corruption case on Wednesday, clearing the way for the ailing leader to fight parliamentary elections in the South Asian country.

A man set himself on fire on Wednesday near South Korea's corruption investigation office, where impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was being interrogated over insurrection allegations, the national fire agency said.

The Russian Investigative Committee has charged 27 individuals in connection with last year's terror attack on Crocus City Hall in the Moscow suburbs.

South African authorities have pulled at least 78 bodies from the shaft of a closed gold mine more than 2 km underground where an unknown number of men are still feared trapped, following a siege in a crackdown on illegal mining.

Ukraine introduced emergency power cuts in six regions amid what authorities described as a "massive" Russian missile strike, the national grid operator said on Wednesday.

Negotiators were near to hammering out the final details of a ceasefire in Gaza on Wednesday after marathon talks in Qatar, and the US and Egyptian leaders promised to stay in close contact about a deal.

South Korean authorities arrested impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday over insurrection allegations, with the embattled leader saying he agreed to comply with investigations to avoid "bloodshed", ending weeks of tense political standoff.

US Special Counsel Jack Smith concluded that Donald Trump engaged in an "unprecedented criminal effort" to hold onto power after losing the 2020 election, but was thwarted in bringing the case to trial by the president-elect's November election victory, according to a report published on Tuesday.

South Korea's Constitutional Court adjourned the opening session of the impeachment trial of suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol within minutes on Tuesday after the embattled leader did not attend court.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was sued on Monday on claims that it failed to properly manage water supplies critical to fighting the deadly Palisades Fire, a court filing showed.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun summoned Nawaf Salam, the head of the International Court of Justice, to designate him prime minister after most lawmakers nominated him on Monday, a big blow to Hezbollah, which accused opponents of seeking to exclude it.

Mediator Qatar gave Israel and Hamas a final draft of a deal to end the war in Gaza on Monday, after a midnight "breakthrough" in talks attended by US President-elect Donald Trump's envoy, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters.

Firefighters raced to contain the frontiers of two Los Angeles wildfires that burned for the sixth straight day on Sunday, taking advantage of a brief respite in hazardous conditions before high winds were expected to fan the flames again.

Nigeria's air force said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties during a weekend air strike that targeted armed gangs in the northwest, the latest military operation where innocent people may have been accidentally killed.

European foreign ministers will meet at the end of January to discuss the lifting of sanctions on Syria, the EU foreign policy chief said on Sunday in Riyadh ahead of a meeting of top Middle Eastern and Western diplomats and Syria's new foreign minister.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin called off the launch of its New Glenn rocket after "a few anomalies" during the mission countdown on Monday, postponing by at least a day an inaugural attempt to reach orbit and compete with SpaceX in the satellite launch market.

US President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said, as US officials race to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office on January 20.

Israel plans to use tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to pay the PA's nearly 2 billion shekel ($544 million) debt to state-run Israel Electric Co (IEC), Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday.

Aircraft dropped water and fire retardant on steep hills to stem the eastward spread of the Palisades wildfire in Los Angeles on Saturday as on-the-ground firefighting intensified amid warnings of wind gusts of up to 110 kph that could make matters worse.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on allies on Sunday to honour all promises to supply Ukraine with weapons, including those to counter Russian air attacks.

Six people died when a propane-butane cylinder exploded at a restaurant in the northwest Czech city of Most, setting the building on fire, emergency services said on Sunday.

Ukraine has captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday.

Syria's Intelligence Directorate foiled an attack by the IS group on the Sayeda Zeinab shrine in a Damascus suburb, state news agency Sana reported on Saturday.

The flight data and cockpit voice recorders on the Jeju Air jet that crashed on December 29 stopped recording about four minutes before the airliner hit a concrete structure at South Korea's Muan airport, the transport ministry said on Saturday.

Newly elected Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will hold consultations with members of parliament from January 13 to nominate a prime minister, the presidency said on Friday.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a third term on Friday, despite a six-month-long election dispute, international calls for him to stand aside and an increase in the US reward offered for his capture.

US President-elect Donald Trump said at his sentencing on Friday for his criminal conviction stemming from hush money paid to an adult movie star that the case has been a "terrible experience."

Wildfires menacing Los Angeles have killed at least 10 people and devoured nearly 10,000 structures, with five fires burning into a third night into Friday as dry desert winds fanning the flames again gathered strength.

An official Palestinian tally of direct deaths in the Israel-Hamas war likely undercounted the number of casualties by 41 per cent through the middle of 2024 as the Gaza Strip's healthcare infrastructure unravelled, according to a study published on Thursday.

Israel confirmed that a hostage found killed in Gaza was Hamza Ziyadne, the son of another hostage, Youssef Ziyadne, found dead alongside him in an underground tunnel near the southern city of Rafah.

South Korea's presidential security chief resigned Friday as he faced questioning over why his guards prevented the detention of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol and investigators prepared to make a fresh arrest attempt.

The US House of Representatives voted on Thursday to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) to protest its issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister over Israel's campaign in Gaza.

Elon Musk urged Germans to vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in an upcoming election in a conversation with its leader on his social media platform X that highlighted the US billionaire's growing ambition to sway European politics.

Two massive wildfires menacing Los Angeles from the east and west were still burning uncontained on Thursday, but a brief respite from the fierce winds that have fanned the flames for two days allowed crews to slow their explosive spread.

Lebanon's parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun head of state on Thursday, filling the vacant presidency with a general who enjoys US approval and showing the diminished sway of the Hezbollah group after its devastating war with Israel.

Authorities moved more than 47,000 people to shelters in earthquake-hit Tibet, Chinese officials said on Thursday, while rescuers widen a massive combing effort for survivors near the foothills of the Himalayas, despite slim survival odds.

Raging wildfires surrounded Los Angeles on Wednesday, killing at least five people, destroying hundreds of homes and stretching firefighting resources and water supplies to the limit, as more than 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate.

At least six people were killed and several others injured late on Wednesday in a stampede in southern India after thousands of devotees queued outside one of the most visited Hindu temples to collect tokens for a free visit to the deity.

A Russian guided bomb attack on Wednesday killed at least 13 people and injured 113 in Ukraine's southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, authorities said.

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.