International

Fireworks illuminated skies over Paris, Rio and Sydney to celebrate the entry to 2024, while in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine, rockets and strikes marked the year’s earliest hours. Much of the world’s population — now more than eight billion — is hoping to shake off high living costs and global tumult in 2024, which will bring elections concerning half the ...

The French parliament has passed legislation toughening France’s immigration policy after months of political wrangling, report agencies. The amended bill was backed by both President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN). The vote divided Mr Macron’s party, and the health minister Aurélien Rousseau announced he was going to resign. The new legislation makes ...

At least 111 people were killed when an earthquake collapsed buildings in northwest China, state media reported Tuesday, as rescue workers raced to start digging through rubble. About 100 were killed and scores more injured in Gansu province after the strong, shallow tremor struck, state broadcaster CCTV said, citing the provincial earthquake relief headquarters. According to CCTV, 11 others were ...

Israeli forces launched deadly attacks up and down the Gaza Strip on Sunday, hitting a refugee camp in the north, a hospital in the south and killing a teenage girl who had lost her leg in an earlier strike, according to Palestinian officials, media and eyewitnesses. Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed 90 Palestinians on ...

A car crashed into a vehicle attached to Joe Biden’s motorcade on Sunday, with the security scare startling the US president as he left his campaign headquarters in Delaware. After a loud bang caused by a sedan slamming into an SUV positioned in a nearby intersection about 40 meters (130 feet) from Biden, security personnel rushed the president into a ...

At least 12 people were killed and another dozen were wounded in an attack early Sunday on a pre-Christmas party in central Mexico, authorities in the state of Guanajuato said. The violence occurred in the town of Salvatierra, reportedly at a hacienda, or ranch, that can be rented out for festivities. “So far 12 people are reported dead,” the state’s ...

The emir of oil-rich Kuwait, Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, died on Saturday, the royal court said, after three years in power. He was 86. “With great sadness and sorrow, we mourn… the death of Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Emir of the State of Kuwait,” said a statement aired on Kuwaiti state television, reports AFP. State television had cut its regular ...

The government has extended the deadline for Hajj registration under government and private management till December 31 as the quota is yet to be filled. The Religious Affairs Ministry on Sunday informed this issuing a circular in this regard. The registration began on November 15 and was supposed to end on Sunday (December 10). The notice mentioned that the deadline ...

Israeli forces shot dead six Palestinians on Friday in a raid on a refugee camp in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. The ministry did not identify those who died, but said they had been killed “by bullets from the occupation (Israel) in the Al-Fara refugee camp” near Tubas, reports AFP. The Israeli army ...

Robert Jenrick has resigned as immigration minister, saying the government’s emergency Rwanda legislation “does not go far enough”. He said “stronger protections” were needed to end “the merry-go-round of legal challenges which risk paralysing the scheme”. The government said the bill, unveiled earlier, made clear in UK law Rwanda was a safe country for asylum seekers. But it stops short ...