International

At least 73 people have been killed in two days of sectarian clashes in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday. The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said that the death toll from Jaramana and Sahnaya included 30 members of the security forces, 15 fighters from the Druze minority and one civilian. ...

Operations at the Islamabad International Airport (IIAP) were briefly disrupted late Tuesday night after aviation authorities issued a high alert for undisclosed reasons, official sources confirmed. The alert, issued at 11:48 p.m. local time (1848 GMT) on April 29, remained in effect until 12:21 a.m. (1921 GMT) the following day, halting outbound flights for about 33 minutes. During the shutdown, ...

Chinese authorities say 22 people have been killed and 3 injured in a fire at restaurant in the northern city of Liaoyang, reports AP. No word was given on the cause of the fire, which broke out shortly after noon, but images from the scene showed huge flames spurting from the windows and doors of the two- or three-story building. ...

Monday that US film director Alexander Payne would be president of the competition’s jury this year. Payne, 64, has won two Oscars and two Golden Globes for his screenplays and is best known for films such as “Sideways”, “The Descendants” and “About Schmidt”. “It’s an enormous honour and joy to serve on the jury at Venice,” Payne said in a ...

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation projected Monday that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party has won Canada’s federal election, marking a stunning political turnaround fueled by rising nationalism in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s provocative remarks and threats. Initially forecast to lose power following Justin Trudeau’s resignation and mounting economic challenges, the Liberals reversed their fortunes in dramatic fashion. Carney, ...

The death toll from a massive explosion at Iran’s largest commercial port has risen to 46, state media reported, adding that most of the more than 1,000 wounded have been discharged from hospitals, reports AFP. “The death toll in the Shahid Rajaee Port fire has reached 46,” the official IRNA news agency reported, quoting Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, the crisis management director ...

Russia launched a sweeping drone assault across Ukraine overnight into Sunday, targeting multiple regions, officials said, after US President Donald Trump cast doubt over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to end the war. One person was killed and a 14-year-old girl wounded in the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which was hit for the third consecutive night, regional ...

Pope Francis’ wooden coffin was carried into St Peter’s Square on Saturday at the start of a funeral Mass attended by a multitude of mourners, including powerful world leaders, pilgrims and prelates, reports Reuters. Applause rang out as the wooden coffin, inlaid with a large cross, was brought out of St Peter’s Basilica and into the sun-filled square by white-gloved, ...

The funeral of Pope Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, will take place Saturday. After a multi-lingual mass in St Peter’s Square, his coffin will be taken to the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica, in central Rome, for burial. Here is the official programme of the ceremonies: 05:30 (0330 GMT) St Peter’s Square opens. 09:30 (0730 GMT) US President Donald ...

The Kashmir dispute remains one of the longest-running and most complex territorial conflicts in South Asia with both India and Pakistan laying full claim to the region—despite each controlling only a portion of it. Here are some of the key milestones that have shaped the decades-long conflict: 1948: The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 47, calling for an immediate ...