International

At least 15 people were killed in a fire i a small apparel factory in a Philippine residential area on Thursday, where firefighters were delayed by flooding, traffic, and a wrong address, a fire protection official. Most of the victims appeared to be factory workers and carpenters who were sleeping in rooms when the fire broke out Thursday morning, reports ...

A Pakistani court on Wednesday extended the jail custody of former Prime Minister Imran Khan for 14 days to investigate him on charges of leaking state secrets, his lawyer said, a day after another court suspended his prison sentence for graft. The special court held the proceedings at Attock Jail, where Khan began the three-year prison term on Aug 5 ...

French authorities are to ban the wearing in school of abaya dresses worn by some Muslim women, the education minister said Sunday, arguing the garment violated France’s strict secular laws in education. “It will no longer be possible to wear an abaya at school,” Education Minister Gabriel Attal told TF1 television, saying he would give “clear rules at the national ...

The leader of Libya’s government said Sunday that he had suspended his foreign minister after her Israeli counterpart announced he had held talks with her last week in Rome. Najla al-Mangoush has been “temporarily suspended” and will be subject to an “administrative investigation” by a commission chaired by the justice minister, Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said on Sunday evening in ...

There were 63 landings recorded yesterday, in the span of 24 hours, with a total of 1,826 people, in Italy’s Lampedusa, reports ANSA. A record, for the number of rescues and for the total number of migrants landed, never reached before on the largest of the Pelagie islands where from midnight to now there have already been another 17 landings ...

Leaders of the BRICS group of developing nations have invited Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates to join, in a move aimed at growing the clout of a bloc that has pledged to champion the “Global South,” Reuters reports. The debate over enlargement has topped the agenda at the three-day summit taking place in Johannesburg. ...

The head of the Wagner mercenary group, which in June attempted to topple Russia’s military leadership, was on board a plane that crashed on Wednesday, with all passengers killed, Russian officials said. The crash comes two months after Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a short-lived rebellion — seen as the biggest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority since he came to ...

Israeli security forces stormed into a town the northern West Bank on Tuesday, leading to fighting that killed a 17-year-old Palestinian, according to Palestinian health officials, the latest violence to grip the occupied territory. The Israeli military conducted an arrest raid before dawn in the town of Zababdeh south of Jenin, local medics said. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that ...

Thailand’s divisive ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra returned to the kingdom Tuesday, after 15 years in exile and hours before parliament votes for a new prime minister. The billionaire landed in a private jet at Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport at 9 am (0200 GMT), to be greeted by hundreds of noisy “Red Shirt” supporters waving banners and singing songs. Thaksin emerged briefly ...

Hilary brought heavy rains Saturday to portions of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula and the southwestern United States, as officials warned the powerful hurricane was likely to cause “catastrophic and life-threatening” flooding. The storm had weakened Saturday from a powerful Category 4 to Category 2 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale — but it was still deemed capable of “extensive damage,” and ...