GENEVA: UN rights chief Volker Turk said Wednesday he was “alarmed” by the surge in executions in Iran since March, with the death penalty being used by Tehran to “instil fear.” “Since March 19, 2026, at least 56 people have been executed on national security-related charges, including 27 individua»»»

Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, on Wednesday warned Japan over its expanding military capabilities. in this March 2019 photo, Kim is seen in Hanoi, Vietnam. File Pool Photo by Jorge Silva/EPA-EFE SEOUL, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader »»»

Dubai: As millions of people continue to face water scarcity, the fifth edition of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award is placing artificial intelligence and digital innovation at the heart of efforts to improve access to safe and sustainable drinking water. The award, overseen by»»»

More than 800,000 people displaced by war in Lebanon have begun returning to their hometowns following a lull in violence amid the Israel-Hezbollah war, the United Nations said. The announcement late on Tuesday came as Lebanon and Israel began a new round of U.S.-sponsored talks in Rome aimed at en»»»

Two numbers define how much longer Ukraine can keep fighting: how many interceptor missiles it has left to defend its skies, and how many of its soldiers are actually dying to hold the line. Both are contested, both are politically massaged, and both look worse than the headline versions suggest on»»»

SEOUL: The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday accused Japan of “transformation into a war state” as Tokyo beefs up its military stance in the Pacific. Japan has been gradually moving away from its post-World War II pacifist status — increasing military spending, ramping»»»

KYIV: Russian missile and drone strikes killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens more in Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight, authorities said Wednesday, the latest in a wave of deadly attacks on Ukraine. Kyiv has in recent months urged allies to supply more US-made Patriot interceptors a»»»

ROME: Child malnutrition has reached critical levels in a third of Afghanistan’s provinces and is expected to worsen as funding shortfalls force cuts in food distributions and other support, the UN World Food Program said Tuesday. “We must act now to stem the rise in child deaths, which this crisis»»»

Kim Yo-jong, department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, condemned Japan’s accelerating military buildup after Tokyo test-fired Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles from an Aegis destroyer, KCNA reported. She said Japan i»»»

ROME: Child malnutrition has reached critical levels in a third of Afghanistan’s provinces and is expected to worsen as funding shortfalls force cuts in food distributions and other support, the UN World Food Program said Tuesday. “We must act now to stem the rise in child deaths, which this crisis»»»

BEIRUT: Six years after the Beirut port blast devastated the Lebanese capital, survivors are still suffering, families are still mourning and those accused of responsibility have yet to face trial. The Aug. 4, 2020, explosion, one of the largest non-nuclear blasts ever recorded, killed at least 235»»»

JERUSALEM: The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East warned on Tuesday that any unlawful closure or seizure of the Qalandia Training College by Israeli authorities would deprive Palestinians essential education and vocational training services provided under the agency’»»»

Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigration Badr Abdelatty affirmed Egypt’s solidarity with Lebanon and called for a complete Israeli withdrawal from all Lebanese territories during a phone call with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Tuesday. Discussing the ongoing Rome negotiations be»»»

NEW YORK CITY: As Lebanon marked the sixth anniversary on Tuesday of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, the UN called on authorities in the country to accelerate the stalled investigation into the blast, and to pursue structural reforms that would strengthen judicial independence. Jean Arnault, the of»»»

A Russian ship under US sanctions, the Mikhail Britnev, dropped off its cargo of military vehicles at the Port of Lomé in Togo on July 9. It’s the first time that Togo has been a stop for a Russian shipment of weapons to Mali, carried out as part of Moscow’s support for the Malian government. »»»

LONDON: Israeli forces across July arrested 630 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem during multiple raids, including children, women and former prisoners. Some of the detainees were later released, according to a report by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society on Tuesday. The gro»»»

TRIPOLI: Overnight clashes between rival armed groups in western Libya left four dead and at least 10 wounded, a security source told AFP on Tuesday. The fighting was between members of the Anti-Security Threat Agency and the 103rd Battalion, the official said. The Anti-Security Threat Agency is li»»»

Deir Al Balah: Palestinians gathered on Tuesday for a mass funeral of more than 100 bodies finally recovered from a deadly Israeli strike in Gaza in 2023. More than 300 people were killed on Nov. 22, 2023, weeks into the war with Hamas, when warplanes flattened a residential block in Gaza City’s Sa»»»

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Marko Djuric met on Monday in Belgrade with Sao Tome and Principe PM Americo Ramos to discuss bilateral relations, current international affairs and opportunities for advancement of cooperation. Djuric thanked Sao Tome and Principe for its principled position of non-recognitio»»»

Beijing: China has drawn up new safety rules for the growing number of autonomous vehicles on its roads, including a mandatory deactivation override, the government said Tuesday. The standards taking effect July 1, 2027 will cover autonomous vehicles that require a human back-up driver, as well as »»»

Jean Arnault, Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL), noted Tuesday that "time has not erased the pain of those whose lives were irrevocably changed in a matter of seconds" due to the 2020 Beirut port blast, nor has it diminished "the urgency »»»

Kyrgyzstan’s gross domestic product could exceed 2 trillion soms by the end of 2026. Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Adylbek Kasymaliev said in an interview with Kabar news agency. According to him, preliminary results indicate that the figure has approached this mark and exceeded 1.9 trillion»»»

North Korea on Tuesday condemned the U.S.-led RIMPAC naval exercise as a "war rehearsal." In this July 26 photo, the USS Theodore Roosevelt pulls alongside the USNS Washington Chambers for a replenishment at sea during RIMPAC. Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Gary Buckles/U.S. Navy »»»

Sadly, grimly, but unsurprisingly, the fears of atrocities envisaged in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher, in the western region of Darfur, were realised once the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group finally overran the besieged hold-out in 2025. There are now similar fears of atrocities envi»»»

NEW YORK: The United Nations on Monday condemned civilian killings in Gaza and said health care facilities must be protected after a strike near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital damaged a medical storage facility. UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said the World Health Organization reported the Saturday st»»»

Sadly, grimly, but unsurprisingly, the fears of atrocities envisaged in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher, in the western region of Darfur, were realised once the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group finally overran the besieged hold-out in 2025. There are now similar fears of atrocities envi»»»

BEIRUT/LONDON: As Lebanese and Israeli officials meet in Rome this week in a fresh attempt to resolve decades-old border disputes and negotiate Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon, events on the ground are moving in the opposite direction. Nearly two years after a ceasefire agreement ended la»»»

Muratbek Azymbakiev has been appointed Permanent Representative of Kyrgyzstan to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva. The presidential press service reported. Muratbek Azymbakiev was born on July 26, 1965. On May 19, 2022, he was appointed Head of the Foreign Policy Department of»»»

The United Nations Security Council is expected to hold another informal poll ​this month as it selects the next UN secretary-general, the council president said on Monday, while indicating that a decision is still some way off. Portugal’s Antonio Guterres steps down as head of the world body at th»»»

NEW YORK: Proceedings opened Monday in the latest trial over the fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes, with relatives of an Irish-born United Nations employee looking to hold the US plane manufacturer accountable. Michael “Mick” Ryan, an engineer with the UN World Food Programme who had worked during the E»»»

NEW YORK: Proceedings opened Monday in the latest trial over the fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes, with relatives of an Irish-born United Nations employee looking to hold the US plane manufacturer accountable. Michael “Mick” Ryan, an engineer with the UN World Food Programme who had worked during the E»»»

MOGADISHU: Somalia’s militant insurgent group Al-Shabab said it seized a strategic location in central Somalia on Sunday after intense fighting with government forces, a claim confirmed to AFP on Monday by locals in nearby areas. Somalia has been battling the Al-Shabab insurgency for around two dec»»»

LONDON: An Israeli court on Sunday temporarily blocked plans by the national security minister to install crocodile-filled moats around Ketziot Prison, following a legal challenge centered on the reptiles’ welfare that has also reignited concerns over the treatment of Palestinian detainees. The Jer»»»

BELGRADE - The FMs of Serbia and Zimbabwe, Marko Djuric and Amon Murwira signed on Monday in Belgrade MoUs between their ministries. Zimbabwe also announced it would reopen a diplomatic and consular representative office in Belgrade. After meeting in the building of the Serbian Ministry of Foreign »»»

Omar Sultanov has been relieved of his posts as Kyrgyzstan’s Ambassador to Switzerland and Permanent Representative of Kyrgyzstan to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva. The relevant decree was signed by President Sadyr Japarov. By another decree, the head of s»»»

SolitAir, the UAE’s dedicated B2B, airport-to-airport cargo airline, today announced the launch of cargo services to Bucharest’s Otopeni International Airport (OTP), Romania – its second destination in the European Union made possible by the carrier’s ACC3 (Air Cargo and Mail Carrier from a Third C»»»

The US and Israel orchestrated the mass migrant crossing from Morocco into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta to punish Madrid for its refusal to bow to pressure on the Middle East conflicts, Iran’s embassy in Kenya has suggested. Spain has been at odds with Washington and West Jerusalem over t»»»

TEHRAN (Sputnik) - Iran has evidence that Ukraine deliberately attacked an Iranian cargo ship in the Caspian Sea on July 25, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei said on Monday. "There is clear evidence, including Vladimir Zelensky's statements, that proves that Ukraine struck the Iran»»»

The Sudanese army struck a traditional court in a Rapid Support Forces-held village in North Darfur with drones on Sunday, killing 35 people, a rights group said. Emergency Lawyers said the attack hit Garra al Zawaya as civilians gathered for local court hearings, wounding several others during the»»»

At least nine people were killed in Russia and five in Ukraine on Sunday as Kyiv and Moscow intensified long-range attacks on each other. US-led talks on ending the war in Ukraine have been effectively frozen since February, when the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran. Ukrainia»»»

KYIV: Ukrainian attacks on Russia killed at least nine people on Sunday, while Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least five, according to officials in both countries. The exchange comes amid signs both Moscow and Kyiv are escalating the scale and intensity of their strikes, nearly four-and-a-hal»»»

You can't travel without a power bank. Yet, you need to be careful when you travel with it. No doubt, power banks are a travel lifeline. You need them during long-haul flights, airport delays and sightseeing days when charging points are nowhere to be found. For many passengers, they are as routine»»»

The Sudanese army on Sunday struck a traditional court in western Darfur with drones, killing 35 people and wounding others, a rights group said. The Emergency Lawyers, which has documented abuses by both the army and its rival paramilitaries throughout the three-year conflict, said the strike hit »»»

LONDON: Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish-controlled cities on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, remain at the heart of one of the world’s longest-running territorial disputes. In recent times, they have become key points in Europe’s migration-control system. Spain depends heavily on Moroccan security fo»»»

LONDON: Israeli authorities have reactivated demolition orders for 14 buildings in the Arab village of Deir Al-Asad in the Galilee, citing building permit violations. On Sunday, numerous residents urged the local council to stop demolition orders that had been dormant for two years, as Israeli auth»»»

LONDON: More than 100 displaced families left camps in northern Syria on Sunday to return to their hometowns in Hama province as part of the interim government’s Syria Without Camps initiative to end internal displacement. The convoy transported 106 families to the town of Kafr Zeita in northern Ha»»»

ADEN: Yemen’s legitimate government has warned of an impending public health crisis that could threaten millions of children in Houthi-controlled areas, urging the international community to act urgently to ensure the delivery of life-saving vaccines. It said restrictions on immunization programs h»»»

LONDON: An Israeli strike on a vehicle in central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah killed two Palestinians on Sunday, Palestinian media and medical sources said. Two bodies and several wounded Palestinians, some in critical condition, were taken to hospitals after an Israeli drone hit a vehicle on Salah Al-Din»»»

LONDON: Israeli forces advanced on Sunday along the Al-Hiran–Al-Rafid road in the southern countryside of Quneitra province in southwest Syria, establishing a temporary checkpoint and stopping civilians, state media reported. The force, made up of three military vehicles, searched civilian pedestri»»»

The recent burst of illegal migration into Spain’s Moroccan exclave of Ceuta was, above all, a sensational media event produced for political effect. It will have lasting consequences, but not in terms of who ended up where: Of the about 50,000 migrants who suddenly, as if on command, stormed Ceuta»»»