Millions have begun voting in the states of Mizoram and Chhattisgarh as a round of key state elections kick off in India. They are among five states going to the polls between 7 and 30 November. Vote counting is due on 3 December. These polls are seen as a precursor to the national

A close adviser to the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s army has been killed after a grenade amongst his birthday presents exploded, according to officials. “Under tragic circumstances, my assistant and close friend, Major Gennadiy Chastiakov, was killed … on his

Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Moham­madi began a hunger strike on Monday in protest against what she said was the jail’s failure to give her access to medical care, the activist HRANA news agency reported. The women’s rights advocate won the award

The death toll from Israel's month-long brutal bombardment of the Gaza Strip surpassed 10,000 on Monday, with that harrowing number likely to rise as thousands more are missing. Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidreh told media on Monday afternoon that 10,022 people had

China has urged Myanmar to “cooperate” on keeping their shared border stable after armed groups fighting the military government captured a key trading outpost. Beijing said on Monday that Assistant Foreign Minister Nong Rong visited Myanmar over the weekend to discuss

The Palestinian Authority (PA) could return to power in the Gaza Strip only if a “comprehensive political solution” is found to the Israel-Palestine conflict, according to PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas on Sunday met with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is

Australian PM Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping will soon sit down for a drought-breaking bilateral meeting in Beijing. Mr Albanese, who landed in Shanghai on Saturday, is the first Australian leader to visit China since 2016. The visit is seen as a key moment in

The US secretary of state has arrived in Turkey as he continues his diplomatic tour of the region - and pushes for a pause in the fighting. Speaking earlier in Baghdad, Antony Blinken said regional leaders would "welcome" a humanitarian pause in Gaza. Israel says it needs

Former President Obama (D) said “nobody’s hands are clean” amid conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. “[I]f you want to solve the problem, then, you have to take in the whole truth,” Obama said in a Pod Save America podcast clip

A demand by Jordan and Egypt for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza was rejected by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at an Arab foreign ministers meeting in Amman on Saturday. Blinken said that a truce would be counterproductive, and made clear the furthest he would go was support for

A diver who spotted something metallic not far from Sardinia's coast has led to the discovery of tens of thousands of ancient bronze coins. Italy’s culture ministry said Saturday that the diver alerted authorities, who sent divers assigned to an art protection squad along

North Korea has created a new holiday to celebrate the anniversary of the successful test launch of its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile last year, state media reported Sunday. On Nov. 18, 2022, Pyongyang carried out what is believed to be the first full flight test of the

More than 600 people have been executed by Iran so far this year, already the highest figure in eight years with two months of 2023 to go, a rights group said Friday. There were nine executions in a single day in a prison outside Tehran this week, while two people face execution after

Nine terrorists were killed in a clearance operation after the Pakistan Army foiled a terrorist attack on the Mianwali Training Air Base of the Pakistan Air Force in the early hours of Saturday, the military’s media wing said. The development comes on the heels of a series of

At least 13 people have been killed in a blast outside Gaza City's biggest hospital, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says. BBC Verify has verified graphic videos showing badly injured and possibly dead people lying outside the hospital. The Israeli military has confirmed

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will travel to Beijing on Saturday, a little over 50 years since his predecessor Gough Whitlam’s historic journey to China. But while Albanese may be following in the steps of Whitlam, who forged ties with China in 1972, he was careful

Summary A UN official has said there is increasingly little the organisation can do to protect Gazans trying to shelter from the fighting. "Let's be very clear, there is no place that is safe in Gaza right now," says Thomas White, of the UN agency for Palestinian

At least 128 people were killed in a strong 6.4 magnitude earthquake that originated in Nepal's Jajarkot district Friday midnight. The earthquake had its epicentre at the Jajarkot district's Lamidanda. Eighty people were killed and more than 140 people sustained injuries in the

At least 32 people have been killed in a fire that tore through a drug rehabilitation centre in northern Iran, authorities have said. The blaze erupted early on Friday in Langarud, a city in the Caspian Sea province of Gilan north of Tehran. Esmail Sadeghi, a provincial chief

Pakistan will hold their delayed national elections on February 8, 2024, the electoral commission said Thursday. The announcement was made following a meeting between President Arif Alvi and members of the Election Commission Pakistan (ECP). "It was unanimously decided that the