The US Senate’s top Republican on Friday swatted aside Democratic demands related to the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, as the warring sides failed to agree on a start date for the historic action.

Electricity supplies in Australia’s most populous state, including its largest city Sydney, were under threat on Saturday after bushfires took out two substations with authorities warning of rolling blackouts if conditions worsen.

US President Donald Trump wooed crucial evangelical voters Friday with a speech in Florida where he told them God is “on our side” ahead of this year’s elections.

Bangladesh Embassy in Baghdad has advised the Bangladeshis in Iraq to avoid travelling to troublesome areas in the country following the airstrike on an Iranian general.

The bushfires raging across Australia have had a devastating impact on the country’s unique flora and fauna, with some estimates putting the death toll at nearly half a billion animals in one state alone, and experts believe it could take decades for wildlife to recover.

US lawmakers returned to Washington yesterday with President Donald Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial looming over the first Senate session of 2020, but congressional leaders are locked in stalemate over how to proceed.

Croatia’s conservative president is trying to lure nationalists back to her camp as she faces a leftist ex-premier at the polls Sunday, in a race that has revealed growing support for the country’s radical right.

Former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, who skipped bail in Japan and fled to Beirut, is due to be summoned by Lebanon’s public prosecutor next week, an official said yesterday.

Russia has stopped shipping oil to Belarus, the Belarusian state energy firm said yesterday, after the two countries failed to reach a deal on supplies by a January 1 deadline.

Indonesian conservationists say they’ve spotted the biggest specimen ever of what’s already been billed as one of the world’s largest flowers.

Indonesian rescuers yesterday mounted a desperate search for those missing after torrential rains unleashed flash floods and landslides, killing at least 43 people across the Jakarta region as authorities raced to prevent disease outbreaks.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah yesterday said the government will not budge an inch on its decision to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) despite the opposition’s “misinformation campaign”.

Amid widespread allegations of political influence, bribery, and nepotism in policemen getting posts, the authorities have formulated a draft guideline to make sure competent officers with repute get the posts they deserve.

Three cold waves will sweep through the country this month and two of those will be severe, the Met office said yesterday.

French police shot and killed a knife-wielding man who fatally stabbed one person and injured two others in a park south of Paris yesterday, police and sources close to the inquiry said.

Thousands of supporters of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement, which rivals Gaza’s rulers Hamas, held a rare gathering in the enclave on Wednesday to mark the party’s 55th anniversary.

Smoke from Australia’s bushfires has created a haze across New Zealand thousands of kilometres away with normally white glaciers turning a shade of caramel, according to social media posts yesterday.

South Korean prosecutors yesterday indicted almost 30 MPs and the leader of the main opposition party on assault and other charges over a two-day parliamentary stand-off.

Austria’s conservatives and their Green partners were set to present the government programme of their unprecedented coalition, a plan with right-wing leader Sebastian Kurz’s clear imprimatur that could set a European precedent.

At least 48 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in tribal fighting in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur, the Red Crescent said yesterday.