Italian scientists bet on octopus to fight crab invasion
AFP, Cesenatico
21 August 2026 Europe
Russian ballistic missiles kill 16 in Ukraine’s Kyiv
Reuters, Kyiv
21 August 2026 World
‘US will impose toughest sanctions in history on Iran’
Reuters, Washington/Dubai
21 August 2026 World
Nasa satellite rescue mission fails
AFP, Washington
21 August 2026 World
AIRBASE BOMBING / Israel, Turkey step up warnings over Syria
Reuters, Jerusalem
21 August 2026 World
India, Japan agree to bolster defence ties
AFP, New Delhi
21 August 2026 World
US India envoy’s Kashmir remarks rile Pakistan
AFP, Islamabad
21 August 2026 World

This day in history

1947 - Burma’s effective prime minister and independence leader U Aung San was assassinated along with six other ministers.
18 July 2021

China denies any politics behind Unesco move

A top Chinese official said yesterday that political tensions between Beijing and Australia were not behind a Unesco recommendation to place the Great Barrier Reef on its endangered list.
18 July 2021

No ban on sacrifice of animals in Kashmir

Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Friday said there is no ban on the sacrifice of animals during the upcoming Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday, a day after the government asked law enforcers to stop the sacrifice of cows, calves, camels and other animals.
18 July 2021

Iran trying to deflect blame on talks impasse

The United States on Saturday accused Tehran of an “outrageous” effort to deflect blame for the impasse in Iran nuclear talks and denied that any agreement had been reached on a prisoner swap.
18 July 2021

Syria’s Assad takes oath after much maligned re-election

President Bashar al-Assad took the oath of office for a fourth term in war-ravaged Syria on Saturday, after officially winning 95 percent of the vote in an election dismissed abroad.
18 July 2021

Zuma graft trial to resume despite S Africa protests

The dragging corruption trial of South Africa’s jailed ex-president Jacob Zuma resumes today despite deadly violence that swept the nation after his imprisonment in an unrelated case. Zuma faces 16 charges of fraud,
18 July 2021

‘Strenuously favours political settlement’

The Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada yesterday said he “strenuously favours” a political settlement to the conflict in Afghanistan even as the hardline Islamist movement has launched a sweeping offensive across the nation.
18 July 2021

Wildfires in US, Canada stretch firefighters’ resources

With wildfires in the drought-hit western United States and Canada continuing to scorch vast areas, firefighting resources are being severely stretched, authorities said Saturday.
18 July 2021

The world is ‘seeing a lie’

Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Saturday denounced what he said was a false narrative over unrest on the Caribbean island, as the Communist regime vigorously pushed back against suggestions of historically widespread discontent.
18 July 2021

DACA ruling ‘disappointing’

President Joe Biden on Saturday vowed to preserve a program that protects from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the United States as children, promising to appeal a judge’s “deeply disappointing” ruling invalidating it and urging Congress to provide them a path to citizenship.
18 July 2021

‘It’s terrifying’: Merkel shaken as flood deaths rise to 188 in Europe

German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the flooding that has devastated parts of Europe as “terrifying” on Sunday after the death toll across the region rose to 188 and a district of Bavaria was battered by the extreme weather.
18 July 2021

8 Bangladeshi students to participate in US-funded college program

Eight Bangladeshi undergraduate students have been selected to participate in the US State Department-funded Community College Initiative (CCI) Program.
18 July 2021

In U-turn, UK’s Johnson to quarantine after COVID-19 contact

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will spend 10 days self-isolating after contact with a confirmed coronavirus case, his office said Sunday — reversing an earlier announcement that he would not have to quarantine.
18 July 2021

Flash floods hit Bavaria as European death toll climbs to 183

The death toll in devastating flooding in western Germany and Belgium rose to at least 170 on Saturday after burst rivers and flash floods this week collapsed houses and ripped up roads and power lines.
18 July 2021

Four people shot outside Washington Nationals baseball stadium

Some fans and players scrambled for cover at a professional baseball game in Washington on Saturday night as the sound of gunfire filled the stadium, and police later said four people had been shot outside.
18 July 2021

2nd Pandemic Hajj: Pilgrims arrive in Makkah

Pilgrims began arriving in the holy city of Makkah yesterday for the second downsized hajj staged during the coronavirus pandemic, circling Islam’s holiest site in masks and on distanced paths. 
17 July 2021

Floods In Western Europe: Death toll rises to 157

Rescue workers scrambled yesterday to find survivors and victims of the devastation wreaked by the worst floods to hit western Europe in living memory, which have already left more than 150 people dead and dozens more missing. 
17 July 2021

Scientists listen to ground to track elephants

The “mini earthquakes” that elephants make by both walking and vocalising are not only a way to communicate with each other but can be used to track their movements, according to a study.  
17 July 2021

Cuba president denounces unrest as a ‘lie’

Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel yesterday denounced what he said was a false narrative over unrest on the Caribbean island, speaking during a rally alongside ex-president Raul Castro and before thousands of supporters in Havana. 
17 July 2021

Biden vows to appeal ruling against ‘Dreamers’ program

President Joe Biden yesterday denounced as “deeply disappointing” a federal judge’s decision curbing a program that protects undocumented migrants brought to the country as children.   
17 July 2021