Pakistan’s flooded financial capital of Karachi was plunged into chaos on Friday with power cuts, streets under water and cellphone outages caused by heavy rain as authorities said at least 23 people had been killed in downpours the previous day.

Chadwick Boseman, who played Black American icons Jackie Robinson and James Brown with searing intensity before inspiring audiences worldwide as the regal Black Panther in Marvel’s blockbuster movie franchise, died Friday of cancer. He was 43.

Israeli tanks and warplanes bombed Hamas positions in Gaza yesterday and the Islamists retaliated with rockets as a three-week-old flare-up showed no let-up despite international mediation efforts.

Pakistan’s flooded financial capital of Karachi was plunged into chaos yesterday with power cuts, streets under water and cellphone outages caused by heavy rain as authorities said at least 23 people had been killed in downpours the previous day.

The WHO said Thursday it was setting up a committee to consider changing the rules on declaring an international health emergency, following criticism of its Covid-19 pandemic response.

The World Health Organization will next week receive a raft of pledges of support for its plan for Covid-19 vaccines for all.

The pandemic has killed at least 832,336 people worldwide since surfacing in China late last year, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT yesterday.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper yesterday accused China of “destabilising” the Pacific region on a whistle-stop trip to the tiny island nation of Palau as military tensions grow between the world’s two largest economies.

Chinese consumers could boycott Apple if the United States bans WeChat, China’s foreign ministry spokesman warned Friday, as the clock ticks down on a US order to block the popular social app.

More than 75 percent people with mental, neurological and substance use disorders receive no treatment for their condition in low and middle-income countries (MICs), global organisations say.

Hurricane Laura tore through Louisiana yesterday, killing six people and flattening buildings across a wide swatch of the state before moving into Arkansas with heavy rains.

A Bangladeshi expatriate has been arrested in Libya on allegation of kidnapping another Bangladeshi expatriate in the North African country recently.

Hurricane Laura slammed into the southern US state of Louisiana yesterday and the monster category 4 storm prompted warnings of “unsurvivable” ocean surges and evacuation orders for hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents.

Former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic said Wednesday he had been “pushed into war” and dismissed a UN court as a “child of western powers” in a dramatic end to his appeal against his conviction for genocide.

US president Donald Trump said Wednesday he will call for a “drug test” for himself and Joe Biden before the first presidential debate, but did not offer any evidence for his suspicions about his Democratic opponent.

US vice president Mike Pence took center stage at the Republican convention Wednesday to warn voters they “won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America” -- casting Donald Trump as their protector against the “radical” left.

India has termed the border situation with China in Ladakh the “most serious” since the 1962 Sino-India conflict and said the number of forces currently deployed by both sides at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is “unprecedented”.

Europe is entering a “tricky moment” with the new school year, and while classrooms have not played a major role in spreading coronavirus, there is growing evidence of youth infecting others at social gatherings, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

Families and rescue workers in Afghanistan yesterday searched for survivors of flash floods that killed more than 122 people and destroyed more than 1,500 houses north of the capital, Kabul, officials said.

Iran has agreed to allow the UN watchdog the access it has requested to two alleged nuclear sites, as the head of the agency ended his first visit to Tehran.