Google has confirmed that hackers backed by Iran are targeting the campaigns of US presidential rivals Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps yesterday said one of its colonels has died of wounds suffered in an air strike it blamed on the US-led coalition in Syria.

Venezuela’s CNE electoral council, under fire after declaring a widely rejected election victory for President Nicolas Maduro, on Wednesday described a UN report disputing the outcome as “rife with lies.”

At least 1.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been denied access to secondary education since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, with the future of an entire generation now “in jeopardy”, the United Nations’ cultural agency said yesterday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday he wanted to press ahead with a national common civil code of law, a proposal bitterly opposed by Muslim activists as an attack on their faith.

Thailand’s Pheu Thai party has chosen 37-year-old Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of billionaire ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, as its candidate for prime minister, it announced yesterday, a day after a court dismissed the incumbent premier in an ethics case.

A senior Russian commander said yesterday that Ukrainian forces had been pushed out of one village in Russia’s border region but that Kyiv’s forces were still probing along the front more than nine days since the lightning incursion into Russia.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the mpox surge in Africa a global public health emergency, sounding its highest possible alarm over the worsening situation.

Pakistan’s military said yesterday it had arrested three more retired officers following the arrest of former spy chief Faiz Hameed, who faces a court martial on charges of corruption and misuse of power.

A 71-year-old man who spent nearly five decades in prison for a murder he did not commit is to receive a $7.15 million settlement from the US city that convicted him.

Antarctica, the world’s coldest continent, is experiencing an exceptionally long heatwave during its winter, according to Britain’s national polar research institute.

Thousands took to the streets of Kolkata early yesterday morning to condemn the rape and murder of a medic that has triggered protests across India demanding better safety for women.

China has promised technical support and aid to military-run Myanmar for conducting a census, followed by an election, state media said yesterday, signalling Beijing’s backing to a junta cornered by an armed rebellion.

Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 40,005 Palestinians since October 7, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said yesterday, as there was no let-up in Israeli strikes across the enclave.

Sri Lanka’s election panel yesterday gave approval for President Ranil Wickremesinghe to contest a presidential poll set for September 21 in the Indian Ocean nation, grappling with the fallout of its worst financial crisis in decades.

Joe Biden shared a key economic victory with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris yesterday, after securing a cut on drug prices that could resonate with US voters worried about the cost of living.

Last week more than 100 people were killed after Israel hit a school in Gaza City sheltering displaced Palestinians, as the United Nations accused Israel of intensifying attacks on schools.

The Brazilian Amazon has recorded more than 37,000 forest fires so far this year, the worst number in nearly two decades, according to satellite data released Wednesday.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following an outbreak of the viral infection in Democratic Republic of Congo that has spread to neighbouring countries.

Washington has been in touch with New Delhi and other countries in the region to discuss the recent developments in Bangladesh and push for an end to violence