Sri Lanka will hold presidential elections on September 21, a government notice said yesterday, setting the date for a crucial vote expected to determine the future of reforms in the South Asian nation weathering its worst financial crisis in decades.

A new wave of air strikes by Israeli fighter jets yesterday targeted the Gaza Strip, including Khan Younis in the south, the Bureij refugee camp in the centre, and Gaza City in the north of the enclave.

Humanity is suffering from an “extreme heat epidemic,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Thursday, calling for action to limit the impacts of heat waves intensified by climate change.

Through a basement door in southeastern Turkey lies a sprawling underground city -- perhaps the country’s largest -- which one historian believes dates back to the ninth century before Jesus Christ.

South Africa authorities rounded up 95 Libyans in a raid yesterday at a farm that appeared to have been converted into a military training base, police said.

Republican White House candidate Donald Trump rejected scheduling a debate with his presumptive Democratic challenger Kamala Harris because she has not been officially named her party's nominee, his campaign said Thursday

Mexican drug kingpin Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and the son of his ex-partner, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, were arrested on Thursday in El Paso, Texas, in a major coup for US authorities that may also reshape the Mexican criminal landscape

President Joe Biden met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and called on the Israeli leader to swiftly finalize a deal on a Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages

Typhoon Gaemi roared into southeastern China yesterday after sweeping across Taiwan, where it killed three people, triggered flooding and sank a freighter before barrelling west across the Taiwan Strait.

The world’s richest one percent increased their fortunes by a total of $42 trillion over the past decade, Oxfam said yesterday, ahead of a G20 summit in Brazil where taxing the super-rich tops the agenda.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday said abandoning his reelection campaign and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, as the Democratic candidate was the best way to unite the country and save democracy, despite his ambition to win a second term.

American and Canadian warplanes intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers in international airspace near the state of Alaska on Wednesday, the joint US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said.

Myanmar’s junta and an ethnic minority armed group both claimed yesterday they were in control of a town and regional military command in northern Shan state following days of clashes.

The foreign ministers of Russia and China met yesterday on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers talks in Laos, Moscow and AFP journalists said.

In the midst of its own political upheaval and rising global tensions, France is set to host an unprecedented Olympic showcase, marking a significant departure from traditional stadium settings for the first time since the Summer Olympics began in 1896.

Israeli forces advanced deeper into some towns on the eastern side of Khan Younis in southern Gaza yesterday and tanks advanced in central Rafah, with airstrikes and shelling killing 30 Palestinians over the past day, health officials said.

A Cambodian court fined an opposition leader about $1.5 million yesterday for defaming the ruling party by claiming democracy had regressed since the former prime minister’s son took power last year.

Russian drones attacked the southern Ukrainian port city of Izmail for a second straight night damaging infrastructure, Kyiv said yesterday, claiming several Russian attack drones entered Romanian airspace.

A heatwave in Morocco has killed at least 21 people in a 24-hour period in the central city of Beni Mellal, the health ministry announced yesterday.

Flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rain have killed seven people in northern Vietnam and swept away homes, disaster officials and state media said yesterday.