Iran’s supreme leader called the accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner a “bitter” tragedy Friday but said it should not overshadow the “sacrifice” of a top commander killed in a US drone strike. “The plane crash was a bitter accident, it burned through our heart,” Khamenei said. “But some tried to… portray it in a […]

The United States treated 11 of its troops for symptoms of concussion after an Iranian missile attack on an Iraqi base where U.S. forces were stationed, the U.S. military said on Thursday, after initially saying no service members were hurt. The attack was retaliation for a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3 that […]

A new virus from the same family as the deadly SARS disease has spread beyond China’s borders for the first time with a case emerging in Thailand, UN and Thai officials said on Monday. Thai doctors diagnosed a Chinese traveller with mild pneumonia on January 8 later confirmed to have been caused by the so-called novel coronavirus […]

Ukraine’s prime minister offered his resignation on Friday after audio was leaked of him questioning President Volodymyr Zelensky’s grasp of economics, in the first major political test for the inexperienced leader. It was unclear whether Zelensky would accept Oleksiy Goncharuk’s offer, which came after a recording emerged of him reportedly saying the president had a […]

Protesters blocked several main roads across Lebanon on Friday as unprecedented demonstrations against a political elite accused of corruption and incompetence entered their fourth month. The protest movement rocking Lebanon since October 17 has resurged this week, over delays in forming a new cabinet to address the country’s growing economic crisis. No progress seemed to […]

Sheikh Mohammed Mutumba of Kyampisi Masjid Noor mosque in Kayunga District, Uganda who was earlier reported to have ‘mistakenly’ married a man has been charged to court along with his ‘wife’ Ms Swabullah Nabukeera. Local media outlets in Uganda over the weekend reported the Imam was suspended from clerical duties by the mosque but the […]

Workers at South Africa’s Robben Island Museum, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for nearly two decades, decided Thursday to suspend their strike over low pay, management said. The decision comes ahead of a meeting between unions and management on January 21, the museum said in a statement. Around 200 employees walked out on January 6, demanding […]

The United States Senate has opened the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump with quiet ceremony Thursday — senators standing at their desks to swear an oath of “impartial justice” as jurors, House prosecutors formally reciting the charges and Chief Justice John Roberts presiding. The trial, only the third such undertaking in American history, is […]

Lebanon’s security forces on Thursday released most of the 100-plus anti-government protesters detained in the past 48 hours, lawyers told AFP, after two nights of violent demonstrations in Beirut. Protesters gathered in Beirut again on Thursday evening in front of the Central Bank and interior ministry, where several hundred demonstrators denounced police use of force […]

United States President, Donald Trump predicted Thursday that his impeachment trial in the US Senate will be over quickly and again dismissed the abuse of power charges against him as “a hoax.” “I think it should go very quickly,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as the upper chamber’s members were sworn in to […]