Stunned Australians on Sunday counted the cost from a day of catastrophic bushfires that caused “extensive damage” across swathes of the country and took the death toll from the long-running crisis to 24. Hundreds of properties were destroyed and one man died trying to save a friend’s home in the severe conditions — among the […]

China has started lifting major restrictions on foreign investment in its financial sector, a move long demanded by the United States as the world’s two biggest economies are locked in a fierce trade battle. From the start of 2020, foreign banks can now set up wholly-owned branches in China without a local partner holding the […]

Despite being one of the world’s most-recognizable executives, former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn probably embarked onto a private jet from a quiet lounge in Japan’s third-largest airport on his astonishing escape from a fraud trial. Somehow, Ghosn appears to have passed immigration and luggage checks before a flight to Istanbul from Kansai International Airport in […]

Two mortar rounds hit the Iraqi capital’s Green Zone Saturday and two rockets slammed into a base housing US troops, security sources said, a day after a deadly American strike. The precision drone strike outside the Baghdad airport on Friday killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, top Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and a clutch […]

More than 2,200 Afghan civilians were killed in Taliban-related attacks and bomb blasts during 2019, the Afghan Interior Ministry confirmed on Saturday. “During 2019, Taliban terrorists conducted scores of suicide attacks, improvised explosive device (IED) explosions and guerrilla attacks. “And the attacks left 7,391 civilians killed and injured nationwide during the year,” the ministry said […]