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A federal judge Friday overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons, ruling that it violates the constitutional right to bear arms. US District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego ruled that the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles unlawfully deprives law-abiding Californians of weapons commonly allowed in most other states …

Flash floods and mudslides in Sri Lanka triggered by heavy rains have killed at least three people and left two missings, while more than 5,000 are displaced, officials said Saturday. Rains have been pouring in six districts of the Indian Ocean island nation since Thursday night, and many paddy fields …

A huge fire on Friday broke out in Shariya Camp of Duhok province, Northern Iraq where thousands of Yazidi IDPs live. According to the preliminary reports, more than 400 tents have so far burned and the firefighters are still working to extinguish the blaze. Local medical authorities said at least …

Hungary’s decision to block a European Union statement criticising China’s Hong Kong policy was condemned on Friday by a senior German official, who said the bloc’s foreign policy was being undermined. “Hungary again blocked an EU statement on Hong Kong. Three weeks ago it was in the Middle East. Common …

Three killed and four wounded after the anti-tank mine explodes in the Kalbajar region. A landmine explosion in Azerbaijan’s Kalbajar region, west of Nagorno-Karabakh, has killed two Azerbaijani journalists and an official, authorities said. Four others were injured in Friday’s incident, which saw an anti-tank mine blow up a truck …

Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Friday that Pakistan is ready to restart talks with arch-rival India if Delhi provides a roadmap towards restoring the previous status of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. The two nuclear-armed neighbors both control parts of Kashmir but claim it in full. In 2019, …

Iraq recorded 4157 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said today, Friday. The daily epidemiological report on the COVID-19 situation stated that 26 COVID-19 deaths were registered today. On the other hand, 4126 patients have achieved full recovery. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Iraq, …

The European Union and Britain launched parallel competition probes on Friday into whether Facebook uses data from advertisers to unfairly dominate the online classifieds market. The US social media behemoth sells classified advertising on its Marketplace service, but also gathers data from commercial advertising that may give it an unfair …

Opponents of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the prospective new administration have announced that there will not be a freeze in construction of illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian territories, despite international outcry over the Tel Aviv regime’s land expropriation policies. David Elhayani, who heads the Jordan Valley Regional Council …

Australian authorities in the southeastern state of Victoria have detected a “highly transmissible” variant of the deadly coronavirus, stoking concerns of a major spike in cases. Authorities in Victoria said on Friday that the Delta COVID-19 virus variant has for the first time been detected through genomic sequencing among infections …

China has hit back at the United States, asking Washington to face up to its own human rights violations after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s remarks on the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident. On the eve of the anniversary of the protests, Blinken on Thursday said Washington would “honor the …

Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg said on Thursday the United States had given assurances it had stopped spying on its allies in 2014 after Oslo launched a protest against the practice. Norway called in the U.S. ambassador, she said, after a report that the U.S. National Security Agency had used …

Indonesia has canceled the haj pilgrimage for people in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation for the second year in a row due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, the religious affairs minister said on Thursday. For many Indonesians, a religious pilgrimage is a once-in-a-lifetime event, with an average wait time …

Germany persistently violated EU limits on air pollution, the European Union’s top court said on Thursday, in a ruling that could see the country face financial penalties if it fails to improve air quality in several big cities. Air pollution in Europe has eased in the last decade but remains …

As NATO and Russia continue a dispute over Ukraine’s eastern region of the Donbass, a Russian military official has said modern weapons will be delivered to Ukraine under the guise of NATO’s annual military drill in the strategic Black Sea. Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, …

Former US President Donald Trump’s blog page, launched last month in the wake of major social media platforms banning him, has been removed from his website. Trump aide Jason Miller on Wednesday said that the page, which had been called “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,” would not be …

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 64 companies and three Bulgarians over corruption, including an oligarch accused of planning to create a conduit for Russian political leaders to influence the Bulgarian government. A statement by the Treasury Department said the move was its single biggest action targeting graft …

The Covid-19 pandemic has plunged more than 100 million workers into poverty, the UN has said, warning that employment won’t reach pre-pandemic levels again until 2023 at the earliest. “In 2020, an estimated 8.8% of total working hours were lost – the equivalent of the hours worked in one year …

The renewed spotlight on the issue could create a headache for President Joe Biden, who is set to travel to Europe later this month for the Group of Seven summit of world leaders. European leaders are demanding answers after fresh allegations about the United States spying on its allies. The …

Much of Africa may have been spared the death toll that COVID-19 brought to other regions, but it now faces recession, growing violence, and higher unemployment because of the pandemic, a report said on Wednesday. “The global economic shutdown has driven Africa into recession for the first time in 30 …