Worldwide

A huge plume of black smoke rose from the reinforced concrete building, named the Torre dei Moro, and was visible for miles. Italian firefighters battled a high-rise blaze in Milan that spread rapidly through a 20-storey residential building. Mayor Giuseppe Sala said there were no reports of injuries or deaths, …

Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana on Sunday as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm, forcing those who did not flee to brace themselves for the toughest test yet of the billions of dollars spent on levee upgrades following Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago. Ida gathered strength overnight and made …

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian highlighted today Iraq and Syria’s role in facilitating initiatives in the region. This came during a meeting between the Iranian Foreign Minister, who began a visit to Damascus on Sunday morning, with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Earlier today, Abdollahian held talks with his Syrian …

The Taliban will allow all foreign nationals and Afghan citizens with travel authorization from another country to leave Afghanistan, according to a joint statement issued by Britain, the US, and other countries. “We have received assurances from the Taliban that all foreign nationals and any Afghan citizen with travel authorization …

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, said on Sunday he supports COVID-19 vaccine mandates for children attending schools as the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus continues to fuel a surge in cases in the nation. “I believe that mandating vaccines for children to appear in …

Greek police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse a group of people who had gathered in central Athens on Sunday to protest against mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations. About 5,000 people rallied outside the Greek parliament to protest against the inoculations.

With 80 percent of its people fully inoculated against COVID-19, Singapore is now the world’s most vaccinated country, according to Reuters. Singapore has fully inoculated 80 percent of its 5.7 million people against COVID-19, according to officials, becoming the world’s most vaccinated country and setting the stage for further easing …

Afghan women will be allowed to study at university but there would be a ban on mixed classes under their rule, the Taliban’s acting higher education minister said on Sunday. The hardline Islamist group that stormed to power in mid-August after ousting the Western-back government has vowed to rule differently …

Chinese State councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Afghanistan and US-China relations in a phone call on Sunday, Chinese state media said, amid tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Wang said it is necessary for all sides to engage with the …

Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 19 people in a raid on a village in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities said. The attackers looted houses and started fires in Kasanzi-Kithovo near Virunga National Park in North Kivu province overnight between Friday and Saturday, they said. “I don’t …

Libya’s oil minister said on Sunday that he was suspending the head of the state oil company, escalating a dispute between the two – but with a move that he may struggle to enforce. Oil Minister Mohamed Oun said in a letter, confirmed by ministry sources, that National Oil Corp …

Turkey cannot take the burden of a new migrant wave from Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Sunday after talks with his German counterpart. “As Turkey, we have sufficiently carried out our moral and humanitarian responsibilities regarding migration,” Cavusoglu said, speaking in a joint news conference with German Foreign …

Ida could be worst direct hit in 170 years, governor says Storm surge, flooding rains to reach inland communities Hurricane Ida was on the verge of making landfall in the United States on Sunday as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm that could plunge much of the Louisiana shoreline underwater …

Japan is looking into the possibility of mixing shots of AstraZeneca Plc’s COVID-19 vaccine with those developed by other drugmakers in a bid to speed up its vaccine rollout, the minister in charge of vaccinations said on Sunday. Japan, which has previously relied on the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE and Moderna …

According to the French president, Paris and London are submitting a draft resolution to the UN to establish a safe zone in Kabul to allow humanitarian operations to continue in Afghanistan. On Sunday morning, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a plan to establish a “safe zone” in Kabul, the capital …

Militant fire from across the border in Afghanistan killed two Pakistani soldiers on Sunday, the army said. The army said it retaliated and killed two or three attackers. The incident in Pakistan’s Bajaur district is the first of its kind reported since the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

The Taliban and US forces are aiming for a swift handover of the Kabul airport to the militants who are prepared to take charge of the strategic facility, a Taliban official said. “We are waiting for the final nod from the Americans to secure full control over the Kabul airport …

Israeli regime fighter jets have launched airstrikes against positions belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip after Palestinians launched incendiary balloons from the besieged enclave into occupied territories and hundreds of people staged demonstrations along the fence to condemn Tel Aviv’s crippling blockade and repeated acts of aggression. The official …

Syrians from the Shaitat clan have staged a protest in the eastern Dayr al-Zawr Province to condemn the US arrest of 300 tribesmen for fighting Daesh terrorists. The participants in Saturday’s demonstration called for the release of the tribesmen, who are held in prisons run by the so-called Syrian Democratic …

At least three civilians have lost their lives when Saudi border guards launched barrages of artillery rounds at two separate residential areas in Yemen’s mountainous northwestern Province of Sa’ada. Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that a civilian was martyred when projectiles fired by …