Worldwide

Italian police arrested two farmers in Sicily on Saturday on suspicion of lighting recent wildfires to create grazing land for their sheep and said the two had been planning another large and dangerous blaze. Wildfires have torn through swathes of southern Italy this summer, helped by record high temperatures, ravaging …

A water-dropping plane with seven people on board crashed today in southern Turkey, where it was battling a wildfire. Russia’s defence ministry said five Russian servicemen and three Turkish nationals were killed in the crash, news agencies reported. State news agency Anadolu reported that rescuers had rushed to the scene …

Yemeni forces have shot down a US-built ScanEagle spy drone flying over the central province of Ma’rib which is the center of fierce clashes with Saudi-backed militants. Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, tweeted Saturday that the Yemeni air defense forces and their allies used a domestically-developed surface-to-air …

Russia and China have wrapped up their five-day joint strategic military drills in Northwest China involving over 10,000 troops and advanced weaponry as top officials in both countries vowed further collaborations amid rising US-led provocations in eastern Europe and the pacific. The last day of the drills – dubbed Zapad/Interaction-2021 …

The US embassy in Afghanistan’s capital has directed its staff to destroy sensitive documents and computers as well as other material that could be used against the United States, according to American media outlets. The directive was given in a memo written for staff at the US embassy in Kabul …

Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday that five Russian servicemen and three Turkish citizens were on board a Be-200 firefighting aircraft that has crashed in Turkey, Interfax news agency reported. The plane crashed near Adana when it was about to land, the military said. There were no details on any …

Republican members of the US Congress have slammed President Joe Biden over withdrawing troops from Afghanistan after the Taliban seized the country’s second-and third-biggest cities as resistance from American-trained government forces crumbled. The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and removed the Taliban from power. American forces occupied the country …

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the US-led military alliance would support the Afghan government in the face of the Taliban offensive, warning the militants against taking the country by force. NATO Allies met in the North Atlantic Council on Friday after three major cities in western and southern Afghanistan …

The number of white Americans has declined fast in recent years and the population growth in the US is driven entirely by minority communities, according to new data by the US Census Bureau. The data released on Thursday showed that non-Hispanic whites make up about 58 percent of the American …

The Czech Republic was evacuating its two diplomats from its embassy in Kabul on Saturday as the security situation in Afghanistan worsened, Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek said. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani held urgent talks with local leaders and international partners on Saturday as Taliban rebels pushed closer to Kabul, capturing …

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Taliban to “immediately halt” their military campaign against government troops and return to the negotiating table in good faith “in the interest of Afghanistan, and its people.” The Taliban group significantly increased their attacks to seize more territories from government forces after the withdrawal of …

A major earthquake struck western Haiti on Saturday and was felt across the Caribbean where people fled their homes for fear that buildings might collapse. The magnitude 7 earthquake quake struck 8 km (5 miles) from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes, about 150 km west of the capital …

Romanian Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Saturday he will nominate Liberal lawmaker and economist Dan Vilceanu as finance minister. Citu, who sacked former minister Alexandru Nazare in early July saying ministry projects to tap European Union funds and combat tax evasion were delayed, has been acting as interim minister. …

Environmental groups worry about the risk supertankers might pose to Eilat’s fragile coral ecosystems. The Red Sea reefs off the Israeli resort of Eilat host some of the greatest coral diversity on the planet. A symphony in splendid technicolor, the reefs are among the world’s most resilient coral colonies against …

Iran is to impose a one-week lockdown and a ban on road travel amid a fifth COVID-19 surge in the worst-hit country in the Middle East, state television reported on Saturday. All non-essential businesses and offices will have to close under the nationwide lockdown from Monday to Aug. 21, in …

The Philippine health minister, facing questions over more than $1 billion in COVID-19 spending, denied on Saturday that any money was “stolen”, as his department vowed to account for every peso. The country is battling one of Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks, and the spread of the virulent delta variant is …

Representatives of Venezuela’s government and opposition groups have begun a fresh round of talks in Mexico in efforts to resolve the nation’s persisting political and economic crisis, amid a US-led campaign against Caracas. Unlike previous talks between the two sides, the ongoing negotiations that commenced on Friday at Mexico City’s …

Yemeni forces have shot down a US-built ScanEagle spy drone flying over the central province of Ma’rib which is the center of fierce clashes with Saudi-backed militants. A spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, tweeted Saturday that the Yemeni air defense forces and their allies used …

A BBC journalist said on Saturday that Russia was expelling her and had told her she could never return in “devastating” treatment showing the country she reported on for years was turning inwards. In an unusual move at a time of already poor bilateral ties, Russia said Sarah Rainsford – …

One woman was dead and two people were missing on Saturday after torrential rains touched off a landslide and engulfed at least two houses in western Japan, with rivers overflowing their banks as the rain continued to pound the area. A wide swath of western Japan, particularly the southernmost main …