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Tunisia announced that more than half a million citizens received doses of the coronavirus vaccine, during the largest inoculation operation in the country. The Tunisian Ministry of Health said in a statement that “the final results of the opening day of intensive vaccination operations in all governorates of the republic …

Rare summer flooding submerged Venice’s famed Piazza San Marco in up to a metre of water overnight. The lagoon city is often hit by so-called “acqua alta” (high water) in autumn and winter, and devastating floods in November 2019 caused hundreds of millions of euros of damage. Sunday night’s event …

Until devastated by wildfires, hills near the Turkish sea resort of Marmaris were decked in a thick green pine forest. Now, these same hills form a ghostly, grey-brown landscape topped with blackened tree stumps as though sketched in charcoal. Drone footage from the small tourist seaside town of Icmeler near …

South Korea and the United States will begin preliminary military drills on Tuesday, the Yonhap news agency reported on Monday, despite North Korea’s warning that the exercises would dent signs of an inter-Korean thaw. The drills, called Crisis Management Staff Training, were designed to examine the allies’ readiness to respond …

A security source in north and east Syria reported that an Iraqi refugee was killed and others were wounded in an armed attack in al-Hol camp, east of al-Hasakah. The source told Alghadeer News, “Unidentified armed men opened fire on Sunday in the middle of the market inside the first …

The latest lockdown on the capital and its satellite cities is the third round of harsh restrictions since the pandemic began More than 24 million people in the Philippines have been plunged into a new, harsh lockdown as Covid-19’s aggressive delta variant runs rampant across the Southeast Asian nation. The …

US forces stationed in Syria have transported consignments of stolen oil to Iraq, using scores of tanker trucks. According to official news agency SANA on Monday, the US forces allowed a convoy of 80 vehicles, including tanker trucks carrying stolen Syrian oil, to cross the “illegitimate” al-Walid crossing into Iraq. …

Taliban fighters seize Aibak, the capital of Samangan in north – the sixth provincial capital to fall in four days. The Taliban has captured the sixth province in Afghanistan in four days. The armed group’s spokesman on Monday morning sent messages to the media, claiming it has overtaken Aibak, the …

Farmers say extreme weather and policies meant to combat climate change have left their fields barren. In the valleys of central California, the search for water has turned into an all-out obsession as the region suffers through a drought that could threaten the US’s food supply. Residents have watched with …

Palestinian movement Hamas condemns the rulings as unjust, saying the detainees caused no harm to the kingdom. A court in Saudi Arabia has delivered verdicts against 69 Palestinians and Jordanians, handing jail terms of up to 22 years to some while also acquitting an unspecified number on Sunday. The group …

Suspected jihadists massacred more than 40 civilians in northern Mali and killed 12 troops in an ambush in neighbouring Burkina Faso, officials said Monday, highlighting the security crisis gripping the two fragile states. More than 40 people were killed on Sunday when “terrorists” invaded the villages of Karou, Ouatagouna, and …

Russia plans to build 51 more pieces of military infrastructure on the Kuril islands, the state TASS news agency quoted Russia’s defense ministry as saying on Monday. Part of the chain is claimed by Japan and the territorial dispute over some of the islands dates back to the time when …

Law enforcement in Milan is investigating the source of an envelope containing three bullets addressed to the pope, Italian paramilitary police said Monday. The suspicious envelope was intercepted by postal employees overnight at a mail sorting facility in a Milan suburb, according to the carabinieri provincial command in Milan. It …

US Former President Barack Obama is facing further scrutiny over his allegedly “scaled-back,” celebrity-filled birthday party, with footage of the maskless Democrat at the shindig causing massive outrage. Obama is the latest Democrat to be accused of hypocrisy for seemingly breaking the very pandemic-era guidance he has promoted to the …

Chinese nuclear submarines tried to secretly follow UK aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth that was moving into the Pacific Ocean but were soon identified, the Express newspaper reported on Sunday. Queen Elizabeth was on the way from the South China Sea to the Pacific, when sonar radars aboard the ships …

Taliban fighters overran three provincial capitals including the strategic northeastern city of Kunduz on Sunday, local officials said, as the insurgents intensified pressure on the north and threatened further cities. The insurgents have taken dozens of districts and border crossings in recent months and put pressure on several provincial capitals, …

Mozambican and Rwandan security forces have recaptured the port town of Mocimboa da Praia, an insurgents’ stronghold, the two countries said on Sunday, adding to a growing list of retaken towns and villages. Mozambique’s northern-most province of Cabo Delgado, which has gas developments worth some $60 billion, has since 2017 …

At least two policemen were killed and 12 people, including eight policemen, injured on Sunday when a powerful blast targeted a police van near a luxury hotel in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s troubled southwestern Balochistan province, officials said. “The initial probe showed that the bomb was fitted with a …

A passenger bus veered and tumbled off a highway in western Turkey, killing 15 people on Sunday. The governor’s office of Balikesir province said the bus overturned at 04:40 local time on Sunday. Emergency units arrived at the site, where 11 people died. Four others died in the hospital. The …

Nigerian gunmen have kidnapped a Swiss national after opening fire on his police escort in the southwest of the country, police said on Sunday. Kidnappings occur mostly in the northwest and central states of Nigeria where heavily armed criminal gangs operate and foreign workers are also occasionally targeted for abduction …