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Scientists have found evidence of a “ghost population” that lived in Africa around 500,000 years ago and are genetically linked to modern-day humans. The existence of the mysterious ancestor was uncovered by researchers who were studying the genes of four West African populations. Up to 19 percent of human’s genetic …

The Syrian parliament has overwhelmingly recognized the mass killings of more than 1 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire that took place a century ago, as tensions run high between Damascus and Ankara over the latter’s military campaign in Syria’s embattled northwestern province of Idlib. “The parliament… condemns and recognizes …

The United States and the Taliban have reached an agreement on a proposed pact that centers around reducing violence in Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said on Thursday. “The United States and the Taliban have negotiated a proposal for a 7-day reduction in violence. I’m here today consulting …

The Chinese province at the center of the coronavirus outbreak reported a record rise in deaths and thousands of more infections using a broader definition on Thursday, while Japan became the third place outside mainland China to suffer a fatality. The epidemic has given China’s ruling Communist Party one of …

Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid resigned Thursday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson reshuffled his cabinet. Javid, scheduled to deliver his post-Brexit budget next month, had been expected to keep his job. But media reports claimed he quit after a row with Johnson during a meeting Thursday at 10 …

Automaker Nissan announced Wednesday it has filed a $90 million civil lawsuit against former executive Carlos Ghosn in Japan, saying it is owed monetary damages from suspected fraud and misconduct while he was chairman. The suit is the latest fight between the Japanese auto giant and its fugitive former executive …

China reported on Wednesday its lowest number of new coronavirus cases in nearly two weeks, lending weight to a forecast by its foremost medical adviser for the outbreak to end by April – but a global expert warned it was only beginning elsewhere. The 2,015 new confirmed cases took China’s …

US Senator Bernie Sanders won in the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire, a week after the Iowa caucuses were thrown into confusion by a failure of the vote-counting systems. With 95% of precincts reporting in the second race, Sanders led with 26%. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete …

Australia has been through the wringer this year. The disastrous bushfire season has led to a dramatic increase in carbon emissions, crazy conspiracy theories, firefighter deaths, some billions of dollars in damage, and the heartbreaking loss of more than a billion animals. A new report shows how more a hundred …

More than half of Malta’s traffic police force was arrested on Tuesday for suspected overtime fraud, forcing officers to draw up emergency plans to ensure they have enough police to put on the streets, officials said. Police said some 30 members of the unit, which numbers about 50, were being …

Two members of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF) have died after sustaining injuries during a shooting at the Ouzai police station in Beirut yesterday. Major Jalal Shreif, the head of the police station, died in hospital, while first adjutant Ziad Al-Attar succumbed to his injuries this morning after the pair …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to target Syrian forces “everywhere” and “by any means” if Turkish troops in Syria are harmed. Erdogan issued the threat during a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party at the parliament in Ankara on Wednesday. The Syrian army and allied …

Two-letter bombs have exploded in separate incidents in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, with no injuries reported. “On Wednesday morning, an explosion took place in a mailroom of a business building just before 8 a.m., presumably caused by a bomb letter. No [one] injured,” Dutch police said on Wednesday. Bomb squads …

Britain wants a stable relationship with the European Union for “decades to come” in financial services, Britain’s finance minister Sajid Javid said on Tuesday but received an instant rebuttal from Brussels. Britain left the EU last month and its large financial services sector will lose privileged access to EU customers …

Scores of people were injured in Beirut on Tuesday in clashes between security forces and protesters rejecting the new government as it sought to win a parliamentary vote of confidence. Smoke wafted through Beirut where riot police fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters seeking to block MPs from reaching …

The death toll from the novel coronavirus outbreak surged past 1,000 in China on Tuesday as the World Health Organization warned that the epidemic poses a “very grave” global threat. The WHO is holding a conference in Geneva on combatting the virus as Beijing struggles to contain a disease that …

At least 16 people drowned and dozens more were unaccounted for after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees sank off southern Bangladesh early Tuesday, officials say. Some 130 people were packed on the fishing trawler that was trying to get across the Bay of Bengal to Malaysia, coast guard spokesman Hamidul …

An election app in use by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political party potentially exposed sensitive personal information for the country’s entire national voting registration of about 6.5 million citizens, according to Israeli media reports. The cellphone-based program, identified as the Elector app, is meant to manage the Likud party’s …

The film about a poor family who worms their way into the lives of a rich household became the first non-English-language film to win the best picture. South Korean President Moon Jae-in started his presidential staff meeting on Monday with a round of applause for the South Korean film “Parasite,” …

People across China trickled back to work on Monday after an extended Lunar New Year holiday as the government eased restrictions imposed to counter the coronavirus, but the World Health Organization said the number of cases outside China could be just “the tip of the iceberg”. The death toll from …