A huge bomb blast at one of the biggest mosques in western Afghanistan Friday killed its influential imam, who called earlier this year for those who commit "the smallest act" against the government to be beheaded.. In July, during a religious gathering in Kabul, he called for those who commit "the smallest act against our Islamic government" to be beheaded.
Swaddled tightly under the shelter of a donated tent, a newborn baby lays still amid the disorder all around. . The baby, at least, is washed in the few bottles of mineral water collected from donation points that the men spend hours walking to each day.
A Myanmar junta court sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in jail on Friday for electoral fraud over 2020 polls which her party won in a landslide.. Detained since a putsch last year, Suu Kyi has already been convicted of corruption and a clutch of other charges by a closed junta court and sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Bankrupt Sri Lanka's deposed former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to end his self-imposed exile in Thailand and return home on Saturday, a top defence official told AFP. The 73-year-old fled the island under military guard in July after a huge crowd stormed his official residence, following months of angry public protests blaming him for the island nation's unprecedented economic crisis. . "He has been living in a Thai hotel as a virtual prisoner and was keen to return," the defence official, who asked not to be named, told AFP on Friday.
Poland on Thursday estimated the financial cost of World War II losses to be 1.3 trillion euros (dollars) and said it would "ask Germany to negotiate these reparations".. Human losses were calculated as the loss of wages that a person would have earned for the rest of his or her life, and thus the loss to the national GDP. Material losses were also tallied at an estimated 800 billion zlotys (170 billion euros).
An Afghan woman has claimed in an online video that a Taliban official beat, raped and forced her into marrying him -- charges which the senior member of the hardline Islamist movement has denied.. Khosty received support online from some Taliban members.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev due to scheduling issues, his spokesman said on Thursday. . "The farewell ceremony and funeral will take place on September 3 but unfortunately the president's work schedule will not allow him (to attend)," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Rainfall 10 times heavier than usual caused Pakistan's devastating floods, the European Space Agency said Thursday, as it released satellite images of a vast lake created by the overflowing Indus river.. The agency released images from the satellite showing an area where the Indus River has overflowed "effectively creating a long lake, tens of kilometres wide", between the cities of Dera Murad Jamali and Larkana.
As aid organisations mobilise to provide relief for victims of Pakistan's catastrophic floods, one group of women is focused on a necessity that is frequently taboo in the conservative Islamic nation -- menstrual hygiene products.. For many flood victims who have fled their homes for makeshift camps, women are mixing with men who are not their relatives for the first time.
A UN report said claims of torture and forced labour in China's Xinjiang are credible and warned crimes against humanity may have taken place, allegations condemned Thursday by Beijing as a "political tool" aimed at containing the country.. "Allegations of patterns of torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence," the report said.
