Hundreds of religious leaders and "people of influence" from around Afghanistan have been summoned to the capital to attend a three-day grand council in support of the country's Taliban rule.. "Two of them will be religious scholars and the other a person of influence," the letter said.
More than seven million Bangladeshis are still in "desperate" need of shelter and aid after deadly floods earlier this month, the Red Cross said Tuesday.. "The scale of devastation this time is so much more" than earlier floods, said Sanjeev Kafley of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Moody's ratings agency has confirmed that Russia defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time in a century, after bond holders did not receive $100 million in interest payments.. "On 27 June, holders of Russia's sovereign debt had not received coupon payments on two eurobonds worth $100 million by the time the 30-calendar-day grace period expired, which we consider an event of default under our definition," Moody's said.
Cloaked in darkness and mystery, the creatures of the deep oceans exist in a world of unlikely profusion, surviving on scant food and under pressure that would crush human lungs.. Humans may not have explored much of the deep seas, but they have left their mark, via global heating, overfishing and pollution.
Indian flags fluttering over a sea of khaki army tents will form the backdrop to a mass pilgrimage starting this week in Kashmir that Delhi's Hindu nationalist government hopes will reinforce its claims to the blood-soaked territory.. His government is hoping a million Hindu pilgrims from all over India will take part in this year's Amarnath pilgrimage, a trek to an ice stalagmite representing the Hindu destroyer god Shiva.
Britain's most extensive exhibition of African fashion is set to open in London, showcasing designers past and present, as well as the continent's diverse heritage and cultures.. Displaying a diverse range of African designs, textiles and influences, the ambitious exhibition is a way to address that imbalance, she said.
At least 46 migrants were found dead Monday in and around a tractor-trailer that was abandoned on the roadside on the outskirts of the Texas city of San Antonio.. The grim discovery was one of the worst disasters involving migrants in the United States in recent years -- and came five years after a similar deadly incident in the same central Texas city, a few hours from the Mexican border.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte often incited violence and ordered police to shoot dead suspects in a drug war that has killed thousands.. Rights groups say Duterte created a climate of impunity and estimate that tens of thousands have been killed by police, hitmen and vigilantes, even without proof they were involved in drugs.
A major UN conference on how to restore the faltering health of global oceans kicked off in Lisbon this week with a flurry of promises to expand marine protected areas, ban deep-sea mining, and combat illegal fishing.. "Working with scientists, we decided to get 30 percent of our maritime area as protected, and we did it," outgoing Colombian President Ivan Duque told AFP. More than half of newly protected marine areas will be "no-take" zones off-limits to fishing, mining, drilling or other extractive activities, he said.
A toxic gas explosion killed 10 people and injured more than 250 on Monday, authorities said, when a cloud of yellow gas suddenly enveloped Jordan's Aqaba port.. The deputy chief of the Aqaba Region Ports Authority, Haj Hassan, told Al-Mamlaka that an "iron rope carrying a container containing a toxic substance broke, resulting in the fall and escape of the poisonous substance".
