Syrian refugees living in Turkey sought to get back to their war-torn country on Friday after swathes of their adopted home were destroyed by last week's earthquake.. Nearly four million Syrians have settled in Turkey after fleeing a civil war that has devastated swathes of the country over the past 12 years, killed nearly half a million people and displaced millions more.
Just weeks after the BBC aired a documentary examining Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's role in deadly 2002 sectarian riots, tax inspectors descended on the broadcaster's offices.. - The BBC documentary explored Modi's time as chief minister of Gujarat state during religious riots that killed at least 1,000 people, most of them minority Muslims.
A Japanese justice ministry panel on Friday proposed raising the country's age of consent, currently among the world's lowest at just 13, as part of a major overhaul of sex crime legislation.. The move to raise the age of consent to 16 is part of a package of reforms that would also clarify rape prosecution requirements and criminalise voyeurism.
A former security guard at the UK's Berlin embassy, who pleaded guilty to spying for Moscow, faces up to 14 years in prison when he is sentenced on Friday.. The military veteran, originally from Paisley in western Scotland, had worked at the Berlin embassy for five years.
North Korea on Friday threatened an "unprecedentedly" strong response to upcoming US-South Korea joint military drills, describing them as preparations for war.. North Korea has long condemned joint US-South Korea military drills, calling them rehearsals for an invasion.
In an austere church perched above a picturesque valley in central Kosovo, Ismet Sopi recounted how his family hid their Catholic faith for centuries after converting to Islam during the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. . After their invasion of the Balkans in the 14th century, the Ottomans imposed Islam on the population for half a millennium.
The Munich Security Conference opens on Friday, bringing world leaders together ahead of the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine as Kyiv steps up pleas for more weapons. . Coming just days ahead of the February 24 anniversary of Moscow sending its forces into Ukraine, the conflict will top the agenda, with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba representing Ukraine.
A New Zealand mum has recounted the heartbreak of watching her two-year-old daughter being swept away in floodwaters unleashed by Cyclone Gabrielle, which has killed at least eight people.. In the chaos, two-and-a-half-year-old Ivy was swept away and drowned.
When Yuko Honda, a professor at Japan's Sapporo University, tried to start a scholarship for Ainu Indigenous students and a club to celebrate their culture, she ran into fierce resistance.. When she started the scholarship and club at Sapporo, only an estimated 20 percent of people with Ainu heritage received a university education, and Honda hoped recipients would learn about and teach their traditions through the new group.
The leaders of Colombia and Venezuela on Thursday renewed a trade deal that had been suspended for four years, in the latest rapprochement between the neighbors.. "We have to fill these bridges with trade, remove any barriers that may exist," added Petro, who was elected last year as Colombia's first-ever leftist president.
