WORLD

Chinese FM Qin Gang has been out of public view since June 25, and speculations have continued about the reasons for his disappearance, including an alleged extramarital affair.

"The incident of Manipur which has come to the fore is shameful for any civilization. The country is shamed. I appeal to all chief ministers to strengthen laws to take stringent action against crime, especially against women," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

Hong Kong national security police detained four people Thursday, including the brother of prominent activist Dennis Kwok -- one of eight fugitives with bounties on their heads for allegedly breaching national security.

These supercritical thermal power plants "can reduce waste heat by 25% and lower pollution and CO2 emissions by approximately the same percentage," said Manish Vaid, a junior fellow at Observer Research Foundation. "Nevertheless, these improvements fall short of meeting the ambitious climate targets set by the Paris Agreement."

A Hong Kong man was sentenced to three months in prison on Thursday for insulting China's national anthem by swapping it in an online sports video with a song from the city's 2019 democracy protests.

An Australian sailor rescued with a stray dog after more than two months adrift on the Pacific Ocean has decided to leave his canine companion in Mexico with the captain of the ship that saved them.

Thailand's caretaker prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha called for calm Thursday after a popular progressive candidate's bid to succeed him was thwarted by military and pro-royalist lawmakers.

With its open kitchen, bathtub and electric piano, Chinese e-commerce worker Twiggy He's home is the envy of her colleagues -- even if it is located in their office carpark.

Athletes who comply with the FIG Executive Committee's requirements will be allowed to compete beginning in January 2024.

Protesters set fire to Sweden's embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad early Thursday, an AFP journalist said, ahead of a planned burning of a Koran in Sweden.

A century and a half after his birth, Italian tenor and opera legend Enrico Caruso is finally being celebrated by his hometown of Naples with a new museum.

Two people were killed on Wednesday following anti-government protests in Kenya, a hospital official said, as the interior ministry announced the arrest of over 300 others in connection with the demonstrations.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ended a Gulf trip aimed at securing investments by signing agreements worth more than $50 billion in the United Arab Emirates, Emirati state media said Wednesday.

Ukraine expects its fight to regain land lost to the Russian invasion to be long and grinding, a senior presidential aide in Kyiv told AFP Wednesday.

The United States on Wednesday announced a new $1.3 billion military aid package for Ukraine featuring air defense systems, anti-tank missiles, drones and other equipment.

Namibian lawmakers on Wednesday approved legislation to ban same-sex marriage and punish its supporters, in what critics said was an unconstitutional attack on the LGBTQ community.

On Tuesday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation had executed a "group retaliatory strike."

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi granted a pardon Wednesday to researcher Patrick Zaki, state media said, a day after Zaki's three-year jail term sparked an outcry from local rights groups and Western governments.

Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of deliberately striking its Black Sea grain facilities -- and destroying tonnes of food -- since Moscow quit an export deal meant to stave off a global crisis.

Beijingers baked under crippling summer heat on Wednesday as China's capital kept up a record-breaking streak of four weeks of highs above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).

The agreement would "make it possible to set up more than four industrial mines which should connect the provinces of South Kivu and Maniema," Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi's office said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin assured that Ukraine's allies would persist in offering support by providing various military platforms.

"While its absolute score has in fact risen over the last decade, the U.S. has been steadily overtaken by rivals such as South Korea, Japan, and Singapore," said Greg Lindsay, leading global strategist and urban tech fellow at Cornell Tech's Jacobs Institute.

Beijing's top diplomat Wang Yi told Henry Kissinger on Wednesday that it is "impossible to contain or encircle" China, hailing the former US secretary of state's role in opening up relations between the two powers.

A Texas court on Wednesday will hear arguments in the first lawsuit brought on behalf of women denied abortions since the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure just over a year ago.

The US Congress prepared to welcome President Isaac Herzog Wednesday for a speech celebrating 75 years of Israeli independence, as a row over anti-Semitism highlighted fissures in Democratic Party support for the Middle Eastern ally.

Hong Kong businessman W. Wong still remembers the day in 1972 when he first heard neighbourhood kids rave about a figure who seemed larger than life: Bruce Lee.

Iran, largely shunned by western tourists, is making a push to attract visitors from wealthy Gulf Arab states and other nearby countries to boost its sanctions-hit economy.

A courtroom win and new anti-discrimination law could be seen as signs Japan is warming to the protection of LGBTQ rights.