WORLD

The death toll from the collision of two Indian passenger trains in Odisha state has surged to 288 and more than 850 are injured, a state government official told AFP on Saturday, making the rail accident the country's deadliest in more than two decades.

Carriages perched on top of each other and lines of bodies collected by rescue workers: as dawn broke on Saturday, it revealed the horror of one of India's deadliest railway crashes.

A Taiwan theatre is showcasing a Hong Kong play about Tiananmen Square to mark the 34th anniversary of the crackdown in Beijing, saying almost as much about shrinking freedoms in the former British colony as it does about the 1989 bloodshed.

Dialogue between the United States and China is "essential" to avoiding miscalculations that could lead to conflict, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said Saturday, after Beijing rejected a formal meeting between him and his Chinese counterpart.

Two close allies of Colombian President Gustavo Petro stepped down Friday, embroiled in a scandal over the alleged illegal wiretapping of a nanny suspected by her boss of stealing a briefcase full of money.

After a rocky start to a week of negotiations, around 170 countries agreed to develop a first draft by November of what could become the first global treaty to curb plastic pollution by the end of next year.

One of Italy's most remarkable archaeological finds in decades goes on show this month - Etruscan and Roman statues pulled from the mud in Tuscany thanks in part to the intuition of a retired garbage man.

At least 200 people were killed and 900 injured when two passenger trains collided in Odisha on Friday, according to government officials in the eastern Indian state, in one of India's worst rail accidents in years.

CIA director William Burns visited China last month for talks with Chinese counterparts, two U.S. officials said on Friday as Washington seeks to boost communications with Beijing.

A coastal city in Quebec ordered some 10,000 residents to evacuate homes on Friday as wildfires spread in eastern Canada and stretched firefighting resources already tackling blazes across the country.

Brief smiles and handshakes by U.S. and Chinese military leaders at a luxury hotel in Singapore on Friday belie a deep freeze in communications between the two armed forces that is becoming a growing worry at the Pentagon.

There has been a notable upswing in Asia's imports of thermal coal and natural gas—key fuels predominantly used for electricity generation—from Russia.

CIA Director William Burns made a secret trip to China last month hoping to shore up lines of communication with Beijing amid a deep chill in bilateral relations, a US official said Friday.

Amid growing concerns over Iran's nuclear program, a security cabinet meeting was set for next week to discuss the potential threat.

With two high-level visits in less than a month, the United States is hoping to steady ties with Saudi Arabia after several years of disagreement and deepening mistrust.

Army troops were deployed to parts of the Senegalese capital Dakar on Friday as the city braced for more unrest after a jail sentence for opposition leader Ousmane Sonko sparked one of the deadliest days of violence in the country's recent memory.

U.S. congressional leaders on Friday invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and Senate on June 22, one of the highest honors Washington affords to foreign dignitaries.

Ukraine would be ready to continue exporting grain across the Black Sea as part of a "plan B" without Russian backing if Moscow pulls the plug on the current grain export deal and it collapses, Ukraine's farm minister said on Friday.

Banga on Thursday met with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who urged him to "get the most out of the bank's balance sheet," the Treasury said.

Aid workers in Sudan say fierce fighting, rampant looting and reams of red tape are hampering efforts to deliver vital humanitarian supplies to the millions of people who now rely on a relief effort since a conflict erupted in mid-April.

A senior NATO official on Friday urged Beijing to be more open about its accelerating nuclear weapons build-up, saying that as a global power, China had a responsibility to improve transparency.

The disastrous local election results chalked up by Podemos and its hard-left allies have left them floundering ahead of Spain's July vote, jeopardising Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's bid for re-election.

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will meet U.S.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday warned against any peace initiatives that could help legitimize Russia's seizure of Ukrainian territory, saying a "just and durable" peace effort should address accountability and reconstruction.

US, China defense chiefs speak 'briefly' at Singapore summit

Alexei Navalny, Russia's most famous opposition leader, on Friday shared letters showing how he has poked fun at prison authorities for several months with a host of bizarre requests for a kimono, a balalaika, a beetle and even to keep a kangaroo.

US open to nuclear arms dialogue with Russia, eyes China

Senior officials from over a dozen countries including Saudi Arabia and Iran were in talks on closer links with the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies on Friday as it met to deepen ties and position itself as a counterweight to the West.

This National Donut Day, learn the nutrition facts about donuts and how different brands stack up.