Tens of thousands of people in Serbia gathered on Saturday for a huge student-led rally that vowed to turn the troubled, populist-run Balkan country into a free nation of justice and rule of law, while sending a message that “we deserve better.” University students in the Balkan country that has bee
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was
COLLABORATION: Dutch fan Rienke Witmer got up at 5am, put on a dress with sunflower fabric and was first in line at Amsterdam’s Lego store with her family members
Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum has joined forces with the Danish toy brick-maker Lego to create a build-your-own version of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Standing in front of Van Gogh’s 1889 masterpiece, one of the series of sunflower paintings for which the painter is most renowned, museum curator Ni
As snow falls in a park in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, Natalia fixes Veronika’s military hood. They are both Ukrainian soldiers, but a mother is always a mother. Natalia, 53, gave up her job as a clothing designer and signed up at the beginning of Russia’s invasion three years ago on Feb.
Cars older than 15 years old would soon be barred from refueling in New Delhi, the city’s government said on Saturday, as part of measures to reduce the Indian capital’s hazardous pollution levels. New Delhi is regularly ranked as one of the most polluted cities in the world and is blanketed in acri
BOLIVIATwo buses collide Two passenger buses collided on Saturday on a highway in southern Bolivia, leaving at least 37 dead, including two children, and about 30 people injured, police said. “So far we have 37 confirmed deaths,” Colonel Wilson Flores said about the crash near the city of Uyuni in t
UNCERTAINTY: Israel would prefer to free more hostages under an extension of the first phase, rather than a second phase, Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said
The first phase of the Israel-Hamas truce was due to expire yesterday, but negotiations on the next stage, which should secure a permanent ceasefire, have so far been inconclusive. The ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19 after more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel,
Masked people threw gasoline bombs and clashed with police outside the Greek parliament on Friday, as huge crowds gathered in a show of force to mark the second anniversary of the country’s worst rail tragedy. About 200,000 people rallied in Athens to demand justice for the 57 victims of the crash b
FAREWELL TO ARMS? Ocalan’s appeal was a ‘historic opportunity,’ and as the violence ceases, the space for politics in democracy would expand, the Turkish president said
Outlawed Kurdish militants yesterday declared a ceasefire with Turkey following a landmark call by jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, also known as Apo, asking the group to disband. It was the first reaction from the PKK after Ocalan this week called for the dissolution of
Microsoft is closing down Skype, the video-calling service it bought for US$8.5 billion in 2011, which had helped spark a transformation in how people communicate online. The tech giant on Friday said it would retire Skype in May and shift some of its services to Microsoft Teams, its flagship videoc
Chinese authorities are instructing the country’s top artificial intelligence (AI) entrepreneurs and researchers to avoid travel to the US, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The authorities are concerned that Chinese AI experts traveling abroad could
Toxic smoke billows from a burning mound of plastic bags and leaves on Le Thi Huyen’s farm in Hanoi, a city battling an alarming air pollution surge that the communist government appears in no hurry to fix. In the last three months the Vietnamese capital has regularly topped a list of the world’s mo
‘BACKSTOP’: Keir Starmer is to meet with other European leaders in the UK tomorrow, including Emmanuel Macron, to inform their allies about their conversations with Trump
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer used a visit to Washington on Thursday to press US President Donald Trump not to abandon Ukraine as he looks to find a quick endgame to Russia’s bloody invasion of its neighbor.With a mix of flattery and frank talk, the center-left Starmer made the case to the Rep
Senior Vietnamese official Nguyen Linh believes he has much more to give in the job he has worked his whole life, but would soon retire as part of a radical government cost-cutting drive approved last week.Across Vietnam, confused public sector workers have been left reeling as ministries are scrapp
Sheep come running when Larbi El Ghazouani pours alfalfa and straw into their troughs twice a day. The 55-year-old farmer had counted on selling the bulk of his 130 sheep to Moroccans preparing for early June’s Eid al-Adha holiday, but now his hopes are unraveling and he expects to lose about half o
‘CANADIAN INTERESTS’: Ford’s Progressive Conservative Party secured a third consecutive majority, as he vowed to unite all political sides to counter Trump’s tariff threats
Ontario Premier Doug Ford won re-election to lead Canada’s most populous province on Thursday, giving him the mandate he wanted to fight tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump.“Donald Trump thinks he can break us,” Ford told a cheering crowd at a Toronto convention center. “He thinks he can
North Korea carried out a test launch of strategic cruise missiles in the Yellow Sea this week, in a drill Pyongyang yesterday said was aimed at showing off its “counterattack” capabilities.Leader Kim Jong-un was at the exercise, which took place on Wednesday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) s
LITTLE WARNING: ‘This is a failure in [our relationship] at this time,’ New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi
New Zealand used high-level talks in Beijing to raise concerns about the surprise deployment of Chinese warships off its western coast, New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said yesterday. Dozens of commercial flights were forced to divert last week when the vessels announced live-
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state
Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls.An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Libe
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