Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region has offered to “freeze” the result of September’s referendum on independence and begin dialogue with Baghdad. A statement also proposed a ceasefire “in order to prevent further violence and clashes” triggered by the launch of a Iraqi military operation last week. It saw troops and ...

NAIROBI, Kenya: The leader of Kenya’s main opposition party urged his supporters to boycott a rerun of the country’s disputed presidential election scheduled for Thursday amid rising political tensions and fears of violence. Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga urged his political coalition to become a “resistance movement” and called on ...

  A ceremony in an ornate throne hall Thursday morning began the transfer of the remains of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej to his spectacular golden crematorium in the royal quarter of Bangkok after a year of mourning for the monarch Thais hailed as “Father.” Three separate and intensely solemn processions ...

  Plastic pollution, overfishing, global warming and increased acidification from burning fossil fuels means oceans are increasingly hostile to marine life   If the outlook for marine life was already looking bleak – torrents of plastic that can suffocate and starve fish, overfishing, diverse forms of human pollution that create ...

    BEIJING — President Xi Jinping thrust China into a new era of strongman politics on Wednesday, unveiling a leadership team without a likely successor among the six officials who will help him rule for the next half decade. In a nationally televised ceremony, Mr. Xi introduced the new ...

      U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday promoted improving ties between Saudi Arabia and Iraq as a way to counter Iran’s growing military assertiveness in the region. Tillerson, participating in the initial meeting of the Saudi Arabia-Iraq Coordination Committee in Riyadh, told Saudi King Salman and ...

  CAIRO: In his first remarks after a deadly attack on the country’s police force, Egypt’s president vowed on Sunday to press ahead with the country’s war against terrorism, secure its borders and hunt down militants. President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi’s remarks came nearly 48 hours after authorities officially announced that ...

Voters in Veneto, which includes Venice, and Lombardy, home to Milan, back further devolution from Rome, say regional leaders   Two of Italy’s wealthiest northern regions on Sunday voted overwhelmingly in favour of greater autonomy in the latest example of the powerful centrifugal forces reshaping European politics. Voters in the ...

GENEVA: UNICEF says the children who make up most of the nearly 600,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar are seeing a “hell on earth” in overcrowded, muddy and squalid refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh. The UN children’s agency has issued a report that documents the plight of ...

Three-quarters of flying insects in nature reserves across Germany have vanished in 25 years, with serious implications for all life on Earth, scientists say   The abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study that has shocked scientists. Insects are ...