Politics

  New Delhi / AFP At least 67 people have been killed by lightning in India over the past two days, disaster management officials said on Wednesday, as the annual monsoon rains sweep the country. Lightning strikes are relatively common in India during the June-October monsoon, which hit the southern coast earlier this month, but this week’s toll is particularly ...

  Los Angeles / AFP A US court convicted two men of attempting to help the IS group in Iraq and Syria, with one attempting to travel to the Middle East. A jury found Nader Elhuzayel and Muhanad Badawi, both 25, guilty of conspiring to provide material support to the extremist group, the US Justice Department said in a statement. ...

  MOSCOW / AP With President Vladimir Putin heading to China this weekend, officials in both countries extoll a blossoming “strategic partnership” between the two former communist rivals. But despite Moscow’s push to strengthen ties with Beijing amid a bitter strain in relations with the West, Russia-China trade has shrunk sharply and a slew of ambitious projects have remained largely on ...

  BEIJING / AP Diplomats from the US and North Korea are attending a six-nation security forum in Beijing on Wednesday, in a rare opportunity for contact between them after the North fired two suspected powerful new ballistic missiles. Despite their attendance at the event, the US State Department has said there were no plans for direct talks between the ...

  LOS ANGELES / AP For days, wildfires have raged amid spiking heat across Southern California and much of the West, driving hundreds of people from their homes. Yet homes have overwhelmingly remained safe so far, after aggressive and strategic firefighting and a dose of luck. In the foothill suburbs northeast of Los Angeles, a major wildfire gave a major ...

  Amman / AFP A car bomb outside a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan killed six soldiers on Tuesday in a remote desert area where hundreds have been held for screening for suspected links to the IS group. There was no immediate claim for the bombing but Jordan is a leading member of the US-led coalition fighting IS in neighbouring Syria ...

  Kuala Lumpur / AFP A Malaysian opposition politician who worked on native land rights issues was shot dead on Tuesday six weeks after a failed run for a local assembly seat. Bill Kayong, 43, was gunned down in his pickup truck while stopped at a traffic light in the small city of Miri in Sarawak state, police said. Kayong ...

  BEIRUT / AP The IS group has launched a counteroffensive in Syria’s northern province of Raqqa, retaking wide areas the militants recently lost to government troops. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday that the government forces have lost all territories they gained in Raqqa province since launching their offensive in early June. The IS-linked Aamaq ...

  BAGHDAD / AP A senior Iraqi military commander says about 2,500 IS militants have been killed during a month-long offensive to recapture the city of Fallujah. The counterterrorism forces’ chief in the operation, Lt. General Abdul-Wahab Al Saadi, told the local al-Sumaria TV late on Monday that the number of IS fighters inside Fallujah ranged between 3,500 to 4,000 ...

  Dubai / AFP Iran has warned Bahrain that it is fanning armed rebellion and “will pay the price” after an escalating crackdown on the country’s Shiite majority saw a top cleric stripped of citizenship. Washington and the United Nations have also raised concerns about moves by the Sunni-ruled kingdom against Shiites, who account for some 70 percent of the ...