French far-right leader Jordan Bardella said yesterday his party was ready to govern as he pledged to curb immigration and tackle cost-of-living issues ahead of the country’s most divisive election in decades.

A first batch of 5,000 conscripts called up by Myanmar’s junta will begin duty at the end of this month, military sources told AFP yesterday, as the generals struggle to crush opposition to their coup.

Twenty-two people were killed in a massive fire at a South Korean lithium battery plant yesterday, most of them Chinese nationals, in one of the country’s worst factory disasters in years.

A cyberattack on Indonesia’s national data centre compromised hundreds of government offices and caused long delays at the capital’s main airport, with the hacker demanding an $8 million ransom, officials said yesterday.

Democracy is not a crime and autocracy is the real “evil”, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said yesterday after China threatened to impose the death penalty in extreme cases for “diehard” Taiwan independence separatists.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday appealed to an emboldened opposition for “consensus”, as parliament opened following an election setback that forced him into a coalition government for the first time in a decade.

Teenagers across the Gaza Strip should have been taking their final exams this month, a last hurdle before university and lifelong dreams, but the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory has crushed those hopes.

The Kremlin yesterday directly blamed the United States for an attack on Crimea with US-supplied ATACMS missiles that killed at least four people and injured 151, and Moscow formally warned the US ambassador that retaliation would follow.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday sought Chinese support to solve the Rohingya crisis quickly.

US prosecutors are recommending to senior Justice Department officials that criminal charges be brought against Boeing after finding the planemaker violated a settlement related to two fatal crashes, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters

Russia today summoned the US ambassador to the foreign ministry over what it said was Washington's "responsibility" for a Ukrainian strike on Crimea that killed four people, including two children

A fire broke out at a lithium battery manufacturing plant in South Korea on Monday, fire officials said, and Yonhap news agency reported that some 20 bodies had been found inside the factory

Senior officials of South Korea, the United States and Japan condemned "in the strongest possible terms" deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent visit to Pyongyang triggered grave concern, a joint statement released by Seoul's foreign ministry said on Monday

Saudi Arabia said Sunday that more than 1,300 faithful died during the hajj pilgrimage which took place during intense heat, and that most of the deceased did not have official permits

Joe Biden and Donald Trump square off for a historic US presidential debate this week, with the stage set for what could be a pivotal moment in the 2024 race as millions of potential voters tune in

Gunmen opened fire at a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police post in attacks across two cities in Russia's North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday, killing an Orthodox priest and multiple police officers, the region's head said

A landslide in a mountainous area of central China has left eight people dead, state media said yesterday, as parts of the country were placed on high alert for bad weather.

President Ferdinand Marcos said yesterday the Philippines “will not be intimidated” by anyone after a violent clash between the Filipino navy and the Chinese coast guard in the South China Sea.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has claimed that the Bangladeshi-origin minority community members “overwhelmingly” voted for the Congress in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections, without considering the “developmental work done for them by the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in the state.”

An official from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party is being investigated by Britain’s gambling regulator over allegations he placed bets on the date of the general election before it was announced, the Sunday Times reported.