Middle East

ISLAMABAD — Record-breaking levels of thick, toxic smog that have shrouded eastern Pakistan and northern India since last month can be seen in striking satellite imagery. A huge cloud of gray smog blankets Pakistan’s Punjab province and stretches out east into India, over the capital New Delhi and beyond, satellite …

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Two jets from US-based airlines were struck by bullets on Monday while flying over Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince as Haitian authorities suspended all flights in and out of the capital amid escalating gang violence. A Spirit Airlines plane was hit by gunfire while attempting to land in Port-au-Prince, resulting …

HONG KONG — Police in southern China have detained the driver of a car that plowed into people exercising in the grounds of an outdoor sports center on Monday evening, leaving scores injured. A car “hit multiple pedestrians and then fled the scene” at the Zhuhai Sports Center in the …

JERUSALEM — Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has ordered preparations for the annexation of settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Smotrich, who is in charge of the settlements, said on Monday that he had instructed his department to “prepare the necessary infrastructure for applying sovereignty.” It is unclear whether …

The Israeli occupation army forced hundreds of Palestinians to evacuate from shelters and a residential area in the town of Beit Hanoun, north of the Gaza Strip, under heavy gunfire and artillery shelling.According to Palestinian news agency (WAFA), the Israeli army besieged 130 families inside shelters in the town of …

LONDON — The Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior cleric in the Church of England, is under mounting pressure to resign after a damning report accused him of failing to take sufficient action against a sadistic child abuser. A review of the church’s handling of “horrific” abuse perpetrated by John …

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Rep Michael Waltz, a Florida Republican, to serve as national security adviser, two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan and a long-time Trump supporter, Waltz was re-elected to Congress last week — …

THE HAGUE — The International Criminal Court has announced an external investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct against its chief prosecutor. Karim Khan said he would engage in the process and continue in his role while the investigation was ongoing. He denies the allegations. The chief prosecutor had requested an …

PASADENA — When the Voyager 2 spacecraft became the first and only mission to fly by Uranus in 1986, it defined the way astronomers understand the ice giant. But the data collected by the probe also introduced new mysteries that have continued to puzzle scientists in the decades since the …

BAKU — The world is already becoming dangerously overheated, and climate change is accelerating, says the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), as the COP29 UN Climate Summit kicked off in Azerbaijan’s capital city Baku on Monday. The latest WMO Global State of the Climate report for 2024 shows that the last …