A spate of recent attacks has amplified fears among the country's religious minorities ahead of the February 12 vote, even though the government insists most incidents have been ordinary crimes. Dhaka, Bangladesh Sukumar Pramanik, a Hindu teacher in Rajshahi city about 250km (155 miles) from Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka says the country's upcoming national election could be his final test of trust in politics.
El Mezquital is neither a neighborhood nor a district. It started out as one, but now it's a motley patchwork of gray houses and corrugated metal roofs on the outskirts of Guatemala City. From here, the capital's buildings appear in the distance as tiny lights, as unattainable as green spaces, shopping malls, or health centers. Old yellow school buses burst noisily down the main street, belching smoke and carrying silent residents who travel with their cell phones hidden away.
Today in Florida, the Russian Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev held productive and constructive meetings as part of the US mediation effort toward advancing a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, Witkoff posted on X. We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine. He said the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House senior adviser Josh Gruenbaum also attended the talks.
French IT giant Capgemini said on Sunday it was selling its subsidiary working for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency amid international controversy over the deaths of two people in ICE operations. Capgemini, which operates in about 50 countries and is one of France's largest listed companies, held an extraordinary board meeting this weekend after being the subject of questions in parliament and calls for transparency from the government.
I lived in Argentina in the mid-1980s, just after the fall of the brutal military dictatorship that ruled from 1976 to 1983. The country was taking its first, shaky steps back toward democracy. It was a time of great hope, but also of grave uncertainty - because while the generals were gone, the political culture that enabled them remained. Like most of the nation, I was captivated by the pioneering trials of the military generals that promised to restore justice.
On Feb. 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven crew members: commander Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; payload commander Michael Anderson; mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown and Laurel Clark; and payload specialist Ilan Ramon. Also on this date: In 1865, abolitionist John S. Rock became the first Black lawyer admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ministers from the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will meet in Washington this week to discuss a strategic alliance over critical minerals. The summit is being seen as a step to repair transatlantic ties fractured by a year of conflict with Donald Trump and pave the way for other alliances to help countries de-risk from China, including one centred on steel.
In his disjointed speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Donald Trump once again lashed out against renewable forms of energy, the European Union and its Green Deal, which aims to transform the energy and mobility system to break dependence on fossil fuels, the main cause of climate change. Trump, like the European far-right, dismissed the accord, calling it a Green New Scam. But the truth is that, despite his attacks, renewables continued to grow in 2025 and set records, while fossil fuel consumption for electricity generation stagnated.
They were denied basic human rights and forced to endure extreme hardship. Official promises of free education and healthcare plus guaranteed jobs and housing had been a cruel mirage. And to their horror, they were prevented from travelling to Japan to visit the families they had left behind. But this week, after years of campaigning, four settlers who had escaped to Japan secured justice when a court in Tokyo ordered the North Korean government to pay each of them at least 20m yen in compensation.
This time last year, Greenland's prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, was better known on the global stage for his sporting achievements than international politics. For years he dominated the territory's badminton scene, winning the singles and doubles championships almost every year. He won several medals at the Island Games, earning himself a reputation for very competitive play on the court. As it turned out, that was useful preparation for his time in office.
At least one person was killed and 14 were injured in an explosion in the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas on Saturday, according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim. State television reported that the blast hit an eight-storey building, "destroying two floors, several vehicles, and shops" in the area of Moallem Boulevard in the city. Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted the crisis management director for Hormozgan province, Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, as saying the explosion's cause was under investigation.
In a social media post on Friday, Diaz-Canel said that under a false and baseless pretext, Trump plans to suffocate Cuba's economy by slapping tariffs on countries that sovereignly trade oil with it. This new measure reveals the fascist, criminal and genocidal nature of a clique that has hijacked the interests of the American people for purely personal ends, he said, in an apparent allusion to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Cuban American and a known anti-Cuban government hawk.
The Chinese government has executed 11 members of the Ming family crime syndicate. This comes after investigations into the criminal empire uncovered "intentional homicide, intentional injury, illegal detention, fraud, and operating gambling dens", as well as other penalties. In the announcement, which has been translated, the Supreme People's Court has confirmed that the group, led by Ming Guoping and Ming Zhenzhen, working alongside the "telecommunications fraud syndicate" led by other members, had conspired or committed various crimes.
Shaimaa Khalil,Tokyo Correspondent and EPA Sir Keir Starmer has invited Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to visit the UK following talks in Tokyo, saying the relationship between the countries was the "strongest" it has been "in decades". The leaders of UK and Japan said they had discussed their "joint values" and set out plans to strengthen trade and security ties, including boosting defence and partnerships across the Indo-Pacific region.
World Cup-bound Australia have been given a hiding in Lahore, bamboozled by Pakistan's spinners as they crumbled to a 90-run defeat and a T20I series capitulation. Just hours after their squad for the World Cup in India and Sri Lanka was announced, Mitch Marsh's side, featuring nine World Cup players and looking desperately in need of their absent big guns, simply could not cope with the hosts' five-pronged spin attack on Saturday.
Between the lines: Larijani, a close confidant of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, visited Moscow earlier this week and met Russian President Putin. The Russians are one of several channels used by Iran and the U.S. to pass messages in recent days. The other side: President Trump told Fox News on Saturday that Iran is negotiating."The last time they negotiated, we had to take out their nuclear, didn't work, you know. Then we took it out a different way, and we'll see what happens"
On January 3, Panama woke up with the strange sensation of looking in a mirror. During the early hours of the morning while the world tried to process the details about the capture of Nicolas Maduro, as a result of a U.S. military operation the country that is home to the Panama Canal once again delved into a wound that, 36 years later, remains open: the 1989 U.S. invasion.
Live updatesLive updates, Israel carries out deadly attacks in Gaza a day before the Rafah crossing is due to reopen. At least 12 Palestinians, including six children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza City and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip since dawn, according to medical sources speaking to Al Jazeera. The violence comes a day before Israel is due to reopen the Rafah crossing, which links Gaza with Egypt, on Sunday for the first time since May 2024.
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