daily news with update

  Taliban leader says there is no need for Western laws in Afghanistan The Taliban leader said Sunday there was no need for Western laws in Afghanistan and that democracy was dead as long as sharia laws are in effect. Hibatullah Akhundzada made the comments in a sermon marking the Islamic holiday of Eid Al-Fitr, in the southern city of Kandahar's Eidgah Mosque. The 50-minute audio of his message was published on X by the Taliban government’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. “There is no need for laws that originate from the West. We will create our own laws,” Akhundzada said, speaking in Pashto, while emphasizing the importance of Islamic laws. The Taliban’s interpretation of sharia has led to bans on Afghan women and girls, who have been excluded them from education, many jobs and most public spaces. Such measures have isolated the Taliban on the world stage, although they have established diplomatic ties with countries including China and the United Arab Emirates. Akhundzada h...

  Tsunami warning lifted after M7 earthquake near Tonga in the South Pacific A strong 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit near Tonga, prompting an initial tsunami warning that was later lifted for the Pacific island country. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at a depth of 29 kilometers and was centered about 100 kilometers northeast of the main island in the early morning hours of Monday local time. Hours later, a second 6.1 magnitude quake hit in the same area. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued an alert following the first quake saying hazardous waves could be possible but later said there was no longer a tsunami threat. A warning was also cancelled hours later by the country's disaster management office. There were no reports of casualties and or structural damage, said Mafua Maka, the agency's director, speaking to Radio New Zealand a few hours after the quake. Further assessment would be made in daylight, local news outlets said. Tsunami sirens could ...

  Myanmar quake death toll hits 1,700 as aid scramble intensifies The toll from Myanmar's earthquake continued to rise on Sunday, as foreign rescue teams and aid rushed into the impoverished country, where hospitals were overwhelmed and some communities scrambled to mount rescue efforts with limited resources. The 7.7-magnitude quake, one of Myanmar's strongest in a century, jolted the war-torn Southeast Asian nation on Friday, leaving around 1,700 people dead, 3,400 injured and over 300 missing as of Sunday, the military government said. The junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, warned that the number of fatalities could rise, state media reported, three days after he made a rare call for international assistance. India, China and Thailand are among Myanmar's neighbors that have sent relief materials and teams, along with aid and personnel from Malaysia, Singapore and Russia. But residents in the cities of Mandalay and Sagaing reported that international aid had not...

  Trump says he is 'pissed off' with Putin over Ukraine U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he was "very angry, pissed off" with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, NBC reported, marking a sharp change of tone as Washington seeks to end the war in Ukraine. NBC's Kristen Welker said Trump had called her to express his fury over Putin questioning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's future as a leader -- something that Trump himself has done. Welker, on her NBC show "Meet The Press" on Sunday, quoted directly from an early-morning telephone conversation with the president. "If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia's fault... I am going to put secondary tariffs on all oil coming out of Russia," Trump said. Trump told Welker that he "was very angry, pissed off" over Putin's recent comments about Zelenskyy's credibility and talking about new leadership ...

  Trump threatens bombing if Iran does not make nuclear deal U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program. In Trump's first remarks since Iran rejected direct negotiations with Washington last week, he told NBC News that U.S. and Iranian officials were talking, but did not elaborate. "If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," Trump said in a telephone interview. "It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before." "There's a chance that if they don't make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago," he added. Iran sent a response through Oman to a letter from Trump urging Tehran to reach a new nuclear deal, saying its policy was to not engage in direct negotiations with the United States while under its maximum pressure campaign and military threats, Tehran's...

  2 killed, dozens injured in Russian attack on Kharkiv Russian drones on Sunday hit a military hospital, shopping center and apartment blocks in Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv, killing two people and wounding dozens, while U.S. President Donald Trump voiced anger at Russian President Vladimir Putin for comments he made about the leader of Ukraine. Ukraine’s General Staff denounced the “deliberate, targeted shelling” of the military hospital late Saturday. Among the casualties were service members who were undergoing treatment, it said. Regional Gov Oleh Syniehubov said those killed were a 67-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman. According to Ukrainian government and military analysts, Russian forces are preparing to launch a fresh military offensive in the coming weeks to maximize pressure on Kyiv and strengthen the Kremlin’s negotiating position in ceasefire talks. Ukraine's air force reported that Russia fired 111 exploding drones and decoys in the ...

  Myanmar quake death toll passes 1,600, as junta lets in foreign rescuers Myanmar's military rulers let in hundreds of foreign rescue personnel on Saturday after an earthquake killed more than 1,600 people, the deadliest natural disaster to hit the impoverished, war-torn country in years. Friday's 7.7 magnitude quake, among the biggest to jolt the Southeast Asian nation in the last century, crippled airports, bridges and highways amid a civil war that has wrecked the economy and displaced millions. The death toll in Myanmar climbed to 1,644, the military government said on Saturday, according to BBC Burmese news service. In neighboring Thailand, where the quake rattled buildings and brought down a skyscraper under construction in the capital Bangkok, at least nine people were killed. Survivors in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-biggest city, dug with their bare hands on Friday in desperate attempts to save those still trapped, lacking heavy machinery and with authorities absent...

  Aftershocks rattle Mandalay as rescuers search for survivors in Myanmar quake Residents scrambled desperately through collapsed buildings Sunday searching for survivors as aftershocks rattled the devastated city of Mandalay, two days after a massive earthquake killed more than 1,600 people in Myanmar and at least 11 in neighbouring Thailand. The initial 7.7-magnitude quake struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock. The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with mass destruction seen in the city of more than 1.7 million people. As dawn broke Sunday, tea shop owner Win Lwin picked his way through the remains of a collapsed restaurant on a main road in his neighbourhood, tossing bricks aside one by one. "About seven people died here" when the quake struck Friday, he told AFP. "I'm looking for more bodies but I know there cannot be any survivors. "We don...

  Powerful earthquake kills more than 140 in Myanmar; death toll likely to rise A powerful earthquake killed more than 140 people in Myanmar on Friday, authorities said, toppling buildings and wrecking infrastructure across a wide area, including a skyscraper under construction in neighboring Thailand. Much of the devastation was in Myanmar's second-largest city, Mandalay, which lies close to the epicenter of the 7.7 magnitude quake that struck at lunchtime and was followed by a powerful aftershock and several more moderate ones. A rescue worker from Amarapura, an ancient city and now a township of Mandalay, said the bodies of 30 people had been recovered from collapsed multi-story apartment blocks. "I have never experienced anything like this before - our town looks like a collapsed city," he said, estimating that about a fifth of the buildings had been destroyed. "We received calls for help from people from the inside, but we cannot help because we do not have enou...