DHAKA: Bangladesh on Friday announced the imposition of a curfew and the deployment of military forces as police failed to quell days of deadly unrest...

President Joe Biden, 81, has tested positive for COVID-19, the White House confirmed on Wednesday. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre revealed that Biden, who...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday projected Pakistan’s economy to grow at a rate of 3.5% in the fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25), as against...

A Russian attack on the the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has killed at least six people, including a 14-year-old girl, and wounded dozens of others, Ukrainian officials have said. “Occupiers killed a child right on the playground,” Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app on Friday. Three other people were killed in a 12-storey apartment block that caught fire as a result of the attack, he said. “Unfortunately, the death toll has risen to six people,” Kharkiv regional Governor Oleg Synegubov said in a post on Telegram hours after the attack. A 14-year-old girl was among those killed, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said. At least 55 people were wounded, he said. A video from the site shared by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak, showed huge flames and heavy black smoke rising from the upper floors of a residential building. “Russians hit civilians again,” Yermak said on Telegram.

The G7 has promised to raise a $50 billion (€45bn) loan for Ukraine, but the initiative requires an agreement between the 27 members of the European Union. The European Commission has presented member states with three options to fulfil a G7 plan that will see Western allies raising a $50 billion loan (€45 billion) to support Ukraine's army and economy in the battle against Russian forces. The plan, provisionally sealed at the G7 summit in June, will use the immobilised assets of Russia's Central Bank as collateral. The majority of them (€210 billion) are held in the 27-country bloc. While allies cannot confiscate the money, they can use the interests they generate to ensure the loan is gradually re-paid, without footing the bill themselves. But the unprecedented idea carries multiple financial risks, chief among them the possibility that these assets will be unfrozen before repayments are satisfied and allies will be held liable for default.

Six people have drowned in Austria, Poland and Romania and four others are missing in the Czech Republic as Storm Boris continues to lash central and eastern Europe, bringing torrential rain and floods that have forced the evacuation of thousands of people from their homes. Swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia have been battered by high winds and unusually fierce rains since Thursday. Austria’s vice-chancellor, Werner Kogler, said on Sunday that a firefighter had died tackling flooding in Lower Austria as authorities declared the province, which surrounds the capital, Vienna, a disaster area. Some areas of the Tyrol were blanketed by up to a metre (3ft) of snow – an exceptional situation for mid-September, which saw temperatures of up to 30C (86F) last week. Rail services were suspended in the country’s east early on Sunday and several metro lines were shut down in Vienna, where the Wien river was threatening to overflow its banks, according to the APA news agency. Emergency services had made nearly 5,000 interventions overnight in Lower Austria, where flooding had trapped many residents in their homes. Firefighters have intervened around 150 times in Vienna since Friday to clear roads blocked by storm debris and pump water from cellars, local media reported.

A new bill forcing local authorities to remove homeless animals from city streets has led to a furious backlash Next to the network of the highways that crisscross Turkey, among the lush forests or mountain peaks that dot the country, large stray dogs are a common sight. Most are pale white Akbaş dogs or Kangal shepherds, with their distinctive dark muzzle, pale golden coat and large bodies designed to herd livestock, although on the streets of Istanbul they are more commonly found lazing outside coffee shops, rotund and docile from a lifetime of treats. In cities at least, the stray dogs are popular enough to be seen as part of the architecture. One particularly large and sleepy example that dozes outside an ice-cream shop on Istanbul’s main shopping street has become a local celebrity nicknamed “The Boulder”, complete with a string of rave reviews left by delighted tourists. The dog is marked as an Istanbul tourist attraction on Google Maps, which features a recommendation to avoid petting him. Despite their welcome presence on the streets in some parts, Turkey’s estimated 4 million stray dogs have become the focus of a furious national debate. Last December, a 10-year-old boy was mauled by a pack of strays while walking to school, prompting president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to pledge that the government would find a solution. “It is our duty to protect the rights of our people harmed by stray dogs,” he said. In late July, Turkish lawmakers worked overnight to push through a last-minute bill they claimed would resolve the issue of stray dogs, quickly sowing the seeds of outrage among opposition groups and animal rights activists. The new law, called the “massacre law” by its opponents, requires already underfunded and crowded Turkish shelters to take in strays to be vaccinated, spayed or neutered before putting them up for adoption, adding that any that are ill or pose a risk to humans will be euthanised. Mayors who fail to comply can face penalties, including up to two years in prison.

Investigation opens in France into deaths as David Lammy says UK could process asylum claimants in third country Eight people died overnight trying to cross the Channel from France to England, French regional authorities have said, as the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, said the government could follow Italy’s lead and process asylum claimants in a third country. The French maritime prefecture said 59 people were onboard the boat, which got into difficulty off the coast of France, and 51 of them were rescued. An investigation has been opened by the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor’s office. A 10-month-old baby was among those taken to hospital with suspected hypothermia after the boat ran aground near Ambleteuse at about 1.15am on Sunday. All those who died were adult men. Responding to the reports, Lammy told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme that the government has been “discussing how we go after those gangs, in cooperation upstream with other European partners”. Keir Starmer will be in Italy on Monday for talks with the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, about her efforts to tackle the problem “and the work they have done, particularly, with Albania”. Lammy said: “They have a comprehensive scheme with Albania understanding that [the] Albania route, as well as the Channel and the southern Mediterranean, are routes which migrants use. So of course, because it has reduced the numbers, we are interested in discussing with Italy the schemes they have developed, not just with Albania.” But in a sign of government confusion over the issue, a Home Office source indicated that Lammy’s claim of a possible third-party scheme was not government policy. “It is not something we are working on,” the source said, adding that Italy’s plan to process asylum seekers in Albania could not be seen as having reduced the numbers because it was not fully operational yet. Italy, which receives the most migrant arrivals in the EU, opened the first of two planned camps in neighbouring Albania in August but has not yet sent people there. People will start to arrive at the camps only once both are open and operational. Starmer has said he is interested in the rollout of the policy, under which Albania will accept asylum seekers on Italy’s behalf while their claims are processed.

A 14-year-old girl was left stranded after an airline removed her from a flight over a weight imbalance. Camryn Larkan boarded a Porter Airlines flight from Toronto, Canada to Victoria on August 30 after visiting family, the CBC reports. However, after she took her seat, a flight attendant said she had to exit the aircraft.

Thierry Breton has resigned as European Commissioner, dealing a new blow to Ursula von der Leyen's efforts to build her next team. Thierry Breton, the powerful European Commissioner in charge of the internal market, abruptly resigned on Monday, claiming that Ursula von der Leyen had pressured France, his home country, to submit another candidate to replace him "for personal reasons." Breton announced the move in a letter published on social platform X, saying he became aware of this alleged lobbying "a few days ago," while the Commission president was putting the finishing touches to her new executive. The Frenchman was expected to receive an important portfolio in the upcoming Commission, having been rumored for an executive vice presidency. But in his letter, he claims Paris was promised an even loftier position in exchange for ditching his bid. "A few days ago, in the very last stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future of the College, you asked France to withdraw my name – for personal reasons that in no instance you have discussed directly with me – and offered, as a political trade-off, an allegedly more influential portfolio for France in the future College," Breton writes.

Death toll rises further in Central Europe The death toll in central Europe has risen as more rivers burst their banks. Six people have died in Romania. Five have reportedly died in Poland. A total of three people have died in Austria: one firefighter died over the weekend and two people were found drowned in their homes, Reuters reported. One person has died in the Czech Republic.

French President Emmanuel Macron has nominated outgoing foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné to become the country's next European Commissioner, after Thierry Breton abruptly resigned from his post and withdrew his bid for a second term earlier on Monday. In a statement, the Élysée Palace said that the decision was made "in accordance" with newly-appointed Prime Minister Michel Barnier, and confirmed France was angling for a "key" portfolio related to "industrial and technological sovereignty" and "European competitiveness." It adds that Séjourné's prior experience, as chair of Macron's centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament and as France's Minister of Europe and foreign affairs, equips him to take the reins of such a prestigious portfolio. Earlier on Monday, Thierry Breton, Macron's man in Brussels who has served as European Commissioner for the internal market since 2019, withdrew his re-election bid after what he described as efforts by Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to pressure France to replace him "for personal reasons."

Later today Kamala Harris will participate in a Philadelphia forum organized by the National Association of Black Journalists. The event has been scheduled after the vice-president did not attend the group’s convention held in Chicago during the summer. Donald Trump did appear at that event in July – with a typically contentious performance during which he repeated lies and attacked Kamala Harris’s racial identity. Some journalists were critical of the organisation for inviting him. Reuters reports that, as Trump did, Harris will face a panel of three journalists in the session. The location is also significant – Pennsylvania is often regarded as a “must win” swing state in order to take the presidency.