Page 6 - International News

BNP's Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir elected as Bangladesh's new President

Ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) candidate Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was on Thursday elected as the country's new President in the first contested poll for the post in 35 years. The 78-year-old BNP stalwart defeated his rival Colonel (retd) Oli Ahmed, the Liberal Democratic Party chairman and the nominee of the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party opposition alliance, Chief Election Commissioner and also Election Returning Officer AMM Nasir Uddin said. Alamgir secured 255 votes while Oli Ahmad bagged 88 votes, he said. Of the total 349 registered voters, 343 voted in the election. Six lawmakers didn't vote, he added. The president-elect will take the oath as Bangladesh's new President on Friday evening at the Darbar Hall of Bangabhaban. It is the first contested presidential election in Bangladesh since 1991, as the office had largely been filled through consensus and uncontested polls in recent decades. The presidential election was necessitated after Mohammed Shahabuddin, a

Ousted Ukraine Def Min urges wartime election, warning of governance crisis

Ukraine's ousted Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called Tuesday for elections to be held even as the war against Russia continues, saying the country was gripped by a crisis of governance. The move by one of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's most loyal and longstanding team members until recently could become the most significant internal challenge Zelenskyy has faced since Russia's full-scale invasion. The appeal came in a video address posted to YouTube by Fedorov, who lost his post in July. "We must find a legal, safe, and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war," Fedorov said. Zelenskyy's office did not immediately comment on Fedorov's address. Ukrainian law prohibits elections while the country is under martial law, which was imposed on Feb. 24, 2022, the day that the Russian invasion began. Fedorov said the country was facing a systemic crisis in how it is governed, arguing the current system is oriented tow

Global bond slump sends long term borrowing costs to highest in decades

One fear is that persistent geopolitical turmoil will make economies more prone to supply shocks and inflationary pressures.

Why the vote on taxing California's billionaires is being watched globally

In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has proposed a 2 per cent income tax increase for those earning over $1 million, and passed a property surcharge tax on second homes

Iran, Oman edge closer to Hormuz shipping routes deal as war continues

The move follows a series of attacks in Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil and gas transited before the war

Taliban mark five years in power as Afghanistan faces growing crises

The ​Taliban have also faced a string of assassinations of key regional officials in the country's northeast in recent weeks

As Europe gets hotter, its transportation systems struggle to cope

Rail services are being cut, tracks are buckling and highways are cracking as Europe's ageing transport infrastructure struggles with increasingly intense heatwaves.

Houthis hit Saudi's Aramco Jazan refinery for second time in a week

The Houthis said two drones hit the Saudi Aramco refinery in Jazan, days after an earlier attack set a crude storage tank ablaze.

China July bank loans post record contraction as credit demand falters

China's new yuan loans contracted by a record 340 billion yuan in July, as weak household and corporate borrowing pointed to subdued credit demand.

Gulf oil giants are spending billions to build alternative shipping routes

Gulf countries that have for decades produced much of the world's oil are now intent on breaking their dependence on the narrow waterway.

Zhu Rongji: Fmr premier who was the architect of economic overhaul in China

A young Communist star in the 1950s, Zhu was expelled from the party in one of Mao Zedong's ideological purification campaigns.

Meta faces biggest youth social media test yet as 29 US states go to trial

The seven-week trial will test claims that Meta designed Facebook and Instagram to keep children hooked and misled users about the safety of its platforms.

6 killed in Houthi strikes on Red Sea ship, missile strike reported in Gulf

Four crew members and two rescuers were killed in a Houthi attack on a cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb strait

Unitree's Shanghai IPO 5,526 times subscribed by retail investors

Unitree Robotics' Shanghai IPO has attracted massive retail demand, with investors placing orders worth about $1.2 trillion for shares in the humanoid robot maker.

Catering container to military jet: How Trump is said to have left Turkiye

US officials say Trump was secretly moved from a decoy Air Force One to a military jet after a credible Iran threat during the Nato summit in Turkiye.

Drone strike sparks blaze at Libya's Zawiya oil refinery overnight

Firefighters in western Libya fought Tuesday to extinguish the remnants of a massive fire caused by a drone strike on a oil facility, and a car bomb killed a senior military officer in the country's east, in the latest attacks in the chaos-stricken North African nation. The drone hit a gasoline tank at the Zawiya oil refinery in the Mediterranean town of Zawiya on Monday, about 47 kilometres west of capital Tripoli, the state-run National Oil Corporation said. The attack ignited a massive blaze at gasoline-storage tank that burned through the night into Tuesday morning, according to the Civil Defense, a first responders' agency. There were no reports of casualties, the health authorities said. No group has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on oil facilities in Zawiya, or the car car bomb in the eastern city of Benghazi on Monday. Footage aired by local media showed massive flames and fireballs erupting from the tank, with black and orange smoke rising in the sky as ..

Chinese users of AI companions bereft after government tightens regulations

The new regulation, which took effect July 15, bans AI platforms from generating content that could lead users to make questionable decisions due to manipulation of their feelings

Mohsen Rezaei appointed as chief of Iran's National Security Council

Iran has appointed former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaee to lead its top security body as Tehran says talks with Oman on restoring shipping through the Strait of Hormuz are nearing a deal.

Yemeni military says Houthi attack on Mocha killed 7, wounded 30

"Four members of the armed forces and three civilians have been killed, and 30 ​others injured," the Yemeni military ‌said in a statement

Cloudflare shares jump after forecast raise on higher AI-driven spending

The earnings follow Amazon.com's strongest ​cloud growth in more than four years. Amazon company noted that it won't have enough capacity to meet all demand this year.