Bombs ripped through two separate political offices in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least 29 people and wounding more than two dozen, officials said, the day before the country was set to elect a new parliament. The attacks in Baluchistan province -- home to a low-level insurgency and various militants groups -- raised concerns for the election in the troubled Western ally, where many voters are already disillusioned by political feuding and a seemingly intractable economic cri

Ukraine's parliament tentatively backed a bill on Wednesday aimed at drafting more soldiers into the army, a deeply divisive proposal in a nation exhausted by fighting. Kyiv's military had for months been asking the government to draft more soldiers, to boost its dwindling ranks and reprieve its fatigued frontline troops. After refusing outright to debate the bill last month, 243 lawmakers approved the measure in its first reading on Wednesday. The process of making it law could ta

South Korea ranked fifth in the world in terms of military strength, while North Korea stood at 36th, an annual military power index showed. South Korea had a firepower score of 0.1416 to rank fifth out of 145 countries, according to Global Firepower 2024. Its standing rose by one notch from a year earlier. The index is calculated based on more than 60 factors, with categories ranging from military might and financial standing to logistical capability and geography. The lower the index is, the s

TSMC will build a second foundry in Japan, the semiconductor giant and its local partners announced Tuesday, weeks before its first in the country officially opens. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company -- which counts Apple and Nvidia as clients -- controls more than half the world's output of silicon wafers, used in everything from smartphones to cars and missiles. In recent years, it has had to navigate geopolitical tussles between the United States and China as the two face off ove

King Charles III has been diagnosed with cancer and has begun treatment, Buckingham Palace said on Monday, sparking a flood of support from around the world. Charles, who became king upon the death of his 96-year-old mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on Sept. 8, 2022, has generally enjoyed good health, barring injuries from polo and skiing. But the palace said that during his recent hospital procedure for benign prostate enlargement "a separate issue of concern was noted." "Subsequent d

Montenegrin authorities on Monday announced the deportation of the business partner of cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon, after the pair were arrested at an airport in the Balkan country last year carrying fake passports. Police have not officially released the South Korean's name, only referring to him by his initials J.C.H., and saying he had been handed back to officials in his home country. "J.C.H. was handed over to the competent judicial and police authorities in South Korea to

　China’s population fell for a second consecutive year in 2023, as a record low birth rate and a wave of COVID-19 deaths when strict lockdowns ended accelerated a downturn that will have profound long-term effects on the economy’s growth potential. 　The National Bureau of Statistics said the total number of people in China dropped by 2.08 million, or 0.15 percent, to 1.41 billion in 2023. That was well above the population decline of 850,000 in 2022, which had been the first since

Joe Biden easily won South Carolina’s Democratic primary on Saturday, clinching a state he pushed to lead off his party’s nominating process after it revived his then-struggling White House bid four years ago. Biden on Saturday defeated the other long-shot Democrats on South Carolina’s ballot, including Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson. His reelection campaign invested heavily in driving up turnout in what it saw as a test drive of its efforts to mobi

Russia has refused Ukrainian requests to hand over the bodies of scores of prisoners of war whom the Kremlin claims were killed in the downing of a Russian military transport plane by Kyiv's forces, a Ukrainian intelligence official said. Andrii Yusov, the spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence, in televised remarks late Thursday reaffirmed Kyiv's call for an international probe into the Jan. 24 crash inside Russia that would determine whether the Il-76 transport carried

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday at least 27,131 people have been killed in the territory during the war between Palestinian militants and Israel. The latest toll includes 112 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, while another 66,287 people have been wounded in Gaza since the war began on October 7. (AFP)

French farmers were gradually lifting their roadblocks around Paris and elsewhere in the country on Friday, a day after the French government offered over 400 million euros ($436 million) in various measures meant to answer their grievances over low earnings, heavy regulation and unfair competition from abroad. On major highways around the French capital, protesters took down tents, cleaned up the road and set fire to straw bales that they were using as barricades. Convoys of tractors were leavi

After a US senator grilled Singaporean TikTok CEO about his nationality and affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party, Singaporeans are complaining about ignorant — or even racist — views of their country. TikTok CEO Shou Chew, along with executives from technology firms such as Meta, X and Snap, testified before US lawmakers on the online harms of social media to children on Wednesday. During the hearing, Chew was repeatedly questioned about his nationality and possible affiliati

Sexual predators. Addictive features. Suicide and eating disorders. Unrealistic beauty standards. Bullying. These are just some of the issues young people are dealing with on social media — and children’s advocates and lawmakers say companies are not doing enough to protect them. On Wednesday, the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X and other social media companies went before the US Senate Judiciary Committee to testify as lawmakers and parents grow increasingly concerned about the effects of s

An American industry group has called on the US government to craft new multilateral chip equipment export controls, claiming the current strict unilateral ones put US firms at a disadvantage over their rivals from South Korea and other countries. The Semiconductor Industry Association made the call in their written comments sent to the Bureau of Industry and Security under the Commerce Department on Jan. 17, as it stressed the need for the new controls to ensure what it called a "level pla

The US Federal Reserve held its benchmark lending rate steady for a fourth consecutive time during a monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, amid expectations that it would start lowering rates later this year. After the two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting, the central bank announced its decision to keep the rate between 5.25 and 5.50 percent, as Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that a rate cut in March is "probably not the most likely case." The bank has maintained the rate at the