DHAKA: Bangladesh’s deadliest executioner died on Monday a year after he was released from prison where he hanged some of the country’s notorious serial killers, opposition politicians convicted of war crimes and coup plotters, police said. Since he was released from prison last June, Shahjahan Bouya, 70, wrote a top-selling book narrating his experiences as a hangman, briefly married a …

TEHRAN: Iranians broadly deplore Western sanctions that have battered the economy, but the country’s six presidential candidates offer differing solutions — assuming the winner gets a say on foreign policy. Punishing US sanctions, reimposed following Washington’s withdrawal from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal, have brought years of economic hardships, fuelling political malaise and wide popular discontent. With the June 28 …

MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Monday directly blamed the United States for an attack on Crimea with US-supplied ATACMS missiles that killed at least four people and injured 151, and Moscow formally warned the US ambassador that retaliation would follow. The war in Ukraine has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and …

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is due to plead guilty on Wednesday to violating US espionage law, in a deal that will set him free after a 14-year British legal odyssey and allow him to return home to Australia. Assange was released from prison on Monday and has left Britain, WikiLeaks said, as he reached a landmark plea deal with US …

Writer Fatima Bhutto has made an appeal to Barnard College in light of the suspensions, expulsions and threats made to students for their participation in pro-Palestine protests on campus. The columnist and activist recalled her own time at Barnard in a video shared on Instagram, recounting how she and other students were able to partake in protests on campus without facing disciplinary …

WASHINGTON: Tensions escalated outside a Torah synagogue in Los Angeles on Sunday following protests over an auction of property and land in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to settlers. The event, organised by pro-Israel groups, drew strong condemnation and opposition from anti-war activists and protesters advocating for Palestinian rights. According to eyewitnesses and journalists covering the event, the protests turned violent …

WASHINGTON: The United States should welcome more students from China, but to study the humanities rather than sciences, the second-ranked US diplomat said on Monday, noting that US universities are limiting Chinese students’ access to sensitive technology given security concerns. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said not enough Americans were studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics. He said the …

A Chinese probe carrying samples from the far side of the Moon returned to Earth on Tuesday, capping a technically complex 53-day mission heralded as a world first. The landing module of the Chang’e-6 spacecraft touched down at a predetermined site in Inner Mongolia at 2:07pm (6:07am GMT), the China National Space Administration said, hailing the mission a “complete success”. …

India’s newly elected lawmakers took the oath of office on Tuesday, but without two vocal government critics unable to take their seats because they are jailed on national security charges. One is the Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh, a firebrand preacher arrested last year after a month-long police manhunt in Punjab state. The other is Sheikh Abdul Rashid, a former state legislator in …

Police opened fire on demonstrators trying to storm Kenya’s legislature on Tuesday, with at least five protesters killed, dozens wounded and sections of the parliament building set ablaze as lawmakers inside passed legislation to raise taxes. In chaotic scenes, protesters overwhelmed police and chased them away in an attempt to storm the parliament compound. Flames could be seen coming from …