Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed.The census indicated
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated one of the most ambitious railway projects ever built in India, which would connect the Kashmir Valley to the vast Indian plains by train for the first time.Dubbed by state-run Indian Railways as one of the most challenging tracks in the worl
ELECTION GAMBLE: Far-right leader Geert Wilders dramatically left the governing coalition last week, but his failure to adapt has left his party vulnerable in polls
Geert Wilders is betting that triggering the collapse of an unloved Dutch government would position him to emerge stronger and become the nation’s dominant political figure, but signs are emerging that the far-right leader’s gambit could backfire.By alienating potential coalition partners and testin
An aid ship with 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, has reached the Egyptian coast and is nearing the besieged Palestinian territory, organizers said yesterday.The Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Sicily last week with a cargo of relief s
Security forces in military-ruled Myanmar have arrested a six-year-old girl along with 15 other people suspected of involvement in the assassination of a retired high-ranking army officer, state-run media reported on Friday.Former Brigadier General Cho Tun Aung, 68, was shot outside his home in Maya
A Muslim man reads verses on his mobile phone at Jama Masjid on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, in the old quarters of Delhi yesterday. The three-day Eid al-Adha is one of the two main festivals in Islam, and marks the end of the annual hajj pilgrimage season.
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said
Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission.Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU.The agreement, reached in 2022
A North Korean naval destroyer damaged in a botched launch last month is now upright and moored at a pier, North Korean state media said yesterday.Pyongyang has said “a serious accident” happened in the May 21 attempt to launch the 5,000-tonne destroyer, with the mishap crushing sections of the bott
CRACKDOWN: After hearing the charge read aloud in court, Joshua Wong, who wore a blue shirt and was visibly thinner, said that he ‘understood’ the charge
Prominent Hong Kong democracy advocate Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) yesterday was charged with conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security under a Beijing-imposed law that critics say has crushed Hong Kong’s once-thriving pro-democracy movement.The prosecution was the second time Wo
A Japanese court overturned a US$92 billion damages verdict yesterday against the former bosses of the operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, thought to be the largest such award ever in the country for a civil suit. Four former executives had in 2022 been ordered to co
LEBANONIsrael strikes BeirutMinister of Defense Israel Katz yesterday said that Israel would keep striking Lebanon until it disarms the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, a day after Israeli air-strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs. “There will be no calm in Beirut, and no order or stability
Muslims perform the Tawaf (circumambulation) around the Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam, at al-Masjid al-Haram, during this year’s ‘hajj’ pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday. More than 1 million hajj pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia from abroad for this year’s hajj season, the Saudi
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) confronted weeks of brewing trade tensions and a battle over critical minerals in a leader-to-leader call that left key issues to further talks.During the more than one-hour-long call, Xi told Trump to back down from trade measures tha
IVY ROW: Trump cited national security concerns in barring international students from entering the US to study at Harvard, while his administration also took aim at Columbia
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a proclamation banning the citizens of 12 countries from entering the US, saying the move was needed to protect against “foreign terrorists” and other security threats, while also suspending for an initial six months the entry into the US of foreign nati
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said.Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after t
MORE INVOLVED: A Russian official’s visit to Pyongyang followed a major drone strike against Russia, underscoring the urgency of high-level coordination, an analyst said
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to “unconditionally support” Russia in its war in Ukraine and said he expected Moscow to emerge victorious, Pyongyang’s state media reported yesterday.North Korea has become one of Moscow’s main allies during its more than three-year Ukraine offensive, sending t
As Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, approaches, cattle markets across Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, are experiencing peak trading activity.Just outside the capital, Jakarta, the Jonggol Cattle Market is bustling with hundreds of traders serving buyers looking fo
Astronomers on Wednesday announced they have discovered a massive planet orbiting a tiny star, a bizarre pairing that has stumped scientists.Most of the stars across the Milky Way are small red dwarfs such as TOI-6894, which has only 20 percent the mass of our sun.It had not been thought possible th
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