Afghanistan's warlords vowed defiantly to defend their strongholds from the Taliban and crush the insurgents. But, like the government's forces, they too gave up with surprising ease. As the insurgents swept through the north in a surprise offensiv...

Former Atletico Madrid and Chelsea striker Diego Costa has signed for Brazilian league leaders Atletico Mineiro, the Belo Horizonte-based club announced on Sunday. The 32-year-old arrives as a free agent after his contract with Diego Simeone's At...

Rugby Australia is considering loosening its rules barring most overseas-based players from representing the Wallabies after their latest thrashing by New Zealand, officials said Sunday. Under the so-called "Giteau's Law", introduced in 2015, forei...

Thousands of Afghan soldiers thronged the governor's office in the western city of Herat looking for the Taliban -- not to battle them but to seek amnesty. Afghanistan's third-biggest city fell without a fight on Thursday as government forces retre...

Malaysia's embattled leader will offer his resignation to the king Monday, a minister said, potentially spelling an end to his 17-month-old government and plunging the country into fresh turmoil. Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has faced mounting ...

Three Japanese cabinet ministers visited a shrine seen by neighbouring countries as a symbol of Tokyo's past militarism on Sunday, the anniversary of the nation's World War II surrender. It came after two other members of Prime Minister Yoshihide S...

When Romain Daubec and his wife Monica left San Francisco last summer for Denver, Colorado, they thought their telework hundreds of miles from their offices would last no more than a half-year. But the stunningly rapid spread of the Delta variant o...

A panda bred via artificial insemination was born in Singapore's zoo on Saturday, the first cub to be born in the city-state. Jia Jia, the zoo's 12-year-old female giant panda, gave birth to the cub after she was inseminated with frozen semen from ...

At least 20 people were killed and nearly 80 others injured when a fuel tank exploded in Lebanon's northern region of Akkar, the Red Cross and state media said Sunday. The tragedy overwhelmed medical facilities and spurred a search for the missing,...

The grass flickered gently above a crack in the limestone and Ludvik Husu instinctively knew he had found what he was searching for: a new cave in Slovenia's dramatic Karst region. The seasoned cave enthusiast, with more than 50 years' experience, ...

DR Congo has revived a long-standing dream of promoting the national currency and sidelining the dollar to regain control over key economic levers. The Democratic Republic of Congo's economy became informally "dollarised" several decades ago under ...

The Hong Kong protest coalition that organised record-breaking democracy rallies two years ago said Sunday it was disbanding in the face of China's sweeping clampdown on dissent in the city. The dissolution comes as China remoulds Hong Kong in its ...

It is Zhang Yuchen's last summer break before high school, but events have taken an unwelcome turn -- the 14-year-old's game time has been decimated as China's tech firms try to dispel accusations that they are selling "spiritual opium" to the count...

A decade after Libya descended into chaos, a host of countries are eyeing potential multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects in the oil-rich nation if stability is assured. Economist Kamal Mansouri expects Libya's reconstruction drive to be one...

In recent years, the pines had grown so much that the Haniosakis family could no longer see the Acropolis from their charming garden in Drosopigi, a small hamlet overlooking Athens. "And now there she is again, because everything has gone up in smo...