India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will travel to Pakistan next week to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit scheduled for October 15–16, the Ministry of External Affairs confirmed on Friday. This will mark the first visit by an Indian minister to Pakistan in nearly nine years. Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Jaishankar will represent India at the regional meeting, which brings together foreign ministers and heads of state from member countries to discuss security, economic cooperation, and regional connectivity. Pakistan had formally invited Pr

Singapore’s Indian-origin former Transport Minister S. Iswaran has been sentenced to 12 months in jail after being found guilty in a corruption case involving nearly 400,000 Singapore dollars in gifts and benefits received from businessmen over a seven-year period. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) completed its probe into the case last year. The court found that Iswaran had accepted expensive items - including bottles of whiskey and wine, golf clubs, and a Brompton bicycle - as bribes in exchange for official favours. The presiding judge said Iswaran had betrayed public trus

A 32-year-old Punjabi man from Kapurthala has died under mysterious circumstances in California, just days before his planned wedding in India. The deceased has been identified as Gurjit Singh, who was scheduled to be married on October 18. Family members in Kapurthala say wedding preparations were in full swing when they received the shocking news from the United States. They allege that Gurjit was murdered, while American police have reportedly told them the cause of death was a heart attack. According to relatives, Gurjit had completed packing his belongings and was preparing to fly back to

Palestinian medical officials say at least 32 people were killed overnight in Israeli airstrikes and ground operations in southern Gaza. The European Hospital in Khan Younis reported receiving the bodies following heavy bombardments that continued into Wednesday morning. Hospital staff said the dead included several women and children, while dozens of others were injured in the attacks. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The strikes come nearly a year after Hamas’s October 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people and led to around 250 being taken hostage. Israeli offici

A tragic fire engulfed a school bus in suburban Bangkok on Tuesday, leaving at least 25 people feared dead, according to Thai officials and rescue workers. The bus, carrying 44 students and teachers from Uthai Thani province to Bangkok for a school trip, caught fire around noon in Pathum Thani province, located just north of the capital. Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungruengkit said the blaze spread rapidly before emergency crews could respond. Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters that authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of fatalities as investigations continu

The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of nearly two dozen communities in southern Lebanon after launching what it described as a limited ground incursion against the Hezbollah militant group. The evacuation order, issued Tuesday by the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson on the social media platform X, directed residents of several southern Lebanese communities to move north of the Awali River, roughly 60 kilometres from the Israeli border. That area lies farther north than the Litani River, which marks the boundary of a United Nations-declared buffer zone established after

Israeli airstrikes hit one of Beirut’s heavily-populated southern suburbs on Friday as blasts were heard throughout the Lebanese capital. It was not immediately clear what the target was but thick black smoke was seen billowing from the area. The strike came an hour after thousands of people attended the funeral of a top Hezbollah commander who was killed the day before.

Canada has issued a joint statement with its allies calling for "an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border," citing an "unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation." The statement, issued along with the United States, Australia, European Union, United Arab Emirates and eight other countries, calls on the governments of Lebanon and Israel and all parties involved to endorse the temporary ceasefire and "give a real chance to a diplomatic settlement." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the cease-fire plan put forward was only a proposal and that th

At least two Canadians have died in the escalating violence in Lebanon, as Israeli strikes kill Hezbollah militants along with civilians and children. Global Affairs Canada says it is aware of the deaths of two Canadian citizens in Lebanon while another has reached out for help with injuries. Liberal MP Fayçal El-Khoury was born in Lebanon and says Canada needs to push its peer countries more to stop a cycle in violence in the Middle East, or it could lead to a world war. He says his cousin who works as an ophthalmologist in Beirut say shocking amounts of bodily trauma in a recent explosion,