Russian investigators on Sunday confirmed that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine others, including top leaders of the mercenary group, died in a plane crash recently. The deceased were identified based on genetic examinations, Russian authorities said.

The Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement that forensic and genetic testing identified all 10 bodies recovered at the site of Wednesday's crash and the findings conform to the manifest of the plane. "As part of the investigation into the plane crash in the Tver Region, molecular genetic examinations have been completed. According to their results, the identities of all 10 victims have been established. They correspond to the list stated in the flight manifest," TASS reported quoting a statement from the committee. 

However, the committee did not provide any details regarding what might have caused the crash.

Russia's civil aviation authority earlier this week said Prigozhin, 62, and some of his top lieutenants were on the list of the passengers and crew members on board the plane. An Embraer private jet travelling from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed in the Tver Region on August 23. All 10 people that were onboard, seven passengers and three crew members, got killed in the accident. 

Two months ago, Prigozhin mounted a daylong mutiny against Russia's military, leading his mercenaries from Ukraine toward Moscow. President Vladimir Putin decried the act as treason and vowed punishment for those involved.

Instead, the Kremlin quickly cut a deal with Prigozhin to end the armed revolt, saying he would be allowed to walk free without facing any charges and to resettle in Belarus. 

US authorities had said that a surface-to-air missile that originated within Russia shot down the private jet with Prigozhin onboard. However, the Kremlin denied any role in Prigozhin's death and called all speculations “absolute lies”.

One of the Western officials who described the initial assessment said it determined that Prigozhin was very likely targeted and that an explosion would be in line with Putin's long history of trying to silence his critics.

Prigozhin's second-in-command, Dmitry Utkin, as well as Wagner logistics mastermind Valery Chekalov, also were killed in the crash. Utkin was long believed to have founded Wagner and baptized the group with his nom de guerre.

After the mutiny, the Kremlin said Prigozhin would be exiled in Belarus, and his fighters were offered three options: to follow him there, retire or enlist in Russia's regular army and return to Ukraine, where Wagner mercenaries had fought alongside Russian troops.

Several thousand Wagner mercenaries opted to move to Belarus, where a camp was erected for them southeast of the capital, Minsk. 

(With PTI inputs.)

The Taliban will use security forces to stop women from visiting one of Afghanistan's most popular national parks, according to information shared by a spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry.

The ministry alleges that women have not been observing the proper way to wear the hijab, or Islamic headscarf, when going to Band-e-Amir in the central Bamiyan province.

This comes a week after the minister, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, visited the province and told officials and religious clerics that women haven't been adhering to the correct way of wearing the hijab, asking security personnel to stop women from visiting the tourist hotspot.

“Going sightseeing is not a must for women,” Hanafi said at the time. Ministry spokesman Molvi Mohammad Sadiq Akif shared a report of Hanafi's remarks late Saturday night, including the use of security forces, clerics and elders to carry out Hanafi's order.

A recording of the minister's speech in Bamiyan, aligning with Akif's report, was shared on social media. Akif was not immediately available for comment on Sunday.

"Not content with depriving girls and women of education, employment, and free movement, the Taliban also want to take from them parks and sport and now even nature, as we see from this latest ban on women visiting Band-e-Amir," said Heather Barr, the associate women's rights director at Human Rights Watch in an emailed statement.

Step by step the walls are closing in on women as every home becomes a prison. Last November, the Taliban-led government barred women from using public spaces, including parks, saying that they were not wearing the hijab correctly or following gender segregation rules.

Since taking over the country on August 15, 2021, after the withdrawal of US and NATO forces, they have imposed several restrictions targeting Afghan girls and women, including stopping girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade, and prohibiting Afghan women from jobs at local and non-governmental organisations while cracking down on media.

These harsh measures triggered a fierce international outrage, including from Muslim-majority countries.

Band-e-Amir is a major tourist attraction in Bamiyan. It became the country's first national park in 2009 and pulls in thousands of visitors every year. It is a major source of income for locals and their sightseeing, restaurant, hotel and handicraft businesses.

For former President Donald Trump, a picture is worth... more than $7 million.

Trump's campaign says he has raised $7.1 million since Thursday when he was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in the state and became the first former president in US history to ever have a mug shot taken.

Spokesman Steven Cheung said that, on Friday alone, the campaign brought in $4.18 million its highest-grossing day to date.

The record haul underscores how Trump's legal woes have been a fundraising boon for his campaign, even as his political operation has spent tens of millions on his defence.

The mounting legal charges have also failed to dent Trump's standing in the Republican presidential primary, with the former president now routinely beating his rivals by 30 to 50 points in polls.

While Trump described his appearance Thursday as a terrible experience and said posing for the historic mug shot was not a comfortable feeling, his campaign immediately seized on its fundraising power.

Before he had even flown home to New Jersey, his campaign was using it in fundraising pitches to supporters.

Trump amplified that message both on his Truth Social site and by returning to X, the site formerly known as Twitter, for the first time in two-and-a-half years to share the image and direct supporters to a fundraising page.

Within hours, the campaign had also released a new line of merchandise featuring the image that began with t-shirts and now includes beer Koozies, bumper stickers, a signed poster, bumper stickers and mug shot mugs.

Cheung said that contributions from those who had purchased merchandise or donated without prompting skyrocketed, especially after Trump's tweet.

The new contributions, he said, had helped push the campaign's fundraising haul over the last three weeks to close to $20 million.

Trump in early August was indicted in Washington on felony charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the US Capitol.

At the same time, Trump's political operation has been burning through tens of millions of dollars on lawyers as he battles charges in four separate jurisdictions. Recent campaign finance filing showed that, while Trump raised over $53 million during the first half of 2023  a period in which his first two criminal indictments were turned into a rallying cry that sent his fundraising soaring his political committees have paid out at least $59.2 million to more than 100 lawyers and law firms since January 2021. 

North Korea said Sunday it will allow its citizens staying abroad to return home in line with easing pandemic situations worldwide, as the country slowly eases its draconian coronavirus restrictions. 

In a brief statement carried by state media, the State Emergency Epidemic Prevention Headquarters said those returning to North Korea will be put in quarantine for a week for proper medical observation.

The statement didn't elaborate. But analysts predicted the announcement would lead to the return of North Korean students, workers and others who have had to stay abroad, mostly in China and Russia, because of the pandemic. The workers are a key source of foreign income for the country.

North Korea banned tourists, jetted out diplomats and severely curtailed border traffic and trade after the pandemic began. The lockdown has further worsened the North's chronic economic difficulties and food insecurity. 

Earlier this month, South Korea's spy agency said North Korea was preparing to further reopen its borders gradually in a bid to revive its economy.

On Tuesday, a North Korean commercial jet landed in Beijing in what was the North's first such commercial international flight known to leave the country in about 3 years. The plane returned from Beijing later in the day, but it wasn't known who was aboard it.

Earlier in August, a group of North Korean taekwondo athletes and officials travelled by land to Beijing and then took a flight to Kazakhstan to participate in an international competition.

The group of around 80 men and women wearing white tracksuits with the North Korean flag on the front were seen in the departure hall of Beijing's international airport. It was the first time such a big delegation from North Korea made an international trip since the pandemic began.

Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute, said the return of workers from abroad will mean the loss of a rare source of foreign currency for North Korea, so the government will likely push to send other workers to replace them in China and Russia.

Accepting new North Korean workers would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution that required member states to repatriate all North Korean labourers from their territories by late 2019. 

Given that North Korea intends to quarantine returnees for one week, Cheong said it seems unlikely North Korea would resume receiving Chinese and other foreign tourists anytime soon. He said North Korea is expected to allow foreigners to enter the country next year if the return of its nationals does not cause any coronavirus outbreaks.

In August 2022, North Korea made a highly dubious claim to have overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. In the following month, the North resumed freight train service with China, its biggest trading partner and economic pipeline, but much of its restrictions on border crossings by individuals have remained in effect. 

A United States Marine Corps aircraft crashed on a north Australian island Sunday, killing three Marines and injuring 20 during a multination training exercise, officials said.

Three had been confirmed dead on Melville Island and five of the 23 on board were flown in serious condition 80 kilometres (50 miles) to the mainland city of Darwin for hospital treatment after the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft crashed around 9:30 a.m. local time, a statement from the Marines said.

Recovery efforts are ongoing, the statement said, adding the cause of the crash was under investigation.

Helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft had been deployed to return from the remote location with the rest of the injured, Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said. 

One of the injured was undergoing surgery at the Royal Darwin Hospital, Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said around six hours after the crash..

Some were critically injured and were being triaged on arrival at Darwin's airport, she said.

"We acknowledge that this is a terrible incident, Fyles said. The Northern Territory government stands by to offer whatever assistance is required."

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said only Americans were injured in the crash when happened during Exercise Predators Run, which involves the militaries of the United States, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and East Timor.

The initial reports suggest that the incident involves just U.S. defense force personnel, Albanese said.

Our focus as a government and as the department of defense is very much on incident response and on making sure that every support and assistance is given at this difficult time, he added.

Melville is part of the Tiwi Islands, which along with Darwin are the focus of the exercise that involves 2,500 troops.

The Osprey that crashed was one of two that had flown from Darwin to Melville on Sunday, Murphy said.

Around 150 U.S. Marines are currently based in Darwin and up to 2,500 rotate through the city every year. 

The U.S. military was also taking part in a multination military exercise in July when four Australia personnel were killed in an army MRH-90 Taipan helicopter crash off the northeast Australian coast. 

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has unveiled plans for tough new laws which would mean those convicted of heinous murders will face life behind bars for the rest of their lives, with no chance of being considered for parole or early release.

The 43-year-old British Indian leader said in a statement on Saturday that life means life and judges will be required to hand down mandatory whole-life orders to criminals who commit the most horrific types of murder.

The new law will place a legal expectation on judges to hand down whole-life orders, except in extremely limited circumstances.

I have shared the public's horror at the cruelty of crimes we have seen recently. People rightly expect that in the most serious cases, there should be a guarantee that life will mean life. They expect honesty in sentencing, said Sunak.

By bringing in mandatory whole life orders for the heinous criminals who commit the most horrific types of murder, we will make sure they never walk free, he said.

It comes in the days after nurse Lucy Letby was handed a whole-life order after being found guilty of killing seven newborn babies under her care at a hospital in northern England.

The UK's statutory provisions do not allow capital punishment and therefore the toughest sentence to be handed down is a whole-life term. By putting things on a legal footing, Downing Street said judges will have greater confidence to hand out whole-life orders without risk of challenge in the Courts of Appeal. Under the legal shake-up, whole-life orders will also be the default sentence for any sexually motivated murders.

A whole-life order will now be the expectation for murderers where the killing involves sexual or sadistic conduct. This important law change will ensure that the worst of the worst can now expect to spend the rest of their lives in prison, said UK Justice Secretary Alex Chalk.

The UK government said it will legislate for the changes announced in due course, as Parliament returns from its summer recess next month. 

Zimbabwe's Emmerson Mnangagwa has been elected to a second term as president with 52.6 per cent of the vote, the electoral commission said. Mnangagwa came into power in 2017 after a coup against veteran ruler Robert Mugabe. He is only the second president of Zimbabwe. 

The opposition has said there's been widespread vote-rigging, BBC reported. Zimbabweans, who live in a climate of fear still face inflation and poverty. An opposition party spokesperson said they would reject the results as "hastily assembled without proper verification."  

According to a tweet by Zimbabwe's information ministry, Mnangagwa's challenger Nelson Chamisa of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party won 44 per cent of the vote. Mnangagwa's Zanu-PF party has been the dominant party in the country since it gained independence from Britain in 1980. 

Mnangagwa, known as 'The Crocodile', had promised a new start for his country's people, when he first took charge in 2017. He has been known for his ruthlessness. Chamisa's party CCC in a statement on Wednesday said, some of its candidates were omitted from the ballot papers, and on some of CCC's rolls, photos of Mnangagwa were printed. 

Apart from inflation, unemployment is also rife in Zimbabwe, only 25 per cent of citizens hold formal jobs and prices soared by 101.3 per cent since the previous year. 

Mnangagwa's fearful reputation came to being post the civil war that broke out post-independence Mugabe's Zanu party and Joshua's Nkomo's Zapu party. Mnangagwa, who was national security minister at the time, was in charge of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and worked closely with the army to suppress Zapu.

Thousands of civilians-- ethnic Ndebeles, who were viewed as Zapu supporters were killed before the two parties merged to form the Zanu-PF. 'The Crocodile' has denied any role in the killings, and later, as president, has attempted to bring up reconciliation, which eventually led to an initiative to allow exhumations and reburials.

His children reportedly see him as a principled man. The 80-year-old was born in Zvishavane. He is a Karanga - the largest clan of Zimbabwe's majority Shona community, a BBC report reads. Mnangagwa enjoys support from war veterans, who remember him as one of the men who led the fight for independence in the 1960s and 1970s.

 Mnangagwa was arrested by the white-minority government for helping to blow up a train near Fort Victoria (now Masvingo). He's said to have endured torture during the 10 years he spent in prison. 

Mnangagwa rose to power under Mugabe, first as his bodyguard during the bloody independence war in the 1970s, then as a Cabinet minister in the 1980s and 1990s, and finally as vice president before they became political enemies and he was fired by Mugabe, an AP report reads. 

Under his leadership, Zimbabwe has bolstered ties with China and Russia. Zimbabwe also reapplied to be part of the Commonwealth, after the nation's membership was suspended in 2003 due to human rights violations. 

Despite the country's progress towards joining the Commonwealth and observing elections to further democratic governance, it remains under US economic and travel sanctions and a European Union arms embargo. 

Three Ukrainian pilots, including a 'mega talent' were killed on Friday when when two L-39 combat training aircraft collided over a region west of Kyiv. The three men included Andriy Pilshchykov, nicknamed 'Juice', "a Ukrainian officer, who was set to be among one of the first classes of pilots to start F-16 training. 

"You can't even imagine how much he (Pilshchykov) wanted to fly an F-16," Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat wrote on his Facebook page. The Air Force expressed condolences to the families of the pilots. 

Pilshchykov was a MiG-29 pilot and part of a unit that defended central and northern Ukraine at the beginning of the war. “Yesterday, a catastrophe in the sky over the Zhytomyr region killed three pilots, including Andriy Pilschikov, callsign ‘Juice,’” Zelenskyy wrote on the social media platform, X. “My heart goes out to the pilots’ friends and loved ones. The investigation is ongoing, and the truth will be revealed.” The crash is being investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine (SBI).

According to a US official, Pilshchykov was not piloting the planes but was there as an observer. When he spoke with CNN in June, he said why it was important to modernise Ukraine's air forces with the help of American fighter jets. “Our counteroffensive could be much more effective and much safer for our guys on the ground,” he said. 

The Wagner Group's presence extends from the ancient battlegrounds of Syria to the deserts of sub-Saharan Africa, projecting the Kremlin's global influence with mercenaries accused of using brutal force and profiting on mineral riches they seized.

But that was under Yevgeny Prigozhin, who in what could have been his final video released earlier this week appeared in military fatigues and held an assault rifle from an unidentified dry and dusty plain as he boasted that Wagner is making Russia even greater on all continents and Africa even more free.

On Wednesday, a private jet carrying Prigozhin and his top lieutenants of the mercenary group crashed northwest of Moscow, two months after he led an armed rebellion that challenged the authority of President Vladimir Putin. There is wide speculation that Prigozhin, who is presumed dead, was targeted for his uprising, although the Kremlin has denied involvement.

That crash has raised questions about the future of the Wagner Group.

In African countries where Wagner provided security against groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State, officials and commentators predict Russia will likely maintain its presence, placing the forces under new leadership.

Others, however, say Prigozhin built deep, personal connections that Moscow could find challenging to replace quickly.

Africa is vitally important to Russia economically and politically.

This summer, Wagner helped secure a national referendum in the Central African Republic that cemented presidential power; it is a key partner for Mali's army in battling armed rebels; and it contacted the military junta in Niger that wants its services following a coup.

Expanding ties and undercutting Western influence in Africa is a top priority as the Kremlin seeks new allies amid its war in Ukraine, where Wagner forces also helped win a key battle. Africa's 54 nations are the largest voting bloc at the U.N., and Moscow has actively worked to rally their support for its invasion.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said Friday that Wagner's forces "are destabilizing, and we've encouraged countries in Africa to condemn their presence as well as their actions.

On Thursday, the Republican Front in the Central African Republic, allied with the ruling party, reiterated its support for Russia and Wagner, saying they were determined to fight alongside the African people as they struggle for self-determination.

Wagner forces have served as personal bodyguards for President Faustin Archange Touadera, protecting the capital of Bangui from rebel threats and helping secure a July 30 constitutional referendum that could extend his power indefinitely.

Central African activist and blogger Christian Aime Ndotah said the country's cooperation with Russia would be unaffected by new leadership with Wagner, which has been well-established there for years.

But some in the Central African Republic denounce the mercenaries, and the U.N. peacekeeping mission there criticized them in 2021 for human rights abuses.

A state's security is its sovereignty. You can't entrust the security of a state to a group of mercenaries, said Jean Serge Bokassa, former public security minister.

Nathalia Dukhan, senior investigator at The Sentry, predicted the Kremlin will try to bring Africa closer into its orbit.

Wagner has been a successful tool for Russia to expand its influence efficiently and brutally, she said. In the midst of all the turmoil between Putin and Prigozhin, the Wagner operation in Central Africa only deepened, with increased direct involvement by the Russian government.

High-ranking Wagner operatives have built relationships in Mali and the Central African Republic and understand the terrain, said Lou Osborn of All Eyes on Wagner, a project focusing on the group.

They have a good reputation, which they can sell to another Russian contender. It wouldn't be surprising if a new organization took them over, Osborn said, noting that Russian military contractors in Ukraine, such as Redut and Convoy, have recently expressed a desire to do business in Africa.

Redut was created by the Russian Defense Ministry, which has sought to put Wagner under its control. Following the June mutiny, Putin said the mercenaries could sign contracts with the ministry and keep serving under one of the group's top commanders, Andrei Troshev. It wasn't clear how many troops accepted, but media reports put the number at a few thousand.

The Kremlin still could face challenges in keeping the strong presence in Africa that Prigozhin helped establish.

Former Putin speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov argued Prigozhin may have been allowed to continue his post-activities because Russian authorities had to find people who would take over his work.

Time was needed to create the new channels, new mechanisms of control over those projects, he said. And it's not a fact that they have been successful in that. It's possible that they have failed and the Kremlin may lose some of those projects.

Britain's Defense Ministry said Prigozhin's demise "would almost certainly have a deeply destabilizing effect on the Wagner Group.

His personal attributes of hyper-activity, exceptional audacity, a drive for results and extreme brutality permeated Wagner and are unlikely to be matched by any successor, it said.

On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on Wagner's future.

For Prigozhin, who created Wagner in 2014, its missions weren't simply about advancing Russia's global clout. His contractors in Syria, Libya, Sudan and elsewhere tapped the mineral and energy wealth of those countries to enrich himself.

Central African Republic lawmaker and opposition leader Martin Zigul said Wagner was active in gold mining, timber and other industries without paying taxes.

We can only conclude that it's plundering, he said.

Prigozhin reached a deal with Putin after the rebellion that saw Wagner mercenaries move to Belarus in exchange for amnesty, and the mercenary boss spoke repeatedly since then about expanding his activities in Africa. He was seen courting African officials at a recent summit in St. Petersburg.

He quickly welcomed last month's military coup that toppled Niger President Mohamed Bazoum. The junta reached out to Wagner, but the group's response was unclear and there's no visible presence of Russian mercenaries there other than crowds waving Russian and Wagner flags at protests.

While U.S. officials didn't confirm that Russia or Wagner had any role in the coup, there are fears the Kremlin could exploit it to weaken Western positions in West Africa, where the mercenaries already have a presence in Mali and Burkina Faso.

Niger's residents say Prigozhin's presumed death won't stop Russia from trying to expand its influence.

Our belief is that Russia wants to get a base here and to be popular. It's obvious they want to be here, Niamey tailor Baraou Souleimanin told The Associated Press. Since the coup, he said he's sewn more than 150 Russian flags in a month.

We pray that Allah strengthens the relationship with (Wagner) to continue the deal. If the relationship is good and strong, it's possible they'll continue with the deal even after his death, he said Thursday.

In neighboring Mali, a military junta that seized power in 2020 expelled French troops, diplomats, and media, and ordered an end to a decade-long U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Though not officially recognized by Malian authorities, Wagner forces have been known to operate in the rural north, where rebel and extremist groups have eroded state power and tormented communities.

Human Rights Watch says Mali's army, together with suspected Wagner mercenaries, committed summary executions, looting, forced disappearances and other abuses.

What we have experienced through Wagner is the massacre of our people, said Ali Nouhoum Diallo, former president of the national assembly.

Timbuktu resident Youba Khalifa said Wagner's presence in Mali wouldn't change after Prigozhin because "they're going to replace him with another leader.

Although Prigozhin had told his troops in Belarus their new mission would be in Africa, several thousand of them trained the Belarusian army near the Polish border, prompting Warsaw to bolster forces there. There were signs, however, the mercenaries were preparing to pull back to Russia.

Belarusian Hajun, a group monitoring Russian troops in Belarus, said Thursday that satellite images showed more than a third of the tents at a Wagner camp had been dismantled, a sign of a possible exodus. Still, President Alexander Lukashenko insists his country will host about 10,000 troops.

That draws strong objections from the Belarusian opposition, which demands their withdrawal.

Prigozhin's death should put an end to Wagner's presence in Belarus, which will reduce the threat for our country and its neighbors, exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told AP.

Sweden on Thursday raised its terrorism alert level one notch to the second-highest setting, following recent Quran burnings in the Scandinavian country by a handful of anti-Islam activists, which sparked angry demonstrations in Muslim countries.

The Scandinavian country's domestic security service, SAPO, said the overall security situation has deteriorated and the risk of terrorism in Sweden was now at level four high" -- on its five-point scale. It was the first time since 2016 that SAPO raised the alert to that level.

Sweden has in recent weeks warned citizens abroad and businesses linked to the country to observe increased vigilance and caution" following a string of public Quran burnings by an Iraqi asylum-seeker. Earlier this year, a far-right activist from Denmark burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.

Police have allowed the protests, by a handful of demonstrators, citing freedom of speech.

Like many Western countries, Sweden doesn't have any blasphemy laws that prohibit the burning of religious texts.

In neighbouring Denmark, where there also have been several public Quran desecrations, police said Wednesday that on the recommendation" of the domestic intelligence service PET, it was "necessary to maintain the temporarily-intensified efforts at the internal Danish borders. Sweden, too, has stepped up border controls and identity checks at crossing points.

On Tuesday, PET and its foreign intelligence counterpart said in a joint statement that the recent Quran burnings have resulted in considerable, negative attention from, among others, militant Islamists. The terror alert level in Denmark is also at the second-highest level.

Iran's foreign minister travelled to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, marking the first trip to the kingdom by Tehran's top diplomat in years after the two nations reached a detente with Chinese mediation.

The visit by Hossein Amirabdollahian comes as both Saudi Arabia and Iran try to ease tensions between their nations, which long have viewed each other as archrivals for influence across the wider Middle East. Challenges remain, however, particularly over Iran's advancing nuclear program, the Saudi-led war in Yemen and security across region's waterways. 

Amirabdollahian's trip to Riyadh comes as the two nations are reopening diplomatic missions in each others' countries. He was accompanied by Alireza Enayati, Iran's new ambassador to the kingdom. 

The last Iranian foreign minister to visit Saudi Arabia on a public trip was Mohammad Javad Zarif, who traveled to the kingdom in 2015 to offer condolences for the death of King Abdullah. 

The kingdom broke ties with Iran in 2016 after protesters invaded Saudi diplomatic posts there. Saudi Arabia had executed a prominent Shiite cleric with 46 others days earlier, triggering the demonstrations.

That came as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, then a deputy, began his rise to power. The son of King Salman, Prince Mohammed previously compared Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler, and threatened to strike Iran.

Since then, the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from Iran's nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. Iran has been blamed for a series of attacks after that, including one targeting the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil industry in 2019, temporarily halving the kingdom's crude production.

Religion also plays a key role in tensions as well. Saudi Arabia, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray toward five times a day, has portrayed itself as the world's leading Sunni nation. Iran's theocracy, meanwhile, views itself as the protector of Islam's Shiite minority.

But after the coronavirus pandemic and the U.S.' chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Gulf Arab nations including Saudi Arabia have begun reassessing how to manage relations with Iran. In March, the kingdom and Iran reached an agreement with Chinese mediation to reopen embassies.

The war in Yemen continues, though Saudi-led strikes have dropped dramatically amid its efforts to withdraw from the conflict, which has seen the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels maintain their yearslong hold on the capital, Sanaa. 

Heavy rain in parts of Germany caused flooding and led to dozens of flight cancellations at Frankfurt Airport, the country's busiest and a major European hub, authorities said Thursday.

  The airport said large quantities of water accumulated on the tarmac Wednesday evening and ground handling was suspended for more than two hours, German news agency dpa reported.

The airport website showed about 70 flights were cancelled by 11 pm, when flying is ordinarily halted for the night, while 23 flights headed for Frankfurt were diverted to other airports.

Downpours in parts of southwestern and central Germany led to flooded basements and streets. In Gelsenkirchen, in the western Ruhr district, the fire service said people were rescued from their cars where several highway underpasses were under water.

Former US President Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani were among the 19 people who were indicted in a 41-charge document issued by a Fulton County grand jury in the Georgia state on August 15. Among the charges against them, the most notable one was Georgia's anti-organized crime law known as the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or simply the RICO Act for allegedly attempting to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in Georgia in 2020.

According to the indictment, the alleged co-conspirators "knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump".

What is RICO Act?

Georgia's RICO law is more expansive than the country's federal version, which was passed in 1970 to battle organized crime. The federal law requires at least two underlying crimes and participation in a criminal enterprise over a long period of time. Most states, including Georgia, enacted laws based on the federal Act with slight variations, according to Reuters.

Georgian version of the RICO law does not require criminal enterprises to be long running unlike the federal counterpart. According to the state law, racketeering inclues 50 underlying crimes compared with 35 under the federal law.

Those who are convicted under the Georgia charges could be handed five to 20 years imprisonment. However, the federal version doesn't have a minimum term of imprisonment though the maximum sentence is the same.

How Giuliani made a career out of RICO?

Rico helped prosecutors to target the top brass of crime families with ruthless force and Giuliani was a pioneer who foresaw its full potential. Giuliani made headlines with the 1986 “commission” case where eight of the defendants were members of a powerful New York mafia family.

“Of all the defendants, Giuliani knows Rico better than anyone, he lived with it for decades,” The Guardian quoted Michael Discioarro, a former prosecutor, as saying. “Rudy knows darn well where the line is drawn, and it’s surprising to me that he even put himself in that position.”

Charges against Giuliani include solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, false statements and writings, conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, and conspiracy to commit filing false documents.

“Giuliani is objectively one of the most effective prosecutors in American history who took down the Mafia, cleaned up New York City and comforted the nation following 9/11 his spokesperson,” Guiliani's representative Ted Goodman, told the media in July.  

More than 60 people are feared dead and 38 others were rescued from a boat off Cape Verde after a boat carrying migrants was found off the coast in West Africa. Those being rescued were being brought to the island of Sal. 

The migrant boat that left Senegal in July, capsized off Cape Verde, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told BBC. The wooden boat was seen by a Spanish fishing boat almost 320km (200 miles) off Sal-- they then alerted authorities, police said. The boat reportedly had about 100 people on board, all of them refugees and migrants.

The vessel was first spotted on Monday. Initial reports state that the boat had sunk, but it was found drifting. “Generally, when people are reported missing following a shipwreck, they are presumed dead,” IOM spokesperson Safa Msehli told AFP. About 56 people are believed to be missing and emergency survivors found the remains of seven people. 

According to Senegal's foreign ministry, all of the 38 rescued people were Senegalese except for one, who is from Guinea-Bissau. 

“We must open our arms and welcome the living and bury the dead with dignity,” said Cape Verdean Health Minister Filomena Goncalves, told Inforpress news agency. 

The Senegalese ministry said it was in talks with authorities in Cape Verde to work out the repatriation of its nationals. 

Several churches were vandalised in Pakistan's Punjab province on Wednesday. This resulted in violence and ruckus in the Jaranwala district, Faisalabad. More than 100 people have been arrested for targeting Christians, accusing them of violating the Holy Quran.

The US State Department Principal Deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel expressed concern and said, “... we are always concerned of incidents of religiously motivated violence". Patel urged Pakistani authorities to probe into the allegations and support peaceful freedom of expression and added that violence or the use of threats is never an acceptable form of expression.

"Violence or the threat of violence is never an acceptable form of expression, and we urge Pakistani authorities to conduct a full investigation into these allegations and call for calm for all of those involved," Patel told ANI.

According to a PTI report, after riots broke out as a result of the vandalism, authorities had to deploy paramilitary forces to protect the minority Christian community. 

Punjab interim government’s spokesperson said the provincial government has ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident, Geo News reported. Pakistan's caretaker Anwaar-Ul-Haq Kakar, on Wednesday, said he has vowed to take action against those who violate the law and target minorities. Taking to the social media platform, X, he wrote, "I am gutted by the visuals coming out of Jaranwala #Faisalabad. Stern action would be taken against those who violate the law and target minorities. All law enforcement has been asked to apprehend culprits and bring them to justice. Rest assured that the government of Pakistan stands with our citizenry on equal basis." 

Christian leaders, in the meanwhile, claimed that the police failed to take action as Christians were tortured and harassed. “We cry out for justice and action from law enforcement and those who dispense justice and the safety of all citizens to intervene immediately and assure us that our lives are valuable in our own homeland that has just celebrated independence and freedom," Bishop Azad Marshall, posted on X.

The suspects who allegedly desecrated the Quran and made objectionable comments about the Prophet have been booked under 295-C and 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code. The brother and sister duo-- Raja Amir Masih and Raki Masih and their family have fled. As per the law, Raja and Raki could face the death penalty or life imprisonment for defiling the Prophet. 

The ongoing visit to India of a US Congressional delegation led by Indian American lawmaker Ro Khanna has further solidified the bilateral ties and underscores a unique vision that can serve as a blueprint to advance the relationship, according to prominent community members.

Khanna, the four-term Congressman representing Silicon Valley in the House of Representatives, on Wednesday, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

He and the delegation also attended the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort on Tuesday where the prime minister hoisted the national flag.

During his trips to New Delhi and Mumbai, he has met leaders of the civic society, Bollywood superstars, including  Amitabh Bachchan, and the opposition leaders.

I am happy that elected members of the US Congress are present here today on the occasion of our celebration, Modi said in his Independence Day address.

I was honoured to visit Raj Ghat on India's Independence Day to pay my respects to Mahatma Gandhi, one of the world's greatest leaders. I also had the chance to lead our delegation at the Red Fort, Khanna posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Glad to receive a Congressional delegation from the US, including co-chairs of India Caucus in the House of Representatives, Rep. Ro Khanna and Rep Michael Waltz,

Modi wrote on X after his meeting with the Congressional delegation. Modi said that strong bipartisan support from the US Congress was instrumental in further elevating India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership.

Ro's trip to India is historic.  For the grandson of an Indian freedom fighter who fought alongside Gandhi and was even jailed with him  to return to his parents' birthplace and lead a CODEL in his role as a Member of Congress is as beautiful as it is poignant," said Ronak D Desai, a leading India practitioner at global law firm Paul Hastings LLP.

"It is a remarkable story that is only possible in America.  This fact is one that I suspect Ro thinks about often, and motivated his desire to become a public servant, said Desai, also an expert at the Mittal South Asia Institute at Harvard University.

Community leader Yogi Chug said on Wednesday the visit of the US delegation further solidified the deep bilateral relationship.

From Mumbai, Hyderabad, and New Delhi - whether it was with meeting Amitabh Bachan, Anupam Kher, corporate leaders, or their visit to Akshardham this further solidified the deep relationship," he said.

He said the visit was important as the people-to-people and cultural interactions will be needed for the growing US-India Partnership in the years ahead.

With Prime Minister Modi's successful State Visit and the upcoming visit of President Joe Biden to India, the Congressional delegation led by US Congress India Caucus Chairs Ro Khanna (CA) and Michal Waltz (FL) could not have come at a better time, he said.

Many have described the US-India partnership as one of the most consequential partnerships of the 21st century. Equally exciting was that the Congressional delegation was invited and able to attend Modi's August 15 address at Red Fort. This is significant that a delegation was accorded such honour and visibility, Chug said.

A good interaction with the US Congressional delegation today. Glad they could join as we celebrated Independence Day. Discussed the transformation underway in India, especially its outcomes of better governance," External Affairs Minister Jaishankar posted on social media platform X.

"Shared our aspirations and expectations for Amrit Kaal. Also exchanged views on our advancing bilateral partnership. Shared perspectives on the global situation and our collaboration on multilateral, regional and global issues, he said.

From news reports, it appears the delegation accomplished much during its visit, which also included ministerial-level meetings with the Defence and External Affairs ministries and tours of Western Naval Command further amplifying the critical need for elevating the US-India Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership.

This is an indication of the importance of the increased congressional engagements one will see in the years ahead. The India Caucus in the US Congress has the potential to play a critical role in this US objective and priority, Chug said.

Ro Khanna has been a tireless champion of US-India relations for at least 20 years, well before he was elected to Congress. It is unsurprising that he has focused some of his efforts in the House over the past several years to lead the way in strengthening and advancing the bilateral relationship even further, Desai said on Wednesday.

According to Desai, Ro's delegation, in many ways, has been unlike any others that have visited India in the past.

While it included some traditional aspects, including meeting with the Prime Minister and EAM, it seems Ro really endeavoured to capture the full cultural richness and complexity of India through his meetings with Bollywood legends like Amitabh Bachchan and Anupam Kher, academics, and other civil society leaders.

"It underscores a unique vision of US-India relations that can serve as a blueprint for both counties moving forward, he said.

The Congressional delegation once again reaffirms one of the central, most important features of the US-India relationship the nearly ironclad bipartisan consensus surrounding it, Desai said.

It is one of the primary reasons the partnership continues to grow in leaps and bounds regardless of who is in power in Washington, he said.

Ro's ability to work across the aisle is well reflected in the various bills he sponsored and have become laws.  He's predictably deploying those bipartisan credentials now in service of the bilateral relationship, he said. 

The Islamabad High Court will hear an appeal by jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan against his conviction in the Toshakhana corruption case, it emerged on Wednesday.

Khan, 70, was sentenced to three years in jail by a sessions court on August 5 for hiding proceeds from the sale of state gifts (Toshakhana).

Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, is currently incarcerated in Attock Jail in Punjab province.

He was "found guilty of corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he acquired from the national exchequer willfully and intentionally. 

Khan cheated while providing information about gifts he obtained from the Toshakhana which later proved to be false and inaccurate.

"His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt," the trial order said on August 5.

The Toshakhana is a department under the Cabinet Division that stores gifts given to rulers and government officials by heads of other governments and foreign dignitaries.

The cricketer-turned-politician has challenged his conviction in the Islamabad High Court which formed a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, to initiate the hearing on August 22.

According to the appeal, Khan's counsel was unable to rebut the final arguments of the Election Commission Pakistan (ECP) lawyer in the trial court, as the former was preparing to file the challenge and moved another application for transfer of the matter to another court.

The petition stated that the trial court convicted Khan with a pre-disposed mind, and sentenced him to three years imprisonment with a fine of PKR 100,000.

The trial court verdict also means Khan is disqualified from contesting general elections.

The Toshakhana case was filed in October 2022 by the ECP which had earlier disqualified Khan for concealment of assets.

This is the second time in three months that Khan has been arrested in a case linked to corruption.

Earlier, he was arrested on May 9 in Islamabad from the high court's premises in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case, sparking violent protests by his supporters.

Khan is facing more than 140 cases across the country and faces charges like terrorism, violence, blasphemy, corruption and murder since his ouster in April 2022. PTI SH AKJ   FZH 08161647

Several churches were vandalised in Pakistan's Punjab province on Wednesday over blasphemy allegations, officials said.

  The Salvation Army Church, United Presbyterian Church, Allied Foundation Church and Shehroonwala Church situated in the Isa Nagri area in the Jaranwala district of Faisalabad were ransacked, Imran Bhatti, the pastor of the Jaranwala tehsil, was quoted as saying by Dawn.com.

Bhatti added that the house of a Christian cleaner, who was accused of blasphemy, was also demolished.

Punjab police chief Usman Anwar said the police were negotiating with the protesters and the area had been cordoned off.

"There are narrow lanes (in the area) in which small two to three marla churches are located and there is one main church they have vandalised portions of the churches," Anwar was quoted as saying by Dawn.com.

The official said that efforts were underway to contain the situation by engaging with peace committees and police across the province were activated.

"The assistant commissioner of the area, a member of the Christian community, has also been evacuated after people turned against him, Anwar added.

However, Christian leaders alleged that the police remained silent spectators.

President Bishop of the Church of Pakistan Azad Marshall said that "Bibles have been desecrated and Christians have been tortured and harassed having been falsely accused of violating the Holy Quran.

"We cry out for justice and action from law enforcement and those who dispense justice and the safety of all citizens to intervene immediately and assure us that our lives are valuable in our own homeland that has just celebrated independence and freedom, he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Bishop Marshall added that all priests, bishops and lay people were deeply pained and distressed at the incident.

Former senator Afrasiab Khattak condemned the incident and demanded that the culprits be brought to book.

"Pakistani state has failed to provide security to the worship places of people who follow religions other than Islam. Impunity to the crimes committed in the name of religion has emboldened extremists and terrorists, he added.

Minorities including Christians and Hindus in Pakistan have frequently been subjected to blasphemy allegations and some were tried and even sentenced under the tough blasphemy law. 

The death toll in the deadly Maui wildfires has reached 106. The fires that occurred in the state of Hawaii in the US, incinerated the historic city of Lahaina about a week ago. Federal officials sent a mobile morgue with coroners, pathologists and technicians to Hawaii to help identify the dead, AP reported. 

Hawaii's Governor Josh Green, on Tuesday, said that identifying those killed in the wildfires will be “very difficult”. Families of victims have been asked to provide DNA swabs to help the process as a genetics team will help identify the deceased. 

Rescue workers and cadaver dogs continue to comb through the remains of homes and businesses destroyed by the deadliest US wildfire in over a century. Identification would be difficult as the remains are barely recognisable and fingerprints are seldom being found.

Residents are still struggling with intermittent power and unreliable cellphone service. A single prop airplane flew low off-coast blaring information about where to get water and supplies into a loudspeaker. According to authorities, the number of people that remain unaccounted for remains unclear. 

Governor Green has said that about 27 per cent of the search area has been combed by rescuers and searchers. Insured property losses have been recorded at an estimated $3.2 billion. Toxic by-products of the fire including poisonous fumes are also a cause for worry. 

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he and first lady Jill Biden would visit Hawaii “as soon as we can,” adding that he doesn’t want his presence to interrupt recovery and clean-up efforts. Biden also said that “every asset they need will be there for them” for ongoing recovery and rebuilding efforts. Biden also said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has authorized one-time payments of up to $700 per household for residents who have been displaced.