A fire that raged for seven hours through a crowded Manila slum community killed two people and left close to 1,500 families homeless, fire authorities said yesterday.

The Pakistani military accused India yesterday of killing seven soldiers in cross-border fire in disputed Kashmir, in what appeared to be an unusually high toll after months of surging tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Handed over to China Overseas Ports Holding Company Ltd on a 43-year lease in November 2015, the world’s largest deep sea port of Gwadar finally became functional for all commercial purposes this week, some 62 years after its potential was first noted in 1954, while the city was still a part of Oman

Dialogue between Venezuela’s government and opposition has eased pressure on President Nicolas Maduro, angering many in the crisis-struck country who were pinning hopes on an early election to remove the unpopular socialist leader.

As people across India continued to queue outside banks and ATMs for money, a splintered opposition yesterday showed the first signs of coming together against Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he took power in 2014 over the demonetisation move.

Modi accuses Congress of misleading people on demonetisation

Tens of thousands of students sat for their Class 12 annual exams yesterday after four months of unrest during which schools remained shut across the Kashmir Valley.

A run dedicated to the rights of underprivileged children was organised here yesterday on the occasion of Children’s Day.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives agreed yesterday to back Social Democrat Frank-Walter Steinmeier as Germany’s next president, creating a vacancy at the foreign ministry at a critical moment in relations with Russia and the United States.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that he will wait until the end of the year to see if there is progress on accession talks with the European Union, otherwise he could put the matter to a referendum.

Hundreds of people, including children, returned to the devastated Kurdish-dominated city of Sirnak in southeast Turkey yesterday after an eight-month curfew was relaxed, an AFP photographer said.

The Duke of Cambridge hailed Sir David Attenborough for a lifetime of work which has “shaped the culture of this country” at this year’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards.