The US state department has confirmed it offered millions of dollars to the captain of an Iranian oil tanker which is at the centre of a diplomatic row. Brian Hook, head of the department's Iran Action Group, emailed the captain of the Adrian Darya 1 about sailing it somewhere the

Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has said her government will formally withdraw an extradition bill that has ignited months of protests and plunged the territory into its biggest political crisis in decades. In a five-minute televised address on Wednesday, Lam said her government

Five Chinese nationals were killed and another six injured when a tourist bus veered off a highway and flipped during bad weather in New Zealand's North Island, police said. Police said 27 people were in the vehicle when it crashed about 20 kilometres (12 miles) outside Rotorua --

Iran says it will free on humanitarian grounds seven of the 23 crew members of a Swedish-owned, British-flagged tanker seized in the Strait of Hormuz in July. The sailors - five Indians, one Latvian and one Russian - had already left the Stena Impero, a foreign ministry spokesman told

The Indian High Commission in London was vandalised on Tuesday after a protest over Kashmir outside the building turned violent. This is the second time violent protests have taken place over Kashmir outside the Indian High Commission in London. Earlier, the protests had broken on the

Tory rebels and opposition MPs have defeated the government in the first stage of their attempt to pass a law designed to prevent a no-deal Brexit. The Commons voted 328 to 301 to take control of the agenda, meaning they can bring forward a bill seeking to delay the UK's exit date.

Eight children have been killed in an attack outside a primary school in China, on the first day back at school after the summer holidays. Police said they arrested a 40-year-old man at the scene of the attack in Hubei province in central China. Officials did not say how the

At least 25 people have died and nine are still missing after a fire raged through a boat carrying recreational scuba divers anchored near an island off the southern California coast. US Coast Guard lieutenant commander Matthew Kroll said authorities had recovered 20 bodies and

Boris Johnson faces a showdown in Parliament later after No 10 officials warned he would call for a snap general election on 14 October if MPs succeed in seizing control of Commons business. Rebel Tories and Labour MPs are planning a bill to stop the UK leaving the EU on 31 October

The United States would withdraw 5,400 troops from Afghanistan within 20 weeks as part of a deal "in principle" with Taliban militants, Washington's top negotiator has said. Zalmay Khalilzad revealed details of the long-awaited deal for the first time in a TV interview after

Hurricane Dorian unleashed massive flooding across the Bahamas on Monday, pummeling the islands with so much wind and water that authorities urged people to find floatation devices and grab hammers to break out of their attics if necessary. At least five deaths were blamed on the storm.

Coast Guard officials said eight people were killed and 26 went missing after a 75-foot commercial diving boat erupted in flames near the shoreline of Santa Cruz Island in California early Monday. Many aboard the vessel Conception were thought to be sleeping below deck when the fire

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has said she never offered to resign, responding to a leaked audio recording suggesting she wanted to. At a press conference she said she had "never tendered any resignation" to the Chinese government, reports BBC. Yesterday a recording of a private

Argentina has imposed currency controls in an attempt to stabilise markets as the country faces a deepening financial crisis. The government will restrict foreign currency purchases following a sharp drop in the value of the peso. Firms will have to seek central bank permission to

Fifteen people were killed on Sunday when a three-storey building under construction collapsed "like a house of cards" in the Mali capital Bamako, the government and local media reports said. Twenty-six people were rescued alive from the partially occupied building after it collapsed

Foreign companies face a new business reality in Hong Kong. There's a rising sense of uncertainty washing over the corporate world here, as firms confront a shifting political landscape after months of unrest. Millions of Hong Kong citizens have taken part in pro-democracy protests

The most powerful storm to hit the Caribbean islands of the Bahamas since records began has torn roofs from buildings and caused severe flooding. Hurricane Dorian, a category five storm, has sustained winds of up to 180mph (285km/h). A "life-threatening" storm surge of 23ft (7m) is

Myanmar's army will court-martial soldiers after a new finding in an inquiry into atrocities in Rakhine state, from which more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled a 2017 army-led campaign the United Nations says was executed with "genocidal intent". On Saturday, the website of

Hong Kong police storm metro system after protests International Desk Hong Kong police have violently tackled suspected protesters after thousands of people marched in the city in defiance of a ban. Images show police hitting people with batons and using pepper spray on a train in

The Bahamas is bracing for Hurricane Dorian, which strengthened into a category four storm over the weekend. The "extremely dangerous" storm was expected to hit the island chain on Sunday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, before making landfall on the US east coast.