South African police were investigating the deaths of at least 21 people at a nightclub in the coastal town of East London early Sunday and authorities said most of the victims were minors as young as 13 years old.

Colombo: A 63-year-old truck driver has died in Sri Lanka after standing for five days in a queue at a filling station in the country's Western Province, the 10th death reported due to prolonged waiting for fuel procurement in the debt-ridden island nation grappling with the worst economic crisis since its independence, according to a media report on Thursday.

As the World Health Organisation convenes its emergency committee Thursday to consider if the spiraling outbreak of monkeypox warrants being declared a global emergency, some experts say WHO's decision to act only after the disease spilled into the West could entrench the grotesque inequities that arose between rich and poor countries during the coronavirus pandemic.

Kabul: A powerful earthquake struck a rural, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing 1,000 people and injuring 1,500 more in one of the deadliest quakes in decades, the state-run news agency reported. Officials warned that the already grim toll may still rise.

Afghanistan's state-run news agency says at least 255 people have killed in an earthquake that struck the country's eastern Paktika province.

New Delhi: Senior diplomat Ruchira Kamboj was on Tuesday appointed India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.

Male: A mob on Tuesday temporarily disrupted an event related to the International Day of Yoga at a football stadium here in the Maldivian capital which was attended by top diplomats and members of the general public, attacking some of the participants and destroying property.

Colombo: Crisis-hit Sri Lankan government has announced a shut-down of public sector offices from next week, beginning Monday, due to severe fuel shortages as the island nation continues to reel under its worst economic crisis.