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Afghanistan's defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had killed 28 fighters and wounded 32 in the eastern province of Nuristan after a group it said included Islamic State militants crossed the border from Pakistan. In a statement posted on X, the Taliban-run defence ministry confirmed it had engaged the opposing group in clashes on Sunday. It alleged that most of the fighters were former Afghan government security personnel recruited by Pakistan's intelligence services with promises of asylum and well-paid employment in foreign countries. The ministry claimed the fighters included ISIL (ISIS) fighters supported by Pakistani militias. Pakistan's Denial Pakistan's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting rejected the...

Police in Arunachal Pradesh's Namsai district have traced or rescued 51 people, including 47 children, in connection with an alleged child trafficking network, officials said on Sunday. The number marks a significant jump from the 19 children rescued when the case was first cracked in August. The case, registered at Namsai Police Station on August 17, 2026, followed a formal complaint by the District Child Welfare Committee over the alleged illegal procurement, trafficking and placement of children belonging to economically vulnerable families. According to Namsai Superintendent of Police Sange Thinley, sustained investigation, field verification and coordinated multi-district and inter-state operations expanded the rescue count from...

France's far right has won enough seats in the country's indirect Senate elections to form its own parliamentary caucus for the first time, party leaders said on Sunday, clearing the 10-seat threshold in the upper chamber. Marine Le Pen, the National Rally leader and presidential candidate, said the results of the September 27 election had surpassed expectations. “The results have exceeded our expectations,” Le Pen wrote in a post on X, hailing a breakthrough in a chamber where the far right had never previously secured formal group status. Of the 348 seats in the Senate, 178 were up for grabs in Sunday's indirect ballot, in which senators are elected by lawmakers in the National Assembly and local elected representatives. The party...

The Tamil Nadu government led by actor-politician Vijay has rolled back its controversial decision to exempt the Public (Law and Order) Department from the Right to Information Act, 2005 — less than a week after the exemption order was issued. The reversal was announced on Saturday, September 27, 2026, following sharp criticism from opposition leaders and civil liberties advocates who warned that shielding law and order records from public scrutiny would set a dangerous precedent. What the revoked order said The withdrawn order was Government Order Ms. No. 57, issued by the Human Resources Management (R) Department on September 21, 2026. It classified the Public (Law and Order) Department as an "Intelligence and Security...

Russia has backed India's candidature for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov telling the UN General Assembly that any reform of the body must broaden representation of Asia, Africa and Latin America — while ruling out additional seats for Germany and Japan. Speaking at the 81st session of the General Assembly in New York on Saturday, Lavrov said that UN Security Council reform "cannot involve any additional seats being allocated to Western countries, especially to Germany and Japan," describing them as being on a path of militarism and revanchism. He added: "We are in favour of broadening the representation of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. We support Brazil's and India's...

An avalanche struck the base camp of Nepal's Himlung Himal early on Sunday morning, burying several tents and leaving ten expedition staff unaccounted for, expedition organisers have confirmed. The avalanche hit the camp on the 7,126-metre mountain in the Manang district of the Nar Phu region in the early hours. Expedition Organisers Association of Nepal (EOAN) vice-president Rishi Bhandari said the ten unaccounted people were all staff of two expedition companies — eight with Himalayan Holidays Nepal and two with Imagine Nepal. The foreign group scheduled to arrive at the base camp on October 1 has been asked to hold back. Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, director of Imagine Nepal, confirmed that two of the company's kitchen staff were among...

Fifty-six people have been killed in thunderstorms and rain-related incidents across Uttar Pradesh since Friday, September 25, officials said, after an intense three-day wet spell dumped rainfall far above normal levels and left at least eight districts facing a flood-like situation. The state received 45.1 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours ending Sunday, September 27, against a normal of just 1.8 mm, according to official data. AFP reported that between Friday and Sunday, the state recorded 66.5 mm of rain, compared with a seasonal average of 7.6 mm for the period — rainfall the Relief Commissioner's office described as "exceptionally heavy." The highest number of deaths during the 60-hour period was reported from Sitapur, followed by...

North Korea has conducted first-of-their-kind military exercises this month combining attack drones, nuclear-capable missiles, rockets and long-range artillery into integrated "swarm" attacks, The Wall Street Journal reported on September 27, citing the country's state media. According to the report, the drills were described by North Korean state media as producing concentrated fire meant to decimate enemy forces. The exercises mark the first time Pyongyang has practised such integrated swarm tactics, which analysts say could sharply complicate air-defence planning in the region. A busy fortnight of tests The swarm drills cap a busy fortnight for North Korea's weapons programmes. On September 20, the country fired a pair of...

Iceland's foreign minister used her Saturday address to the UN General Assembly to turn Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's own words against him, while Canada's foreign minister told delegates her country could no longer afford to depend so heavily on any single partner. A day after Netanyahu called delegates who walked out during his speech "moral cowards," Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir offered her own definition from the same podium. Speaking about Gaza, she said the real moral cowards were leaders who refuse to negotiate a just and lasting peace, those who block humanitarian aid for people in desperate need, and those who repeatedly defy international law. Her remarks landed as one of the sharpest rhetorical answers to...

A powerful nor'easter is battering the Jersey Shore for a second consecutive day, bringing widespread coastal flooding that is closing streets and threatening buildings, the National Weather Service has warned. The weather service issued a high wind warning for coastal Monmouth and Ocean counties until noon on Sunday, with sustained winds of up to 40 mph and gusts as high as 60 mph before conditions begin to ease in the afternoon. High tide brings the biggest danger The worst impacts were expected around high tide at about 9 a.m., with the potential for major coastal flooding along the back bays, beach erosion and dunes being breached. "The issue is it didn't really have anything to help it move off to the northeast as we often see...

Buying an air conditioner, television or washing machine this festive season is about to get more expensive. Leading appliance and consumer electronics makers are planning price increases of up to 8 per cent from October 1, as rising commodity and freight costs continue to squeeze their margins, PTI has reported. Third hike this year This will be the industry's third round of price increases in 2026. Manufacturers say sustained rises in copper, aluminium, steel and crude-linked materials, along with higher freight charges and currency volatility tied to the West Asia crisis, have made further price revisions unavoidable. Air-conditioner prices are expected to rise by around 5 to 8 per cent, while some companies are raising washing...

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he expects more talks with Iran to occur this week, even as he publicly rejected Tehran's latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as "unacceptable." Speaking to Axios, Trump said of the Iranian side: "They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make. It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago. They overplayed their hand." Araghchi awaits "definitive" US response Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is still waiting for a "definitive" American response to its latest proposal, saying nothing has been conveyed to Iran through mediators so far. Under the plan, Iran would open the critical waterway within a week and resume nuclear talks if the...

The Indian Coast Guard has stepped up maritime cooperation with its Quad partners, with ICG Ship Shaunak sailing from Chennai for Perth on Friday as part of the Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission. Six officers from the four Quad countries have embarked on the vessel as "Sea Riders" for the mission — two each from India and Japan, and one each from Australia and the United States. They will take part in shipboard activities and professional exchanges aimed at improving interoperability, coordination and mutual understanding among the four maritime forces. A practical step for the Indo-Pacific The mission is in line with the Quad Foreign Ministers' Joint Statement of May 26, 2026, which reiterated the four countries' commitment to a...

China publicly pushed back against the United States during its address to the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, defending the sovereignty of Gulf nations and demanding an end to the blockade of Cuba, Reuters reported. Delivering Beijing's speech, Vice President Han Zheng did not name the United States directly, referring instead to "the relevant country." But his targets were unmistakable. "China holds that the sovereignty and security of countries in the Middle East, including the Gulf, should be respected," Han said, adding that major countries carry "special responsibilities for safeguarding international peace and security" and should lead in "upholding rule of law, and doing what's right." Cuba blockade in focus On...

The clock is running out for banking aspirants across India. The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) will close online applications for the RRB 2026 recruitment — officially CRP RRBs-XV — today, September 27, 2026. The recruitment covers more than 13,700 vacancies for Office Assistant (Clerk), Officer Scale-I (Probationary Officer), and Officer Scale-II and III (specialist officer) posts in regional rural banks. Career Power puts the total at 13,757 posts, while a revised count of 13,745 followed the addition of 39 more Office Assistant vacancies — candidates should go by the official notification at ibps.in for the final tally. The deadline matters because it was extended: applications were originally due to close on...

There has been outrage in Germany after the small eastern town of Heidenau voted to ban the installation of new Stolpersteine — the brass "stumbling block" memorials that mark the last known homes or workplaces of victims of Nazi persecution. On Thursday, Heidenau's city council, in Saxony near Dresden, backed a motion jointly proposed by the local branches of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The council voted to stop further plaques being installed in public streets and instead concentrate future commemoration at a memorial site at the town's northern cemetery. The motion argued that many citizens regarded the cobblestone-shaped memorials as inappropriate because they...

British police have declared a major incident and evacuated villagers' homes near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire after several men were arrested on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act, in a security scare at a base used by the United States Air Force. Gloucestershire Police said the arrests were made on the morning of Sunday, September 27, in the Whelford area near the base. A number of properties were evacuated, with residents moved to a nearby leisure centre while a cordon was put in place. A large emergency services presence was reported in the area, including a Hazardous Area Response Team, and the Army's specialist explosive ordnance disposal team was examining a number of vehicles. A spokesperson for Gloucestershire...

The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security agency announced on Sunday that they have killed Saher Nidal Latfi Saqr, the terrorist operative identified as the motorcycle driver who abducted Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or from the Nova music festival during the October 7, 2023 massacre. The strike took place on Friday in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza. The operation was carried out together with the Gideon Unit (Unit 33) of the Israel Police's Lahav 433. A face from one of the attack's defining images Footage of Argamani being taken away on the back of a motorcycle — crying and screaming — became one of the most widely circulated and recognizable symbols of the October 7 assault. Argamani was held in Gaza for eight months...

ABUJA — Nearly 24 years after the International Court of Justice settled the land and maritime boundary dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon, the physical demarcation of their shared border is finally approaching completion, Nigeria's boundary commission chief said on Sunday. Adamu Adaji, Director-General of the National Boundary Commission, said the remaining work is concentrated in the Adamawa sector, where more than 260 boundary pillars still need to be installed. "We are currently placing pillars to make the boundary visible in those sectors," Adaji said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria. "As soon as that is completed, in about two or three months, we expect to finish the demarcation of the Nigeria–Cameroon...

Saudi Aramco has hired investment bank Evercore to advise on a restructuring that would create a standalone gas division — a move that could open the door to a future listing of the unit valued at more than $100 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. According to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter, Boston Consulting Group has also advised Aramco on splitting off its gas operations in an internal effort dubbed Project Gamma, aimed at unlocking more value from the business. Why It Matters Reuters reported earlier in the week that the oil giant plans to reorganize its business around a new gas division, which would give Aramco a focused platform to develop its domestic natural gas resources and build a...