A Chinese court has jailed for 17 years a businessman who ran a 100 billion yuan pyramid scheme and organised a rare street protest in Beijing against police investigations into his activities, state media reported.

Eleven people have died after eating rice that had likely been contaminated with a toxic substance at a Hindu temple ceremony, a health official said Saturday.

At least 20 people died when a truck carrying mourners returning from a funeral ritual plunged around 400 metres onto a river bank in central Nepal, police said Saturday.

UN special envoy Martin Griffiths yesterday called for the urgent creation of a strong monitoring mechanism in war-ravaged Yemen, one day after fighting parties agreed to a ceasefire at a vital port.

A Palestinian teenager was shot dead yesterday as Israeli forces carried out fresh raids in the occupied West Bank, the health ministry said, as troops searched for a Palestinian who killed two soldiers a day earlier.

The Punjab government has said that it has sent former prime minister Nawaz Sharif a notice to pay dues amounting to Rs10mn after his friends used the Punjab House in the federal capital.

US President Donald Trump knew he was doing wrong when he directed hush money to be paid to two women during the 2016 election, his former lawyer and fixer has said.

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, considered one of President Donald Trump’s top candidates for White House chief of staff, abruptly withdrew from consideration yesterday, saying that now is not the right time for him to take the job.

At the Tanjai Cheena school in northwest Pakistan, students squeeze into makeshift classrooms where plastic tarps serve as walls and electricity is sparse, as a surging population overstretches the country’s fragile education system.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) do not give second chances, but they gave it to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), re-electing the party in the general elections on July 25.

Sri Lanka’s strongman leader Mahinda Rajapakse will step down today from his disputed position of premier, his son said yesterday, signalling an end to the seven-week long power-struggle that threatened to shut the government.

Chilean dockworkers take part in a protest against the port operator TPS (South Pacific Terminal) to demand that temporary workers be included in collective bargaining in Valparaiso, Chile, yesterday.