AFP, BEIJING: China launched two astronauts into space Monday, official media said, on a mission to its orbiting laboratory as the country works towards setting up its own space station. The Shenzhou-11 spacecraft blasted off early in the morning from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi…

AFP, MALAKAL: At least 56 rebels and four government troops were killed in heavy weekend clashes in northeastern South Sudan, in a worrying surge of violence in the world’s youngest nation. Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman Brigadier General Lul Ruai Koang said Monday that…

AFP, BANGKOK: A 96-year-old former general has become temporary regent after Thailand’s Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, in a surprise move, delayed…

AFP, DAMASCUS: Syrian security services chief Ali Mamluk met with Egyptian officials in his first public foreign visit in five years, state media in Damascus said on Monday. State news agency SANA said Mamluk met with Egyptian head of general intelligence Khaled Fawzy and other “high-level security…

AFP, ISLAMABAD: At least 27 people were killed and 50 others were wounded early Monday after a head-on collision between two passenger buses in central Pakistan, officials said. The two buses, carrying around 100 passengers, collided in the town of Khanpur, some 800 kilometres (497 miles) south of the…

AFP, SAO PAULO: At least 25 inmates died Sunday in clashes between two rival factions in a prison in far northern Brazil, the latest episode of violence shaking the country’s underfunded and overcrowded prison system.Seven of the dead were beheaded and six burned to death in fighting at a prison…

AFP, YANGON: Searchers have recovered 25 bodies from a ferry that sank in central Myanmar and expect to find scores more corpses as workers begin raising the boat from the riverbed, officials said Monday.A total of 154 people have been rescued since the boat sank early Saturday on the Chindwin River…