The total death toll from the earthquakes that struck southwest Turkey and northern Syria on Monday has climbed to above 20,000, a tally that is expected to rise as crews comb the rubble of thousands of toppled buildings. Turkey’s disaster agency raised the country’s confirmed death toll on Thursday night to 17,406, while the number of lives lost in neighbouring Syria stood …

Search and rescue operations in southern Turkey and northern Syria have entered their third day as the death toll surpassed 17000  amid a warning from the World Health Organization that time was running out to save those still trapped under earthquake-toppled buildings. Those efforts – buoyed by an array of international pledges to provide engineers, emergency responders and search dogs – …

The death toll from the Turkey-Syria earthquakes has passed 17,000. At least 14,000 people have died in Turkey, according to the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while at least 3,162 have been killed in Syria. The first UN aid convoy has reached rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey. Hopes of finding survivors are quickly fading and residents of southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria …

Foreign and Expatriates Ministry on Tuesday refuted attempts of US officials to mislead the world public opinion on the economic sanctions imposed on the Syrian people, claiming that there is nothing that prevents the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria. “The US administration’s officials, among them the Regional Spokesperson of the US State Department, Samuel Werberg, and the US permanent …

Head of the Czechoslovakian Institute of International Relations, Jaromir Schlapata, called on the international community to unite and remove the unilateral coercive measures imposed on Syria as soon as possible and to provide the necessary aid in response to the devastating earthquake with no politicisation. Moreover, Schlapata strongly condemned the inaction by the International Community and international organisations, namely the …

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in Lebanon expressed its deep sympathy and solidarity with the brotherly Syrian Arab Republic regarding the catastrophe caused by the huge earthquake that hit Syria on Monday dawn, claiming the lives of hundreds of victims and a large number of injured, in addition to the collapse and cracking of hundreds of residential buildings. In …

Head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), Eng. Khaled Hboubati, has appealed to lift the siege and economic sanctions imposed on Syria to face the repercussions of the devastating earthquake. “We need heavy equipment, ambulances and firefighting vehicles to continue to rescue and remove the rubble, and this entails lifting sanctions on Syria as soon as possible,” Hboubati said …

The US military has shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean after it drifted off the East Coast. The order was given by President Joe Biden and came after he earlier told media that Washington would “take care of” the surveillance device. Media are reporting that recovery efforts are underway to collect the remnants of the …

Health will be the main priority for federal, state and territory leaders as the prime minister plans to overhaul Australia’s ailing Medicare system. Anthony Albanese met with premiers and chief ministers for the first national cabinet meeting of the year which he described as collegial and collaborative. During the meeting, leaders discussed the findings of a review by the Medicare …

The US has rejected China’s excuse for a ‘spy’ balloon that was tracked flying across America, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed an upcoming trip to Beijing. In the first admission the device was connected to China, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson expressed “regret” at the “unintended entry of the airship into US airspace”. The ministry claimed the balloon was …