DAMASCUS, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-led coalition air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria has killed thousands of civilians since they entered the course of Syrian war four years ago, a war monitor reported on Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll of civilians is part of a total of 12,000 rebels and ultra-radical militants killed by the U.S.-led strikes.

New Delhi, Sep 24; PTI: Petrol Friday crossed the Rs 90-mark in Mumbai as a dip in the value of rupee and rise in international oil prices pushed rates across the country to new all-time high.

Petrol prices were hiked by 11 paise per litre and diesel by 5 paise, according to price notification of state-owned oil firms.

The hike pushed petrol price in Delhi to Rs 82.72 per litre and diesel to Rs 74.02.

Beijing, Sep 24 (AFP) China must come clean about the fate of an estimated one million minority Muslims swept up in a "massive crackdown" in far western region of Xinjiang, Amnesty International said in a new report Monday.

Beijing has ramped up restrictions on Muslim minorities to combat what it calls Islamic extremism and separatist elements in the far western province.

But critics say the drive risks fuelling resentment towards Beijing and further inflaming separatist sentiment.

Washington, Sep 24; PTI: India's reluctance to hold talks with Pakistan will not stop Islamabad from closing doors on its efforts to promote peace in the region, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said, days after New Delhi cancelled the foreign minister-level meeting in New York.

Addressing a news conference at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington on Sunday, Qureshi said India used incidents that happened in July to cancel peace talks that it agreed to in September.

New Delhi Sep 22 (PTI) A Delhi court on Saturday discharged Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, AAP MLAs Amanatullah and Sanjeev Jha and others in a case related to a protest held by them outside the Tihar jail in 2014.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal granted relief to the accused saying there was a delay of four years in filing the charge sheet against the accused without any valid reason.

New Delhi, Sep 24; PTI: A delegation of senior Congress leaders met the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) on Monday and demanded registration of a case in alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal.

The meeting comes days after a Congress delegation met the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and urged the apex auditor to prepare a report on the alleged irregularities in the deal and present it in Parliament.

Mumbai, Sep 24; PTI: A former municipal councillor, a city-based NGO and an advocate have jointly approached the Bombay High Court challenging provisions of an ordinance that makes the practice of instant triple talaq a punishable offence.

President Ram Nath Kovind had last Wednesday signed the ordinance, according to which giving instant triple talaq has been made illegal and void, and will attract a jail term of three years for the husband.

Hong Kong, Sep 24 (AFP) Hong Kong banned a political party which promotes independence on Monday, a first since the city was handed back to China by Britain 21 years ago as Beijing ups pressure on any challenges to its sovereignty.

Semi-autonomous Hong Kong enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland including freedom of expression but the space for political dissent is shrinking in the face of an increasingly assertive China under President Xi Jinping.

New Delhi, Sep 24 (PTI) Seeking to calm the nerves of worried investors, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Monday that the government would take all measures to ensure adequate liquidity for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and mutual funds.

The minister's remarks come in the wake of stock markets witnessing sudden and stiff fall in intra-day trade on Friday over concerns of liquidity crisis being faced by some of the NBFCs.

BANGKOK; 24 Sep 2018; (AP) — Shares have fallen in Europe and Asia after China reportedly rebuffed a plan for talks with the U.S. on resolving their dispute over trade and technology.

KEEPING SCORE: Germany’s DAX fell 0.4 percent to 12,382.50 and the CAC 40 in France lost 0.3 percent to 5,479.86. The FTSE 100 in Britain lost 0.2 percent to 7,472.33. The futures contracts for the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 both fell 0.2 percent, auguring a slow start on Wall Street.

Kolkata, Sep 24; PTI: The All India Minority Forum moved Monday a PIL before the Calcutta High Court seeking direction to the BJP to withdraw its West Bengal bandh call on Wednesday to protest the killing of two students in North Dinajpur district.

Trinamool Congress MP Idris Ali, a practising lawyer, prayed before a division bench presided by Chief Justice J Bhattacharya for an injunction restraining the BJP from giving effect to the bandh call.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Brunei has the second least polluted urban areas in the world, according to study by the World Health Organization (WHO) measuring ambient air pollution in 1,622 locations across 92 countries.

Australia has the least polluted urban areas, followed by Brunei and New Zealand. Estonia is Europe's top performing nation, followed by Finland and Iceland, said local daily the Borneo Bulletin on Monday, quoting the WHO study.