05-07-2025 KOLKATA, NEW DELHI/ JOYPURHAT, DHAKA: Under the mild afternoon sun, 45-year-old Safiruddin sits outside his incomplete brick-walled house in Baiguni village of Kalai Upazila in Bangladesh, nursing a dull ache in his side. In the summer of 2024, he sold his kidney in India for 3.5 lakh taka ($2,900), …

05-07-2025 MOSCOW/ KABUL: Russia has become the first country to formally recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan, sparking outrage from opposition figures. The decision marks a major milestone for the Taliban almost four years after they swept into Kabul and took power. Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said he hoped …

05-07-2025 WASHHINGTON/ MOSCOW: President Donald Trump said he “didn’t make any progress” toward a potential ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war when he spoke by phone Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “No, I didn’t make any progress with him today at all,” Trump told reporters when asked about his call …

04-07-2025 UNITED NATIONS/ WEST BANK: A United Nations expert has called on dozens of multinational companies to stop doing business with Israel, warning them they risk being complicit in war crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Francesca Albanese, presenting her report to the UN human rights council, described …

04-07-2025 WASHINGTON/ NEW DELHI: India and America trade negotiators were pushing on Wednesday to try to land a tariff-reducing deal ahead of President Donald Trump’s July 9 negotiating deadline but disagreements over US dairy and agriculture remained unresolved, sources familiar with the talks said. The push comes as Trump announced …

04-07-2025 DHARAMSHALA: The Dalai Lama has confirmed that he will have a successor chosen in accordance with “past tradition”, ending years of speculation about the centuries-old office. In a video message on Wednesday, just days before his 90th birthday, the Tibetan spiritual leader said the Gaden Phodrang Foundation, which he …

04-07-2025 GAZA STRIP: A Hamas-run court in Gaza has ordered Yasser Abu Shabab, the leader of a criminal group allegedly backed by Israel, to surrender himself for trial. The Revolutionary Court of the Military Judiciary Authority in Gaza gave the 35-year-old head of the Popular Forces group, which stands accused …

04-07-2025 CAIRO: A DNA bone test on a man who lived 4,500 years ago in the Nile Valley has shed new light on the rise of the Ancient Egyptian civilization. An analysis of his skeleton shows he was 60 years old and possibly worked as a potter, but also that …

04-07-2025 ATHENS: A major wildfire in Greece continues to burn out of control in eastern Crete, after breaking out on Wednesday afternoon in rugged forested terrain near the municipality of Ierapetra. Fanned by gale-force winds reaching up to eight on the Beaufort scale, the flames have spread rapidly southward, threatening …

04-07-2025 GAZA STRIP: The director of Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital has been killed in an Israeli air strike on his home in Gaza City along with several family members, the Hamas-run health ministry has said. The ministry said Dr Marwan Sultan had a long career in medicine and condemned “this heinous …