16-07-2025 LONDON: The UK is to start processing Syrian asylum claims again, more than seven months after decisions were paused following the fall of the Assad regime. Asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle said the Home Office had “worked to lift the pause as soon as there was sufficient information to …

15-07-2025 DAMASCUS: Fighting between Bedouin tribes and local fighters in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida in southern Syria has killed 47 people. Sunday’s clashes are the first outbreak of deadly violence in the area since fighting between members of the Druze community and security forces killed dozens of people …

15-07-2025 GAZA STRIP: Israeli forces have continued to pound Gaza, striking a busy market and a water distribution point, killing at least 95 Palestinians, as the death toll from Israel’s war on the enclave passed the grim milestone of 58,000. The Israeli attack on the Gaza City market killed at …

15-07-2025 PRETORIA: South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has placed Police Minister Senzo Mchunu on an immediate “leave of absence” after allegations of links to organized crimes were made against him. In Sunday’s live televised speech to the nation, Ramaphosa also announced a judicial commission would probe the claims, which he …

15-07-2025 PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron has outlined plans for a big increase in defence spending, warning Europe’s liberty is facing a “greater threat” than at any time since the end of World War Two. In a speech to the armed forces in Paris, he said “we are living in …

15-07-2025 KHARTOUM: The Sudanese paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed the besieged city of el-Fasher on Friday in a battle that raged for seven hours, witnesses told the BBC. RSF fighters managed to capture a cattle market, a prison and a military base while broadcasting videos of themselves walking …

15-07-2025 BRUSSELS: The EU’s retaliatory tariffs on US exports have been delayed again, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced. The countermeasures, which were due to start on Tuesday, came in response to US President Donald Trump’s initial import taxes on steel and aluminium. The EU’s retaliation, which …

15-07-2025 TEHRAN: Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian suffered minor injuries in an Israeli air strike on a meeting of the Supreme National Security Council in Tehran on June 15, a senior Iranian official said. The assassination attempt targeted the heads of the three branches of government in an effort to overthrow …

14-07-2025 TAICHUNG: Taiwan’s military began deploying one of its newest and most precise strike weapons on Saturday as part of intensifying drills meant to showcase the island’s determination to resist any Chinese invasion. Two armoured trucks with HIMARS, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems were seen manoeuvring around the city of …

14-07-2025 JERUSALEM: A video released yesterday by Hamas of the Wednesday killing and attempted abduction of a soldier in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis appeared to contradict the Israeli army’s version of events. The Israel Defense Forces said earlier this week that several Hamas operatives had emerged from a tunnel and …