28-04-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ PORBANDAR: The Indian Coast Guard today intercepted a suspicious Pakistani boat that had nearly 86 kg of drugs worth millions of rupees. Acting on intelligence, the Coast Guard along with the Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), launched a crackdown …

28-04-2024 NEW YORK: Columbia University’s embattled president came under renewed pressure on Friday as a campus oversight panel sharply criticized her administration for clamping down on a pro-Palestinian protest at the Ivy League school. President Nemat Minouche Shafik has faced an outcry from many students, faculty and outside observers for …

28-04-2024 LONDON: British troops could be deployed on the ground in Gaza to help deliver aid via a new sea route, the media has learned. The US has said no American forces would go ashore and an unnamed “third party” would drive trucks along a floating causeway onto the beach. …

28-04-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: The second round of voting in India’s election is due to have closed, and attention now turns to the third round scheduled for May 7. There will be seven phases in all. Friday’s vote covered 166 million voters in 88 constituencies across 13 …

28-04-2024 JERUSALEM: An Israeli strike in Lebanon’s Beqaa region has killed two members of a Lebanese militant group that has fired rockets across the southern border at Israel, the group said on Friday. Israel’s military said in a statement on Friday that its air force “struck and eliminated Mosab Khalaf …

28-04-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ BENGALURU/ MATHURA: India held the second phase of the world’s biggest election on Friday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his rivals hurling accusations of religious discrimination and threats to democracy amid flagging voter turnout. Almost one billion people are eligible to vote …

28-04-2024 VICTORIA: A Canadian province will recriminalize the use of hard drugs in public, partly rolling back a landmark policy meant to help tackle a deadly opioid crisis. British Columbia’s (BC) decriminalization project began in January 2023 as a three-year pilot program but it has faced pushback over concerns around …

28-04-2024 RIYADH: The first grand opera to be produced in Saudi Arabia has had its opening performance in Riyadh, part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s massively ambitious plans to shift the kingdom into a new era, economically and socially. Zarqa Al Yamama is the story of a blue-eyed tribal …

28-04-2024 DAMASCUS/ DUBAI: A crude oil tanker has been damaged in a missile attack off the coast of Yemen, the latest strike to be carried out by the Houthis. The incident happened roughly 15 nautical miles south-west of the Yemeni city of Mocha. British maritime security agency UKMTO reported that …

28-04-2024 WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has said it will “rush” Patriot air defence missiles and artillery ammunition to Ukraine as part of a $6bn (£4.8bn) military aid. It’s the second package from Washington this week, following $1bn in more immediate aid announced on Wednesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier on …