17-02-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ AMBALA: Farmers protesting in India this week are using a homemade arsenal to counter the state-of-the-art weaponry of the security forces trying to disperse them: they’re flying kites to ensnare police drones carrying tear gas canisters. For the past two days, thousands of …

17-02-2024 LONDON: Voters went to the polls on Thursday for two new British lawmakers, with the opposition Labour Party expected to win parliamentary seats in central and southwestern England in yet another blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives. The Conservatives have done little to win over voters in Wellingborough …

17-02-2024 MOSCOW/ WASHINGTON: The Kremlin dismissed on Thursday a warning by the United States about Moscow’s new nuclear capabilities in space, calling it a “malicious fabrication” and a trick by the White House aimed at getting US lawmakers to approve more money to counter Russia. The United States has told …

17-02-2024 THE HAGUE/ JERUSALEM: Israel has asked the International Court of Justice to dismiss a request by South Africa to issue additional emergency measures because of Israel’s plan to extend its offensive in Gaza into the city of Rafah. In documents released on Thursday by the ICJ, also known as …

17-02-2024 MOSCOW: Russian families must produce at least two children for the sake of the nation’s ethnic survival, and three or more if it is to develop and thrive, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Russia has suffered heavy but undisclosed casualties since launching its war in Ukraine nearly two …

16-02-2024 NEW YORK/ GAZA CITY: Seventy-two of the 99 journalists martyred worldwide in 2023 were Palestinians reporting on Israel’s war on Gaza, making those 12 months the deadliest for the media in almost a decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Killings of reporters would have dropped globally …

16-02-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies CANBERRA/ MELBOURNE: Australia’s parliament has passed a motion calling on the US and UK to release Julian Assange, ahead of a crucial legal hearing. Assange will appear in front of the UK’s High Court next week for his final appeal against US extradition. The Australian …

16-02-2024 WELLINGTON/ OTTAWA/ JERUSALEM: World leaders are ratcheting up pressure on Israel to abandon its plans for a ground offensive in Rafah as an exodus from the southern Gaza city once declared a “safe zone” which shelters more than half the enclave’s population is under way. As Israel stepped up …

16-02-2024 KYIV/ WASHINGTON/ MOSCOW: Ukraine changed its military leadership and announced a change of tactics in the past week, as a vote in the US Senate brought renewed hope of US aid for the embattled country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed ground forces Commander Oleksandr Syrskii as commander-in-chief of the …

16-02-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court on Thursday scrapped a seven-year-old election funding system that allows individuals and companies to make unlimited and anonymous donations to political parties, calling it “unconstitutional”. The decision is seen as a setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, …