31-03-2024 BEIJING/ CANBERRA: China has announced it will remove significant tariffs on Australian wine in another key sign of improving relations between the two countries. Beijing imposed taxes of more than 200% in 2020 amid a string of economic blows to Australian exports. That year Beijing targeted Australian coal, barley, …

31-03-2024 DAMASCUS/ BEIRUT: Israel carried out its deadliest strikes in months on northern Syria’s Aleppo province early on Friday and said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, stepping up its campaign against Iran’s proxies in parallel with its war in Gaza. Israel has ramped up airstrikes in Syria …

31-03-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: India’s main opposition party said on Friday it had been asked to pay an additional 18.2 billion rupees ($218 million) in taxes, which it called an attempt by the tax department to financially cripple it weeks before a national parliamentary election. Calling …

31-03-2024 GAZA CITY: One thousand miles east of Gaza, large blocks of aid are being loaded on to a US military transport plane, its crew silhouetted by the morning sun glancing over the desert landscape around Qatar’s al-Udeid airbase. They push 80 crates into the plane’s cavernous interior, each canvas-wrapped …

31-03-2024 VICTORIA: British Columbia (BC) became the first province in Canada to decriminalize the use of hard drugs as part of its efforts to tackle a deadly opioids crisis last year but the policy is facing pushback, leaving its future uncertain. Every Monday, former Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart would receive …

31-03-2024 PORT-AU-PRINCE: One of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders says he would consider laying down weapons if armed groups were allowed to take part in talks to establish a new government. Groups led by Jimmy Cherizier, also known as Barbecue, are in control of most of the capital Port-au-Prince. He …

31-03-2024 MEXICO CITY: A woman suspected of murdering an eight-year-old girl in southern Mexico was beaten to death after a mob formed from protests sparked by the killing. Violent protests began after the body of Camila Gómez was found by a road near the city of Taxco on Thursday. Footage …

30-03-2024 THE HAGUE/ GAZA CITY: The UN’s top court has ordered Israel to enable the unhindered flow of aid into Gaza in order to avert a famine. In a unanimous decision, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel had to act “without delay” to allow the “provision… of urgently …

30-03-2024 DAMASCUS: An Israeli airstrike on Syria’s Aleppo province has killed at least 36 Syrian soldiers in an area near Hezbollah weapons depots, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said. “At least 36 soldiers were killed and dozens wounded,” said the group, which has an extensive network of …

30-03-2024 PARIS: France has moved a step closer to banning discrimination in the workplace against hairstyles. A bill has been approved in the National Assembly and will now be debated in the Senate. The law will bar employers from requiring hair to be straightened and for afros, dreadlocks and braids …