13-01-2026 NEW YORK: Kristy Hallowell had just lost her job when her energy bill unexpectedly tripled to $1,800 a month. Unable to pay, her gas and electricity were cut off and she, her two children and her mother spent six months of last year relying on a generator to light …

12-01-2026 CARACAS/ WASHINGTON: US forces have seized another tanker in the Caribbean Sea, officials say, as the Trump administration continues its efforts to control exports of Venezuelan oil. The tanker, the Olina, is on multiple countries’ sanctions lists and the fifth vessel to be seized by the US in recent …

12-01-2026 DAMASCUS: The Syrian city of Aleppo once again became the site of fighting on Friday after Kurdish groups rejected government demands to abandon their positions. Syrian forces hit the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiya neighborhoods that have been held by Kurdish forces since the early days of the war that …

12-01-2026 JOHANNESBURG: China, Russia and Iran began a week of joint naval exercises in South Africa’s waters on Saturday in what the host country described as a BRICS Plus operation to “ensure the safety of shipping and maritime economic activities”. BRICS Plus is an expansion of a geopolitical bloc originally …

12-01-2026 Bureau Report NEW DELHI/ HOUSTON: India’s Reliance Industries, opens new tab is seeking US approval to resume purchases of Venezuelan crude, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, as the private refiner looks to secure supplies amid Western pressure on India to cut Russian oil imports. Reliance’s …

12-01-2026 BASTROP, TEXAS: Elon Musk has said critics of his social media site X are looking for “any excuse for censorship”, after its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok drew criticism over its use to create sexualized images of people without their knowledge or consent. Ofcom says it is conducting an …

12-01-2026 WASHINGTON/ TEHRAN: United States President Donald Trump says Iran is in “big trouble” and again warned he could order military strikes as videos showed antigovernment protests raging across the country and authorities blacked out the internet to restrain growing unrest. “Iran’s in big trouble. It looks to me that …

12-01-2026 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ DHAKA: On January 3, 2026, a single directive from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) quietly ended the Indian Premier League (IPL) season of Bangladesh’s only cricketer in the tournament, Mustafizur Rahman, before it could even begin. The Kolkata Knight …

11-01-2026 DAMASCUS: The last Kurdish forces present in Aleppo, along with a number of civilians, were transported out on buses after a ceasefire was reached with the Syrian government, the Syrian state news agency reported, with confirmation from a Kurdish commander. Fighting had raged in Syria’s largest city since Tuesday …

11-01-2026 GUATIRE: Venezuela released a number of imprisoned high-profile opposition figures, activists and journalists both citizens and foreigners, Thursday in what the government described as a gesture to “seek peace” less than a week after former President Nicolas Maduro was captured by US forces to face drug-trafficking charges. US President …