17-02-2025 SYDNEY: Australia will ban foreign investors from buying existing homes in the country for two years, its government said on Sunday, in an effort to boost under-pressure housing supply. “We’re banning foreign purchases of established dwellings from April 1, 2025, until March 31 2027,” treasurer Jim Chalmers said in …

17-02-2025 JERUSALEM/ WASHINGTON: Israel has received a shipment of heavy MK-84 bombs from the United States, after US President Donald Trump lifted a block imposed on the export of the munitions by the administration of predecessor Joe Biden, the defence ministry said on Sunday. The MK-84 is an unguided 2,000 …

17-02-2025 KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for the creation of an “army of Europe” amid rising concern the US may no longer come to the continent’s aid. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, he said US Vice-President JD Vance had made it clear the old relationship between Europe …

17-02-2025 VIENNA: A stabbing in Austria that killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded five others was an Islamist attack, Austrian officials have said. The attack took place on Saturday at Villach, a town near the border with Italy and Slovenia. A 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker was detained at the scene. …

17-02-2025 KINSHASA: Chaotic scenes have been unfolding in Bukavu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as the M23 rebel group continues its offensive in the region. On Saturday there were reports of sporadic gunfire and widespread looting in the city, including at a World Food Program depot, with residents sheltering …

17-02-2025 DAMASCUS: Mouldy half-finished food on bunk beds, discarded military uniforms and abandoned weapons, these are the remnants of an abrupt retreat from this base that once belonged to Iran and its affiliated groups in Syria. The scene tells a story of panic. The forces stationed here fled with little …

16-02-2025 BEIJING: China considers Germany and the European Union as a whole as strategic partners, and it wants stronger cooperation with them in the spirit of free trade and multilateralism, the Chinese foreign minister told the German chancellor on Saturday. Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Chancellor Olaf Scholz China was …

16-02-2025 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: On Sunday morning, the New Delhi Railway Station in India’s capital looked much like it always does; bustling, with its many platforms full of eager, impatient passengers waiting to catch their trains but on Saturday night, a deadly crush reportedly caused by overcrowding …

16-02-2025 BAMAKO: More than 40 people, mostly women, were killed after an illegal gold mine collapsed in Mali on Saturday. The collapse took place near Kenieba, in Mali’s western, gold-rich Kayes region. The victims had climbed into open-pit areas left by industrial miners to look for scraps of gold when …

16-02-2025 KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for the creation of an “army of Europe” to guard against Russia as he suggested the US may no longer come to the continent’s aid. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, he also said that Ukraine would “never accept deals made behind …