16-03-2023 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies DUBAI/ KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Emirati authorities on Wednesday of arbitrarily detaining for over 15 months as many as 2,700 Afghan evacuees who have not qualified for resettlement elsewhere. Many of the Afghans in Emirates Humanitarian City are …

16-03-2023 COLOMBO: Thousands of workers at hospitals, schools and railways across Sri Lanka have gone on strike to protest against high costs of living, including increased taxes imposed as a precondition for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, amid the country’s worst financial crisis in decades. Schools on Wednesday cancelled …

16-03-2023 LILONGWE/ MAPUTO/ ANTANARIVO: Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit the coast of Southern Africa for a second time over the weekend, bringing its total death toll to more than 220 people in Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar. The month-long storm has broken at least one record and could break two more, meteorologists …

16-03-2023 MOSCOW/ WASHINGTON: The encounter between Russian jets and a US drone, which resulted in the drone crashing into the Black Sea, appears to be the most significant publicly acknowledged US-Russia confrontation since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago. As such, it raises a lot of …

15-03-2023 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report LAHORE/ ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI: Supporters of Pakistan’s main opposition leader Imran Khan have clashed with police outside his home as officers try to arrest him. Police fired tear gas shells to disperse the supporters, who threw stones and bricks. There is a tense situation …

15-03-2023 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court has rejected a plea seeking more compensation for victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster. The court said the issue could not be “raked up three decades after the settlement”. Thousands of people died after a leak from Union Carbide’s plant in …

15-03-2023 TOKYO: A celebrity gossip YouTuber turned MP will become Japan’s first lawmaker to be kicked out of parliament without ever actually entering it. Yoshikazu Higashitani was expelled on Tuesday by his Senate colleagues for never coming to work. He has not attended a single day of parliament sessions since …

15-03-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ MOSCOW: Russia continues to be the largest defence supplier to India, even though its share fell from 62% to 45% between 2017 and 2022, a report says. The findings come amid Delhi’s push to diversify its arms imports portfolio and boost its domestic …

15-03-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies CANBERRA/ LONDON/ WASHINGTON: The US, UK and Australia have unveiled details of their plan to create a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, aimed at countering China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region. Under the Aukus pact Australia is to get its first nuclear-powered subs at least …

TEHRAN/ RIYADH: Since becoming Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi has promised to improve Tehran’s relations with its neighbors. Last week’s agreement with Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic relations, signed in Beijing, is more real evidence of those attempts bearing fruit, after a recent warming of relations with Kuwait and the United …