05-03-2023 TEHRAN: The head of the global nuclear watchdog is holding talks in Tehran in an effort to reach an understanding with Iran on nuclear safeguard issues that could also affect the country’s 2015 nuclear deal, which collapsed in 2018. Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy …

05-03-2023 MANILA: A provincial governor in the central Philippines and five others have been shot dead by unknown gunmen in the latest attack against local politicians. Police said six suspects carrying rifles and dressed in uniforms similar to those worn by the armed services entered the governor’s home in Pamplona …

04-03-2023 DAMASCUS/ IDLIB: Abdel Moneim Hamdo rushed his two children, one a toddler, to a hospital in the northwest Syrian city of Idlib after they complained of severe stomach aches that did not seem to resolve. “I took my son and daughter to hospital to check whether they’d contracted cholera,” …

04-03-2023 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: At least six terrorists including commanders were killed and 15 others wounded Thursday in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack targeting the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Afghanistan’s Khost province. According to sources, the killed militants were identified as Abdul Manan, Alam …

04-03-2023 PHNOM PENH: Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha has been sentenced to 27 years under house arrest after being found guilty of treason, ending a three-year trial drawn out by COVID-19 and delays to allow government lawyers to find new evidence of the politician’s alleged crimes. The judge at the …

04-03-2023 KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian court acquitted jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak of a corruption charge on Friday but he will continue to serve a 12-year prison term from another case. High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said state prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove their case …

04-03-2023 BUENOS AIRES: Gunmen threatened football superstar Lionel Messi in a written message left when they opened fire at a supermarket owned by his in-laws in Argentina, police said. Nobody was injured in the attack on Thursday, and it was unclear why assailants would target Messi or the Unico supermarket …

04-03-2023 DUBAI/ WASHINGTON: A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule has arrived safely at the International Space Station (ISS), carrying two US astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a United Arab Emirates astronaut to begin a six-month science mission. The autonomously flying spacecraft dubbed Endeavour docked at the space station shortly after 06:40 …

04-03-2023 SEOL: South Korea and the United States will press ahead with large-scale military drills later this month despite North Korea threatening to take “unprecedentedly” strong action against such exercises. The South Korean and US militaries will conduct military exercises from March 13 to 23 to strengthen their combined defensive …

04-03-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies CANBERRA/ MELBOURNE: China leads the world in 37 out of 44 critical technologies, with Western democracies falling behind in the race for scientific and research breakthroughs, a report by an Australian think tank has found. China is in a position to become the world’s top …