19-04-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: Apple has opened its first flagship store in India in a much-anticipated launch that highlights the company’s growing aspirations to expand in the country it also hopes to turn into a potential manufacturing hub. The company’s CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday posed …

19-04-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies UNITED NATIONS/ KABUL: Weak signs of recovery in Afghanistan’s economy are at risk of being undone by Taliban restrictions on women working for NGOs, the UN says. Donations to the UN are under threat of falling sharply because of the ban on Afghan women working …

19-04-2023 SANTIAGO: Police in Latin America have seized cocaine and other drugs worth $5bn (£4bn) in an operation lasting three weeks and spanning 15 countries. They also seized more than 8,000 illicit firearms and carried out almost 15,000 arrests. Police forces from Mexico in the north to Argentina in the …

19-04-2023 DOHA: Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will restore diplomatic ties and reopen embassies soon, more than two years since the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt lifted a blockade on Qatar, ending a rift in diplomatic relations that began in 2017, according to Qatar’s International Media Office …

19-04-2023 TOKYO: The foreign ministers of G7 have pledged to intensify sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine and criticized China for its actions in the Taiwan Strait and disputed South China Sea, urging Beijing “to act as a responsible member of the international community”. The comments, issued on …

19-04-2023 DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in the most significant step yet towards ending Syria’s decade-long regional isolation. Prince Faisal landed in Damascus on Tuesday, Syrian state media reported, a week after his Syrian counterpart visited Saudi Arabia. …

19-04-2023 ROME: Italian police on Monday seized two tons of cocaine found floating off the east coast of Sicily. With an estimated street value of more than 400 million euros, Italy’s Guardia di Finanza [Financial Police] hailed it as a “record” seizure for the force. The police released video (below) …

19-04-2023 LONDON: A London-listed company has been mining gold in the Amazon rainforest without approval from the Brazilian land agency or the consent of nearby Indigenous communities, according to an investigation by the Guardian and partners. Serabi Gold has been blasting 4.5 metre-wide tunnels and trucking ore from the Coringa …

19-04-2023 KHARTOUM: A major aid organization says it is nearly impossible to provide humanitarian services in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, where fighting between rival political factions has trapped millions of people in their homes. “The truth is that at the moment it is almost impossible to provide any humanitarian services …

19-04-2023 BEIJING: China’s foreign minister told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts his country is ready to help facilitate peace talks, state media reported. The separate phone calls between Chinese foreign minister, Qin Gang, and the Israeli and Palestinian top diplomats comes amid recent moves by Beijing to position itself as …