10-02-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies SYDNEY/ BEIJING: The Australian government will examine surveillance technology used in offices of the defence department, Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Thursday, amid reports that Chinese-made cameras installed there posed a security risk. The checks come after Britain in November asked its government departments …

09-02-2023 TEHRAN: Emphasizing the necessity to strengthen national unity in Iran, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei warned that the real purpose of the enemy, mainly the US, is to bring the Islamic Republic to its knees. On the anniversary of the historic pledging allegiance of Iran …

09-02-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies CANBERRA/ MELBOURNE: For the first time in history, Australia has blocked the creation of a coal mine under environmental laws. The government on Thursday rejected a proposal for a new mine about 10km (6.2 miles) from the Great Barrier Reef. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said …

09-02-2023 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: On a chilly December morning, police in the western state of Rajasthan saw a bus heading towards Udaipur city and followed it. The night before, they had received a tip-off, the question paper for an examination to recruit teachers in the state’s government schools was …

09-02-2023 WASHINGTON/ BEIJING: The United States held briefings in Washington and Beijing with foreign diplomats from 40 nations about the Chinese spy balloon that entered US airspace in late January, a senior administration official and diplomats said on Tuesday. US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman briefed nearly 150 foreign …

09-02-2023 PARIS/ LONDON: More than 50 encoded letters sent by Mary Queen of Scots in the 16th Century have been found and deciphered by an international team of cryptographers. The letters, written during her English captivity, were found in a trawl of online archives at the National Library of France. …

09-02-2023 WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s navy has intercepted a floating haul of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean in what the country says is its largest drug bust ever. The stash – weighing total 3.2 tonnes (3,200kg) and worth NZ$500m (£263m; $316m) was found drifting hundreds of kilometres northwest of New Zealand. …

09-02-2023 WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden challenged Republicans to lift the US debt ceiling and support tax policies that were friendlier to middle class Americans on Tuesday in a State of the Union speech that served as a blueprint for his 2024 re-election campaign. Assailing oil companies for making high profits …

09-02-2023 ISTANBUL: As he waited for a delayed flight out of Istanbul Airport this week, Samet Yilmaz held up his phone, pointing to a photo of rubble. He said his brother, Ismail, was buried beneath it. Samet lives in Bahrain, but has joined scores of people making the journey to …

09-02-2023 NEW YORK: A Pakistan-American officer of New York police, who was shot in the head Saturday while off duty has died, the city’s police commissioner said Tuesday night. The officer, Adeed Fayaz, 26, a five-year veteran of the New York Police Department (NYPD), had been hospitalized in Brooklyn for …