01-02-2023 TEHRAN/ MOSCOW: DUBAI: Iran and Russia have connected their interbank communication and transfer systems to help boost trade and financial transactions, a senior Iranian official said on Monday, as both Tehran and Moscow are chafing under Western sanctions. Since the 2018 re-imposition of US sanctions on Iran after Washington …

01-02-2023 GENEVA: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its 2023 global growth outlook slightly due to “surprisingly resilient” demand in the United States and Europe and the reopening of China’s economy after Beijing abandoned its strict zero-COVID strategy. The IMF said global growth would still fall to 2.9 percent …

01-02-2023 By SJA Jafri + BBC MELBOURNE/ SYDNEY: Almost 650 people have been charged in a four-day police blitz targeting “dangerous” domestic violence offenders in Australia, police say. Some 1,153 charges – for domestic violence, drugs and weapons were laid during the operation in New South Wales last week. Police …

01-02-2023 JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to meet Palestinian leaders Tuesday for his final stop on a Middle East tour aimed at curbing the worst outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in years. After a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Blinken urged both sides …

01-02-2023 MOSCOW: Russia said on Monday that it wanted to take ties with China to a “new level” and was looking forward to face-to-face talks with Beijing’s leadership as a Russian newspaper reported that China’s top diplomat would visit Moscow in February. “We are convinced that the potential for Russian-Chinese …

01-02-2023 OTTAWA: Canada’s province of British Columbia is starting a first-in-the-nation trial decriminalizing small amounts of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. From Tuesday, adults can possess up to 2.5g of such drugs, as well as methamphetamine, fentanyl and morphine. Canada’s federal government granted the request by the west …

01-02-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies CANBERRA/ SYDNEY: Australia’s nuclear safety agency has joined the hunt for a tiny radioactive capsule missing somewhere in the outback, sending a team with specialized car-mounted and portable detection equipment. The loss of the radioactive capsule, which is believed to have fallen from a truck …

01-02-2023 WASHINGTON: Even compared with the volatile nature of Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories, the last few weeks have been marked by extraordinary tensions and deadly violence between Israelis and Palestinians but when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel this week, he only reiterated Washington’s …

01-02-2023 PARIS: A nationwide strike is under way in France in a second wave of protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Eight big unions are taking part in the strike, which is disrupting schools, public transport and oil refineries. Protests are …

31-01-2023 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies PESHAWAR: A rescue and recovery operation has ended in Pakistan after a suicide bombing at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed at least 100 people, most of them police officials. Kashif Aftab Abbasi, senior superintendent of police operations …