07-04-2023 PARIS: Clashes erupted in Paris next to a Left Bank brasserie favored by French President Emmanuel Macron as protesters torched garbage cans and smashed two banks during the eleventh day of nationwide demonstrations against pension reform. The bistro La Rotonde, whose awning was set alight as protesters threw bottles …

07-04-2023 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has surprised markets by holding its key repo rate steady after six consecutive hikes, saying it was closely monitoring the effect of recent global financial turbulence. On Thursday, RBI said its policy stance remains focused on “withdrawal of accommodation”, …

07-04-2023 WASHINGTON: Robert F Kennedy Jr has filed election paperwork to run for US president in 2024 as a Democrat. The 69-year-old is the son of assassinated Senator Robert F Kennedy and nephew of President John F Kennedy. The environmental lawyer’s campaign treasurer, John E Sullivan, confirmed the filing on …

07-04-2023 JAKARTA: Indonesia police have arrested a village shaman accused of killing dozens of people after several bodies were found buried in the man’s garden. Slamet Tohari, 45, admitted to police that dozens of victims were interred on his land. He has been charged with the premediated murder of clients …

07-04-2023 TAIPEI CITY: China’s second aircraft carrier, the Shandong, is engaged in an exercise in the western Pacific amid heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait over a meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy. Taiwanese Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told reporters …

07-04-2023 SAN FRANCISCO: Bob Lee, the founder of payment application Cash App and chief product officer of cryptocurrency company MobileCoin, has died after an apparent stabbing in San Francisco in the United States. Lee’s father and San Francisco police said the tech entrepreneur died early on Tuesday morning after being …

07-04-2023 PRETORIA: South Africa’s government has revoked a national “state of disaster” declared in February to manage a crippling electricity crisis. On February 9, President Cyril Ramaphosa invoked disaster regulations to fight the crisis that included daily rolling power cuts by state utility Eskom due to frequent breakdowns at its …

07-04-2023 LOS ANGELES: US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, becoming the most senior US figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on US soil since 1979 despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own. McCarthy, a Republican who …

07-04-2023 TEHRAN/ RIYADH/ BEIJING: The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing for the first formal meeting of their most senior diplomats in more than seven years, CCTV news reported on Thursday, after a China-brokered deal to restore ties between the regional rivals. After years of hostility …

07-04-2023 WASHINGTON: Former President Donald Trump after pleading not guilty to 34 criminal charges before the Manhattan court in New York called on Wednesday his party members in Congress to cut funding for the Department of Justice and FBI, Reuters reported on Thursday. The former president who is also a …