16-02-2023 WELLINGTON: New Zealand officials say at least four people, including a child, have died in the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle, which has caused significant flooding and landslides across the North Island. On Wednesday, officials confirmed a child’s body was found in Hawke’s Bay, one of the worst-affected regions. Rescue …

16-02-2023 MOSCOW: Russian journalist Maria Ponomarenko has been jailed for six years for posting on social media about a deadly attack by Russian warplanes on a theatre in Ukraine. The court in Barnaul in Siberia found her guilty of spreading “fake news”, under laws introduced aimed at stifling dissent about …

16-02-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies MELBOURNE/ SYDNEY: One of three men who are being investigated for suspected drug trafficking two weeks after they were rescued at sea has been arrested. The 36-year-old man was apprehended in Darwin and was due to appear in court on Thursday, police said. The trio …

16-02-2023 LONDON: Duangpetch Promthep, one of the 12 boys who was rescued from a Thai cave in 2018, has died in the UK. The 17-year-old was found unconscious in his dorm in Leicestershire on Sunday and taken to hospital, where he died on Tuesday, the BBC has been told. He …

16-02-2023 MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has summoned China’s ambassador to convey his “serious concern” following reports that a Chinese coastguard vessel had engaged in dangerous man-oeuvres and used a “military-grade” laser to impede a Philippine ship in the South China Sea. The president’s office said that China’s ambassador …

16-02-2023 TOKYO: Japan has warned China that violations of its airspace by surveillance balloons were “totally unacceptable”, as new information emerged that unidentified aerial objects that had entered Japanese airspace in recent years were likely Chinese spy balloon flights. “As a result of further investigation of specific balloon-shaped flying objects …

16-02-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: In two months, India is projected to become the world’s most populous country with over 1.4 billion people but for at least a year, and possibly longer, the country won’t know how many people it has because it hasn’t been able to count …

16-02-2023 ANKARA: When Melih Telci, a 28-year-old lawyer from Istanbul, heard about a family of four left homeless in the province of Hatay after last week’s devastating earthquakes, he knew what he had to do. He picked up his phone. “I called them and said; ‘Come, our home is yours,’” …

15-02-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: Indian tax authorities have raided the offices of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the country in the wake of a documentary that examined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in 2002 anti-Muslim riots, according to the BBC. In a tweet, the BBC …

15-02-2023 UNITED NATIONS/ DAMASCUS: Syria’s government has agreed to allow the UN to use two more border crossings to deliver aid to opposition-held north-western areas devastated by last week’s earthquakes, the UN says. “It’s going to make a big difference. We are now using just one crossing,” a UN spokesman …