17-05-2026 BEIRUT/ TEHRAN/ LONDON: Lebanon has welcomed a deal with Israel to extend a nominal ceasefire, which was due to expire on Sunday, by 45 days after talks in the United States, while Israeli forces continued attacking southern Lebanese towns and villages, killing at least a dozen people on Friday, …

17-05-2026 DAKAR: Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda are heading for a diplomatic battle over the leadership of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), with both fielding rival candidates as ‌fighting grinds on in eastern Congo. Friday is the deadline to submit candidacies for the position of secretary general …

17-05-2026 Bureau Report NEW DELHI/ BENGALURE: India has raised fuel prices by about 3 percent as the energy crisis driven by the Iran war and closure of the Strait of Hormuz starts to bite on the economy. The government in New Delhi announced the 3 rupees ($0.03) per litre price …

17-05-2026 LONDON: The “Great British People” Facebook page, which purports to be from Yorkshire, has had 1.3 million views for its latest video of an elderly white British man crying about his pension. Other videos show reporters discussing “the overwhelming scale of mass immigration” and asking viewers if they miss …

17-05-2026 SYDNEY: A Sydney court has doubled the discrimination payout for an Australian Trans woman who was kicked off a female-only app. It comes almost two years after Roxanne Tickle successfully sued Sall Grover, founder of the Giggle for Girls app, for blocking her account on the grounds of gender …

17-05-2026 HAVANA: CIA director John Ratcliffe has met his Cuban counterpart at the interior ministry in Havana, after the US renewed an offer of $100m (£74m) of aid to ease the effects of its oil blockade. A Cuban statement said the meeting was an attempt to improve dialogue and American …

17-05-2026 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: An attack on a security compound in northwest Pakistan has killed several paramilitary officers, with the Afghan-based Pakistan Taliban (TTP) claiming responsibility. An armed group rammed a vehicle filled with explosives into the Bajaur district camp’s gate on Thursday and then …

16-05-2026 NAIROBI: France’s President Emmanuel Macron has hosted a high-level meeting of heads of state and business leaders alongside his Kenyan counterpart, William Ruto, as Paris continues to pivot to other parts of the continent due to its strained relations with French-speaking West African countries. The conference, which was held …

16-05-2026 BEIRUT: At least 15 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Lebanon, according to the National News Agency including eight people, two of them children killed in three Israeli drone attacks on a key highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon. A photograph of the bombed cars shared by …

16-05-2026 Bureau Report + BBC NEW DELHI: For the past two years, Manas Sharma’s life revolved around one goal cracking the tough exam that would get him admission to a medical college in India so he could become a doctor but the exam, the National Eligibility Entrance Test (Undergraduate), known …