28-09-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ BENGALURU: India’s drug regulator has found more than 50 drugs, including some batches of widely used antacids and paracetamol, to be substandard or fake, according to government documents. The regulator, Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, releases a monthly list of substandard or fake …

28-09-2024 WASHINGTON: US efforts to secure a Gaza ceasefire remain stalled after nearly a year of fighting. Iran-backed Houthi rebels continue to attack Red Sea shipping and now, despite intense US-led diplomacy, the Israel-Hezbollah conflict threatens to flare into an all-out regional war. With the clock ticking on his administration, …

28-09-2024 KINSHASA: The East African Court of Justice has started proceedings on a case filed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) against Rwanda, accusing it of violating its sovereignty and sending troops to support rebel groups in the country’s eastern region. Eastern DRC has witnessed years of instability as …

28-09-2024 MOSCOW: Vladimir Putin says Russia would consider an attack from a non-nuclear state that was backed by a nuclear-armed one to be a “joint attack”, in what could be construed as a threat to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine. In key remarks on Wednesday night, the …

28-09-2024 TALLAHASSEE: Hurricane Helene has been upgraded to a category four storm, with wind speeds of up to 130mph (215 km/h). Helene is expected to make landfall in the Florida Big Bend area on Thursday. Authorities warn it could bring a “catastrophic” and “unsurvivable” storm surge, where inundations could reach …

28-09-2024 KHARTOUM: Sudan is at breaking point. After 17 months of a brutal civil war which has devastated the country, the army has launched a major offensive in the capital Khartoum, targeting areas in the hands of its bitter rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The RSF seized most of …

28-09-2024 BEIRUT/ JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the country’s military to continue fighting with “full force” against the armed group Hezbollah, despite calls from the US and other allies for a ceasefire. Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 92 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on …

27-09-2024 TOKYO: An 88-year-old man who is the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been acquitted by a Japanese court after it found that evidence used against him was fabricated. Iwao Hakamada, who has been on death row for almost half a century, was found guilty in 1968 of killing …

27-09-2024 VICTORIA: A Hong Kong Court has jailed two journalists who led a pro-democracy newspaper after they were found guilty in a landmark sedition case last month. Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, editors at the now-defunct Stand News media outlet, had published articles about the crackdown on civil liberties in …

28-09-2024 WASHINGTON/ ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a new $7bn loan for cash-strapped Pakistan, authorities said, more than two months after the two sides said they had reached an agreement. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a statement on Wednesday hailed the deal that his team had been …