International

24-02-2025 VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis’s condition continues to be “critical” after suffering a “prolonged asthma-like respiratory crisis” earlier on Saturday, the Vatican has said. The pontiff is “more unwell than yesterday” and had received blood transfusions, the statement said. The Vatican said the 88-year-old was alert and in his armchair, …

24-02-2025 MOSCOW: Driving into Tver, the first thing I notice are the soldiers. They’re everywhere. On billboards, the sides of buildings, at bus stops. Portraits with the words “Hero of Russia”. Posters of troops with Kalashnikov rifles encouraging the public to “Love, be proud of and defend” Russia. In other …

24-02-2025 BERLIN: A 19-year-old Syrian man suspected of stabbing a Spanish tourist at Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial had planned for several weeks to kill Jewish people, Berlin police believe. The attack took place on Friday evening, with the assailant approaching the 30-year-old victim from behind before stabbing him and fleeing the …

23-02-2025 WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CQ Brown, the highest-ranking officer in the country, as part of a major shake-up of top military leadership. “I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to …

23-02-2025 BRAZZAVILLE: The Congolese army called on deserters to rejoin their units on Thursday, as rogue soldiers fired guns and looted parts of the eastern town of Lubero after fleeing nearby clashes with advancing Rwandan-backed rebels. The unrest points to mounting disarray within the Congolese armed forces in the face …

23-02-2025 WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump reversed course on Friday and said Russia did in fact invade Ukraine, and that Kyiv would soon sign a minerals agreement with the United States as part of efforts to end the Ukraine war. Trump had said on Tuesday that Ukraine “should have never started” …

23-02-2025 BEIJING: China’s military said it drove away three Philippines aircraft “illegally” flying over the disputed Spratly Islands, marking the second aerial incident this week involving Beijing and Manila in the South China Sea. A spokesperson for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command, Air Force Colonel Tian Junli, …

23-02-2025 KHARTOUM: Many Sudanese civilians are welcoming the army as a liberator as it advances across the capital, Khartoum, to topple the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) but activists on the ground say both sides are increasingly resorting to brutal tactics, which are exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. On February 1, …

23-02-2025 BERLIN: Germany is preparing for high-stakes elections, amid fears that far-right sentiment rising while migration policies sit at the centre of political debate. In Cottbus, a city in eastern Brandenburg, the mood is tense as voters prepare to head to the polls with the rest of Germany on February …

23-02-2025 VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis’s condition is not considered life-threatening, but he is not out of danger, his medical team has said, as the 88-year-old pontiff continued to receive treatment to fight pneumonia and a complex lung infection. On their first in-person update on the pope’s condition, Francis’s personal physician, …