International

01-04-2024 NEW YORK: The oversight board of Meta, the social media giant which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has ruled that a ban on the use of the word “shaheed” “martyr” in Arabic should be lifted. Meta has acknowledged that the term “shaheed” accounts for more content removals under the …

01-04-2024 LOS ANGELES/ NEW YORK: A $935 million jackpot in the Powerball lottery draw, one of the largest in its history, found no winners on Saturday night, boosting the prize for next week’s draw. No one held the winning numbers 12, 13, 33, 50, 52 and the power ball 23, …

01-04-2024 JERUSALEM: The Bank of Israel on Sunday warned of economic damage if more ultra-Orthodox Jewish men do not join the country’s military, weighing in on a contentious issue that has caused a rift in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime government. In its 2023 annual report, the central bank said …

01-04-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: Indian opposition parties united to protest against the arrest of a prominent leader weeks before a national election, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party of rigging the vote and harassing them with large tax demands. “Narendra Modi is trying match-fixing in …

01-04-2024 GAZA CITY/ CAIRO: Israeli military strikes killed dozens of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, health officials said, as Egypt hosted an Israeli delegation for a new round of talks in a bid to secure a truce with Gaza’s Hamas rulers. The warring sides have stepped up negotiations, …

01-04-2024 VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has used his traditional Easter message to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The 87-year-old pontiff led Easter Mass at the Vatican in front of thousands, despite concerns over his health. Referring to …

31-03-2024 DAMASCUS/ AZAZ: At least seven people have been killed and 30 others injured after a car bomb went off in a busy marketplace in the Syrian opposition city of Azaz in the northern Aleppo province. Residents and rescuers told the Reuters news agency the blast late on Saturday occurred …

31-03-2024 NEW YORK: Personal information belonging to millions of past and present AT&T customers has been leaked online, including Social Security numbers (SSNs), passcodes and contact details, the multinational company says. In a statement on Saturday, the telecommunication network – the largest in the United States, said a recently discovered …

31-03-2024 BEIJING/ CANBERRA: China has announced it will remove significant tariffs on Australian wine in another key sign of improving relations between the two countries. Beijing imposed taxes of more than 200% in 2020 amid a string of economic blows to Australian exports. That year Beijing targeted Australian coal, barley, …

31-03-2024 DAMASCUS/ BEIRUT: Israel carried out its deadliest strikes in months on northern Syria’s Aleppo province early on Friday and said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, stepping up its campaign against Iran’s proxies in parallel with its war in Gaza. Israel has ramped up airstrikes in Syria …