International

17-04-2026 CAIRO/ GAZA STRIP: Hamas has rejected the disarmament plan of a top figure in President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace efforts, a senior Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations has told media. He accused Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza on the US-led Board of Peace, of bias towards …

17-04-2026 SINGAPORE/ LONDON: The first full day of a US blockade on vessels calling at Iranian ports made little difference to Strait of Hormuz traffic on Tuesday, with at least eight ‌ships including three Iran-linked tankers, crossing the waterway, shipping data showed. US President Donald Trump announced the blockade on …

17-04-2026 By SJA Jafri + Agencies ISLAMABAD/ WASHINGTON: Talks to end the Iran war could resume in Pakistan over the next two days, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, after the collapse of weekend negotiations prompted Washington to impose a blockade on Iranian ports. Officials from Pakistan, Iran and …

17-04-2026 WASHINGTON/ NEW DELHI: U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed ‌the importance of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and secure in a call on Tuesday, Modi said in a post on social media. The call between the two leaders lasted nearly ⁠40 minutes, Indian …

17-04-2026 JERUSALEM: An overwhelming number of Israelis oppose the US-Iran ceasefire deal declared last week, and anticipate a return to the war, a poll has found. The findings match observations by analysts, who say that Israeli political leaders promised a final showdown with Iran, only for the conflict to instead …

17-04-2026 WASHINGTON/ BEIRUT: The ambassadors of Lebanon and Israel joined United States-brokered talks in Washington, DC, with Lebanese authorities seeking to secure a ceasefire, while Israel’s goal is the disarmament of the Hezbollah armed group. The talks, which the US has described as “open, direct, high-level”, represent the first such …

16-04-2026 PARIS/ LONDON: NATO allies said on Monday they would not get involved in US President Donald Trump’s plan to blockade Iranian ports, proposing to intervene only once fighting ends, in a move likely to anger Trump and increase strains in the alliance. Trump said the US military ‌would eliminate …

16-04-2026 LAHORE/ KARACHI: Mohammed Amin was eight when he died shortly after testing positive for HIV. His fevers were so bad that he insisted on sleeping in the rain, and he writhed in pain “like he’d been thrown in hot oil”, says his mother, Sughra. “He used to fight with …

16-04-2026 WASHINGTON/ BEIRUT: With Lebanon, again, engulfed by war, I remember a meeting I had with President Joseph Aoun at the Baabda Palace, a modernist building at the top of a hill overlooking Beirut last August. Aoun, a former army chief, took office after a devastating war between Israel and …

16-04-2026 TEHRAN/ WASHINGTON/ DUBAI: The US military began a blockade of Iran’s ports on Monday, President Donald Trump said, and Tehran threatened to ​retaliate against its Gulf neighbors’ ports after weekend talks in Islamabad on ending the war broke down. A US official said there was continued engagement with Iran, …