International

16-04-2025 NEW YORK: An organizer of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University has been arrested by immigration officials as he attended an interview as part of his application for US citizenship, his lawyer says. Mohsen Mahdawi, a green card holder who is due to graduate next month from the New York …

15-04-2025 BAGHDAD/ NAJAF: More than a thousand people have been left with respiratory problems after a sandstorm swept across Iraq’s central and southern parts of the country, health officials said. One official in Muthanna province reported to media at least 700 cases of what they said was suffocation. Footage shared …

15-04-2025 By SJA Jafri + Agencies NANKANA SAHIB: Thousands of Sikhs were in Pakistan to celebrate Vaisakhi, a harvest festival that marks the start of the Sikh New Year and is mostly observed in Punjab and northern India. Pakistani authorities this year granted more than 6,500 visas to Indian Sikhs, …

15-04-2025 GAZA STRIP: Israel intensifies its land and air attacks on Gaza, with artillery and air raids hitting several areas of Khan Younis in the south. The WHO says a Palestinian child has died due to disruption of medical care after Israeli forces bombed the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza …

15-04-2025 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: India’s exports of cut and polished diamonds plummeted to their lowest level in nearly two decades in the 2024/25 fiscal year, which ended in March, on sluggish demand from the United States and China, a leading trade body said on Monday. India …

15-04-2025 TEHRAN/ MOSCOW: Tehran’s Foreign Minister will travel to Moscow this week for consultations over Iran’s nuclear talks with the United States, Iran and Russia have announced. Abbas Araghchi will visit the Iranian ally later this week, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. The announcement of the trip …

15-04-2025 KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has invited Donald Trump to visit his country ahead of any deal with Russia to end the war. “Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” Zelensky said …

15-04-2025 ALGIERS: Algeria has asked 12 French embassy staff to leave the country within 48 hours, France’s foreign minister has said. Jean-Noel Barrot added that it was linked to the indictment of three Algerians in France on Friday, one of whom is a consular official. They are accused of involvement …

15-04-2025 QUITO: Sitting centre-right President Daniel Noboa has won the run-off round of Ecuador’s presidential election, meaning he will now serve a full four-year term. Noboa, who described his victory as “historic”, has only been in power since November 2023 after winning a snap election. He has defined his presidency, …

14-04-2025 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ : Indian authorities have deployed troops to crack down on deadly protests in the eastern state of West Bengal over a recently passed controversial bill that critics say would dilute the rights of Muslims to manage religious endowments (waqf) worth more than $14bn. …