05-01-2025 WASHINGTON: The US Department of State has notified Congress of a planned $8bn (£6.4bn) arms sale to Israel, an American official has confirmed to media. The weapons consignment, which needs approval from House and Senate committees, includes missiles, shells and other munitions. The move comes just over a fortnight …
Read More »US security adviser to discuss Chinese dams in India visit
05-01-2025 WASHINGTON: US national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s visit to New Delhi from Jan. 5-6 is expected to include discussions with Indian counterparts about the impact of Chinese dams, a senior US official said late on Friday. Washington and its Western allies have long viewed India as a counter to …
Read More »Protests in Korea as authorities press for Yoon’s arrest
05-01-2025 SEOUL: Thousands of South Korean protesters for and against impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol have staged rival rallies in Seoul, a day after authorities failed to execute an arrest warrant on the suspended leader over his short-lived declaration of martial law last month. The protesters faced-off outside the presidential residence …
Read More »German & French foreign ministers meet new rulers in Syria
05-01-2025 DAMASCUS: The foreign ministers of Germany and France said they wanted to forge a new relationship with Syria and urged a peaceful transition as they met its de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Friday on behalf of the European Union. Germany’s Annalena Baerbock and France’s Jean-Noel Barrot …
Read More »Panama reports sharp drop in irregular migration
05-01-2025 PANAMA CITY: The number of migrants and asylum seekers traversing the Darien Gap, the treacherous strip of jungle connecting South and North America has fallen by nearly 41 percent in the last year. On Thursday, Panama’s right-wing President Jose Raul Mulino announced the decline, touting it as a success …
Read More »New York judge sets Trump’s sentencing for January 10
05-01-2025 NEW YORK: United States President-elect Donald Trump is set to face a sentencing hearing for his criminal conviction in New York, mere days before he will be sworn in for a second term in the White House. On Friday, Judge Juan Merchan issued an 18-page written decision calling for …
Read More »Gaza family of 11 among dozens killed in Israeli strikes
05-01-2025 GAZA STRIP: A Palestinian family of 11 including eight children are among at least 28 Palestinians killed as the Israeli military’s intensified attacks on the war-battered Gaza Strip enter a third day. Amnesty International says Israel’s detention of Kamal Adwan Hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safia is emblematic of …
Read More »Syria’s FM to head to UAE, Qatar & Jordan to ‘build partnerships’
05-01-2025 DAMASCUS/ DUBAI: Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani has announced he will visit Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, having just made his first official foreign trip to Saudi Arabia earlier this week. The top diplomat in Syria’s new government said in a social media post on Friday …
Read More »Indian visa curbs amid Bangladesh tensions hurt patients
05-01-2025 DHAKA: Khadiza Khatun’s life took a devastating turn in September when doctors at Dhaka Medical College Hospital informed her that her 37-year-old husband, Mohammad Nuri Alam, urgently needed a liver transplant, a procedure unavailable in Bangladesh. After careful research, they decided to go to India’s Asian Institute of Gastroenterology …
Read More »Record number of migrants reached Canary Islands in 2024
04-01-2025 MADRID: At least 46,843 people reached Spain’s Canary Islands in 2024 through the increasingly deadly Atlantic migration route, the country’s interior ministry has said. The European country received 63,970 migrants who arrived through irregular routes last year, the vast majority in the Atlantic archipelago, up from 56,852 in 2023, …
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