International

30-12-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies SYDNEY: Australia is bracing for an intense heatwave across its north and west during the New Year’s holiday weekend with temperatures forecast to touch more than 45 degrees Celsius (113°F), while severe thunderstorms were expected to hit the country’s east. The heatwave follows a wild …

30-12-2023 TEHRAN: Iran has executed three men and one woman who were convicted for their alleged links to Israel’s Mossad spy agency, according to media affiliated with the judiciary. “Four members of a sabotage group related to the Zionist regime…..were hanged this morning” in Iran’s northwestern province of West Azerbaijan, …

30-12-2023 MEXICO CITY: Mexican villagers who killed 10 members of the notorious Familia Michoacana criminal gang will not be facing any charges after prosecutors ruled they had acted in self-defence. Prosecutors said that the residents of Texcapilla had come “under constant threat” from the gang, which had tried to extort …

30-12-2023 JERUSALEM/ GAZA CITY: An estimated 150,000 Palestinians are being forced to flee areas of central Gaza, the UN has said, as Israeli forces advance on refugee camps there. Witnesses and Hamas’s armed wing reported that tanks had reached the eastern outskirts of Bureij camp. Israel’s military recently expanded its …

30-12-2023 CARACAS/ LONDON: Venezuela has ordered the armed forces to hold military exercises in response to the UK’s decision to send a warship to support neighboring Guyana. Military leaders said 5,600 soldiers would take part in “defensive” exercises on Venezuela’s eastern Caribbean and Atlantic coasts. Earlier this month, Venezuelan voters …

29-12-2023 KATHMANDU: A Yeti Airlines crash in Nepal that killed 72 people almost a year ago was caused by the pilot’s mistakenly cutting power leading to an aerodynamic stall, a report issued by a government-appointed investigation panel on Thursday said. The ATR 72, operated by privately owned Yeti Airlines, crashed …

29-12-2023 JERUSALEM: Israel’s military will act to remove Hezbollah from the border with Lebanon if its attacks continue, an Israeli minister has warned. Benny Gantz said the military would intervene if militants do not stop firing on northern Israel. Time for a diplomatic solution was running out, he added. Meanwhile, …

29-12-2023 WASHINGTON/ MADRID/ ROME: US President Joe Biden hoped to present a firm international response to Yemen’s Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping by launching a new maritime force, but a week after its launch many allies don’t want to be associated with it, publicly, or at all. Two of …

29-12-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies LONDON/ NEW DELHI: India’s government has used the highly invasive Pegasus spyware to target high-profile journalists, according to a new investigation by Amnesty International and The Washington Post. The findings, published on Thursday, noted India’s repeated use of Pegasus against journalists, including one who was …

29-12-2023 GENEVA: The United Nations on Thursday said the human rights situation in the occupied West Bank was rapidly deteriorating and urged Israel to “end unlawful killings” against the Palestinian population. A report released Thursday demanded an immediate end to the use of military weapons and means during law enforcement …