International

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 …

31-03-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: India’s main opposition party said on Friday it had been asked to pay an additional 18.2 billion rupees ($218 million) in taxes, which it called an attempt by the tax department to financially cripple it weeks before a national parliamentary election. Calling …

31-03-2024 GAZA CITY: One thousand miles east of Gaza, large blocks of aid are being loaded on to a US military transport plane, its crew silhouetted by the morning sun glancing over the desert landscape around Qatar’s al-Udeid airbase. They push 80 crates into the plane’s cavernous interior, each canvas-wrapped …