International

01-12-2024 NEW YORK: A Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur has followed through on his promise to eat the banana from a $6.2m (£4.9m) artwork he bought last week. Justin Sun outbid six others to claim Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous 2019 work Comedian, a banana duct-taped to a wall at Sotheby’s auction house in …

01-12-2024 TBILISI: Thousands of protesters have returned to the streets of Tbilisi to protest against the government’s decision to suspend accession talks with the European Union. Demonstrators were seen shouting “traitors” and holding photographs of journalists who they say were beaten by police in Thursday night’s protests. For the second …

01-12-2024 DAMASCUS: Rebel forces in Syria have taken control of several neighborhoods in the country’s second-largest city, Aleppo, according to the UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). As of Friday evening, SOHR said rebels were in control of more than half of the city. The move is …

01-12-2024 MONTREAL: Political leaders and press freedom groups on Friday were left shell-shocked after Montreal news outlet La Presse revealed that a hit man had offered $100,000 to have one of its crime reporters assassinated. Convicted killer Frederick Silva, who turned police informant in 2022, had confessed to issuing the …

30-11-2024 HONG KONG/ MANILA: Satellite images obtained by Reuters on Thursday show a build-up of Chinese civilian vessels near contested Thitu Island, Manila’s key outpost in the South China Sea, but a senior Philippine navy officer said they are “not a cause for concern”. One of the images taken by …

30-11-2024 VIENNA: Iran has informed the UN nuclear watchdog that it plans to install more than 6,000 extra uranium-enriching centrifuges at its enrichment plants and bring more of those already in place online, a confidential report by the watchdog said on Thursday. The International Atomic Energy Agency report seen by …

30-11-2024 JERUSALEM/ BEIRUT: The Israeli military said its air force struck a facility used by Hezbollah to store mid-range rockets in southern Lebanon on Thursday, after both sides accused each other of breaching a ceasefire that aims to halt over a year of fighting. Israel said it also opened fire …

30-11-2024 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: Indian banks are reviewing their Adani exposure and whether they need to tighten due diligence, eight bankers said on Thursday, after the group’s billionaire founder Gautam Adani was indicted by US authorities over an alleged $265 million bribery scheme. Adani Group’s listed stocks, which at …

30-11-2024 Bureau Report CANBERRA: Australia will ban children under 16 from using social media, after its parliament approved the world’s strictest laws. The ban, which will not take effect for at least 12 months, could see tech companies fined up to A$50m ($32.5m; £25.7m) if they don’t comply. Prime Minister …

30-11-2024 DUBLIN: The polls are set to open for the Irish general election. Polling stations will be open between 07:00 and 22:00 local time on Friday to allow voters to choose representatives to serve as Teachtai Dala (TDs) in the Dail, the lower house of the Oireachtas (Ireland’s parliament). The …