International

08-09-2025 KHARTOUM: In January 2024, Ahmed Abubakr Imam picked up a rifle to defend his community. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had just captured four of the five provinces in Sudan’s sprawling western region of Darfur, South, East, Central and West, in a lightning attack as it advanced in …

08-09-2025 CAIRO/ DOHA: Egypt and Qatar have expressed strong condemnation over remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the displacement of Palestinians, including through the Rafah crossing. In a statement on Friday, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the comments as part of “ongoing attempts to prolong escalation …

07-09-2025 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: The Indian rupee slipped to an all-time low on Monday, pressured by weakness in regional currencies and sustained outflows from local equities but central bank intervention helped avoid sharp losses, traders said. The currency ended at 84.3925, eclipsing its previous record low …

07-09-2025 PARIS: France faces a slew of key sovereign debt rating reviews from next week, with the risk of a downgrade rising as the government, which looks set to lose a confidence vote on Monday, struggles to gain backing for an unpopular debt-cutting plan. While France’s rating was downgraded by …

07-09-2025 BANGKOK: Thailand’s parliament convened to choose a new prime minister after days of political chaos, in a vote that could be overshadowed by the dramatic departure from the country of its most powerful politician, Thaksin Shinawatra. Polarising billionaire Thaksin, the central figure in a tumultuous two-decade battle for power …

07-09-2025 KABUL: Rescuers have recovered hundreds of bodies from mountainous areas of southeastern Afghanistan, which was hit by a major earthquake at the weekend, taking the death toll to more than 2,500, according to a Taliban government spokesperson. Previous estimates said some 1,400 people were killed. Taliban spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat …

07-09-2025 UNITED NATIONS: Wildfires made significant contributions to air pollution last year, according to the United Nations’ weather and climate agency. In a report released on Friday, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said wildfires, likely to have been made more frequent by climate change, are releasing a “witches’ brew” of …

07-09-2025 PYONGYANG: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Chinese President Xi Jinping that North Korea will support China in protecting its sovereignty, territory and development interests, as the pair met just a day after an unprecedented show of unity with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing. The bilateral meeting …

07-09-2025 GAZA STRIP: The Israeli military’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza City is reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble, forcing residents to flee in panic, with nowhere safe in the enclave, which has been under unrelenting bombardment for 23 months. Israel’s round-the-clock assault on what UNICEF has dubbed the “city of fear” …

06-09-2025 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: India will continue to buy Russian oil as it proves economical, its finance minister said yesterday, despite the Trump administration’s decision to impose heavy import tariffs on Indian goods due, in part, to its energy purchases from Moscow. As Europe and the US …