International

24-09-2023 BEIJING: China’s equivalent of Valentine’s Day, known as the Qixi Festival, has traditionally been considered an auspicious time for Chinese couples to get married. Celebrated annually on the seventh day of the seventh month in the Chinese lunar calendar, Qixi is a celebration of romantic love between the star-crossed …

24-09-2023 WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has openly urged India to assist Canada in its probe into the slaying of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canada has claimed that the Indian government and its operatives were involved in the assassination of Nijjar, who was assassinated in June close …

24-09-2023 LONDON: The Cants of Colchester, one of the UK’s oldest rose farms, will be closing its doors for good at the end of this month, located on the old A134 between Colchester and Great Horkesley. The family-run rose-growing store which was established in 1765, has over 250 years of …

23-09-2023 WASHINGTON/ VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLOMBIA: The White House has affirmed its unwavering support for Canada as allegations surfaced suggesting Indian involvement in the murder of Canadian Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver earlier this year. In a recent press briefing, Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, categorically rejected …

23-09-2023 OTTAWA/ NEW DELHI/ NEW YORK: Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has reiterated that there are “credible reasons” to believe that Indian agents may have been behind the murder of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil. He first made the allegation on Monday, which India has strongly rejected, calling them “absurd”. …

23-09-2023 REMPANG: Eighty-year-old Halimah was born in Sembulang on the island of Rempang in Indonesia’s Riau Island province and spends her days pottering around the sleepy fishing district, cooking fresh seafood for her grandchildren and enjoying her retirement. It is important to her that she dies there, too. “I want …

23-09-2023 DHAKA/ BRUSSELS: The European Union will not deploy a full election observer team to Bangladesh, citing a lack of “necessary conditions”, prompting the opposition to declare that the polls would not be fair. Bangladesh is set to hold its general election by the first week of January, and several …

23-09-2023 UNITED NATIONS: Sudan’s army chief warned the United Nations that months of war in his country could spill over into the region, and he called for international pressure to be placed on the paramilitary forces he is fighting, including their designation as “terrorists”. Army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, speaking …

23-09-2023 MANILA: Manila is exploring legal options against China over its alleged destruction of coral reefs within the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the disputed South China Sea. Manila has accused Beijing of causing environmental damage at Iroquois Reef in the Spratly Islands and is currently assessing the extent …

23-09-2023 NEW YORK: After being disallowed from hearing additional cases on the grounds of “mental fitness” by a group of her peers, the oldest federal judge currently serving in the nation has clapped back with a federal lawsuit. Judge Pauline Newman, 96, appointed in 1985 by then-US president Ronald Reagan, …