International

28-04-2023 A history textbook for Chinese schoolchildren mentioning the country’s COVID pandemic response for the first time has sparked discussion online. Some are questioning whether the book’s short description of the country’s fight against COVID is truthful. Chinese Communist Party leaders declared a “decisive victory” over the virus earlier this …

28-04-2023 TEHRAN:  powerful Iranian cleric, a member of the Assembly of Experts that selects the country’s supreme leader, has been martyred in an armed attack, officials said. “Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani was martyred this morning in an armed attack… the assailant was also arrested and is now being investigated,” IRNA …

28-04-2023 JERUSALEM: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s congratulatory message on Israel’s 75th year of independence has been met with a swift backlash in Palestine. The Palestinian Authority (PA) called von der Leyen’s message “inappropriate, false and discriminatory” in a statement on Wednesday. The PA said her remark about …

28-04-2023 KYIV: A Ukrainian journalist was killed on Wednesday as he travelled to the city of Kherson with his Italian colleague. Bogdan Bitik, who was interpreting for La Repubblica reporter Corrado Zunino, was shot “most likely by Russian snipers”, the Italian newspaper reported. Zunino was shot in the shoulder and …

28-04-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies BEIJING/ ISLAMABAD: China says it will work with Pakistan’s military to “further deepen and expand” the two nations’ mutual interests and jointly protect regional peace and stability. A statement by the Chinese defence ministry on Wednesday said Zhang Youxia, the vice chairman of China’s Central …

28-04-2023 ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suspended election campaigning after him fell ill during a live TV interview in which the broadcast was abruptly brought to a halt. After a 20-minute break, he returned to say he had “serious stomach flu” after two days of intense campaigning. Erdogan, …

28-04-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu has arrived in India to attend a key security summit meeting amid strained ties between the countries. Li will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) defence ministers’ meeting on Friday in the Indian capital Delhi. This is the …

28-04-2023 MOSCOW: A year ago Volodymyr and his men were firing all 40 barrels of their BM-21 Grad rocket launcher in one go. Now they can only afford to fire a few at a time at Russian targets. “We haven’t got enough ammunition for our weapon,” he explains. His unit, …

28-04-2023 WASHINGTON: The US and South Korea have secured a landmark deal to counter the North Korean nuclear threat. Washington has agreed to periodically deploy US nuclear-armed submarines to South Korea and involve Seoul in its nuclear planning operations. In return, South Korea has agreed to not develop its own …

27-04-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies KHARTOUM/ NEW DELHI: India has begun evacuating some of its citizens who have been stranded in Sudan because of the ongoing conflict. A ship, INS Sumedha – carrying 278 passengers has departed Port of Sudan and is headed towards Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, …