International

16-04-2023 TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated unharmed after what appeared to be a smoke bomb was thrown at him while he was on the campaign trail in Wakayama prefecture in western Japan. Footage on Japanese television showed a disturbance in a crowd gathered at the Saikazaki fishing …

16-04-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies DUBAI: Nearly 12 hours have passed after a massive fire in an apartment in Dubai’s Al Ras left 16 dead and nine injured. All that remains of the tragedy is the blackened exterior of a fourth-floor apartment Authorities have sealed the building for safety reasons. …

16-04-2023 KINSHASA: Dozens of civilians have been killed as suspected armed groups raided villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to local advocates and news reports. The attacks took place on Friday in the province of Ituri, an area along the country’s northeast border with Uganda that …

16-04-2023 JERUSALAM/ TEL AVIV: Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Israel to protest against the government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to pause the contentious proposals. More than 100,000 people participated in the main demonstration in Tel Aviv on …

16-04-2023 HONG KONG SAR: Hong Kong Bishop Stephen Chow will embark on his first official visit to China on Monday, but is “unlikely” to meet representatives from the mainland’s “underground” churches, a spokesperson said, amid continuing strains between Beijing and the Vatican over the governance of the country’s Catholics. Chow …

16-04-2023 RIYADH/ SANA’A: Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni Houthi rebels have freed hundreds of prisoners of war as part of a multi-day exchange amid concerted efforts to end Yemen’s eight-year-old war, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Saturday’s first flight left the southern Saudi city of …

16-04-2023 KHARTOUM: Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary force have engaged in fierce fighting in the capital and elsewhere in the country, dealing a new blow to hopes for a transition to democracy and raising fears of a wider conflict. The fighting killed at least 27 people and wounded more …

16-04-2023 PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday signed into law his highly disfavored pension reforms, lifting the pension age from 62 to 64. The signing came hours after France’s top constitutional body cleared the change. The Constitutional Council annulled the opposition’s demand for a referendum however, it also removed …

16-04-2023 BERLIN: Germany’s final three nuclear power plants close their doors on Saturday, marking the end of the country’s nuclear era that has spanned more than six decades. Nuclear power has long been contentious in Germany. There are those who want to end reliance on a technology they view as …

15-04-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: A group of historians from India’s leading universities have slammed recent revisions to school textbooks that include removing or trimming references to Islamic rule in the subcontinent and to the anger among some Hindu extremists at independence leader Mahatma Gandhi’s pursuit of …