International

01-04-2023 ISTANBUL: Turkey’s parliament has approved a bill to allow Finland to join NATO, clearing the last major hurdle for Helsinki to join the defence alliance as war rages in Ukraine. All 276 legislators present on Thursday voted in favor of Finland’s bid, days after Hungary’s parliament also endorsed Helsinki’s …

01-04-2023 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: On the fifth day of the holy month of Ramadan, Matiullah Wesa, an advocate for girls’ and women’s education in Afghanistan, went to a neighborhood mosque in Kabul for asr (evening) prayers. As the 30-year-old left the mosque with his younger …

01-04-2023 Bureau Report CANBERRA/ MELBOURNE: Australia has expressed “deep concerns” over delays in the case of a Chinese-Australian journalist who has been detained in China for more than two and half years on national security charges. Cheng Lei, a former television anchor with Chinese state-run TV channel CGTN, has not …

31-03-2023 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: An Indian appeals court has upheld a $160m fine imposed on Google by the country’s antitrust regulator in a case related to Android’s market dominance. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) said the Competition Commission of India (CCI) findings were correct and Google was …

31-03-2023 NEW YORK: A New York grand jury on Thursday indicted Donald Trump over hush money payments made to a porn star during his 2016 campaign, making him the first former US president to face criminal charges. The historic indictment of the 76-year-old Republican who denies all wrongdoing in connection …

31-03-2023 LONDON: Rapidly melting Antarctic ice is dramatically slowing down the flow of water through the world’s oceans and could have a disastrous effect on global climate, the marine food chain, and even the stability of ice shelves, new research says. The “overturning circulation” of the oceans driven by the …

31-03-2023 JERUSALEM: Shimon Mizrahi points from his apartment balcony out to a large two-lane road. On the other side is a synagogue, where children are playing. The retiree lives in Neve Yaakov, a settlement in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem that is considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. He …

31-03-2023 NEW YORK: The Russian authorities may have shut down his newspaper, but journalist Dmitry Muratov refuses to be silenced. When we meet in Moscow, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta and Russia’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate is worried how far the Kremlin will go in its confrontation with the West. …

31-03-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies CANBERRA/ SYDNEY: Australia’s parliament has passed breakthrough climate laws targeting the nation’s worst polluters, forcing coal mines and oil refineries to curb emissions by about 5 percent each year. The laws apply to 215 major industrial facilities, each producing more than 100,000 tons of greenhouse …

31-03-2023 BEIJING/ TAIPEI: Asia must avoid “chaos and conflicts” or the region’s future will be lost, Chinese Premier Li Qiang has said. Speaking to an international audience of political and business leaders on Thursday, Li said China can be an “anchor for world peace” and stability, and will continue undertaking …