22-03-2023 NEW YORK: Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has announced his engagement to his partner Ann Lesley Smith, a former police chaplain. Murdoch, 92, and Ms Smith, 66, met in September at an event at his vineyard in California. The businessman told the New York Post, one of his own publications: …
Read More »US police on alert ahead of possible Trump arrest
22-03-2023 WASHINGTON: Police in major US cities are preparing for potential unrest in case ex-President Donald Trump is arrested this week as part of a hush-money inquiry. Authorities in New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles are ramping up their law enforcement presence. A Manhattan prosecutor may charge Trump over …
Read More »Tears of relief over Indonesia syrup deaths lawsuit
22-03-2023 JAKARTA: Parents whose children died or were injured by tainted cough syrup have wept with relief after an Indonesian court allowed a class action lawsuit. “My child’s struggle was not in vain,” said Nur Asiah, whose four-year-old daughter died last year. Her family and the relatives of 24 other …
Read More »Biden refuses to sign Republican investment bill
22-03-2023 WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden exercised his veto power for the first time, as he overturned a Republican-initiated prohibition on pension funds considering progressive principles in their investment decisions. The measure would have nullified a Labour Department rule that allowed retirement fund managers to take environmental, social and governance …
Read More »Letter bombs target media outlets in Ecuador
22-03-2023 QUITO: Two TV stations in violence-plagued Ecuador were targeted with letter bombs, as officials and media reported. While one of the bombs exploded without causing any casualties, other media outlets also reported receiving suspect envelopes. A bomb sent to journalist Lenin Artieda exploded at his workplace in the port …
Read More »US report identifies ‘significant human rights’ abuses in India
22-03-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies WASHINGTON/ NEW DELHI: The annual US report on human rights practices released on Monday listed “significant human rights issues” and abuses in India, including reported targeting of religious minorities, dissidents and journalists, the US State Department said. The findings come nearly a year after Secretary …
Read More »Pensions overhaul sparked mass protests in France
22-03-2023 PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron will give a televised interview, his office said on Tuesday, after his government fended off two no-confidence votes in parliament over a controversial pension’s overhaul that has sparked mass protests. Macron’s government used a constitutional measure to adopt the reform, which pushes back the …
Read More »Arab States condemn Israeli minister’s ‘no Palestinians’ remark
22-03-2023 JERUSALEM/ DUBAI: The Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan have condemned as “racist” a firebrand Israeli minister’s remarks denying the existence of the Palestinian people, with Amman summoning Israel’s ambassador for a rebuke. Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is part of veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government that took …
Read More »Sri Lanka to get $2.9bn bailout in two days: IMF
22-03-2023 PENNSYLVANIA/ COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will get the first $330m tranche of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout package in the next two days, says the global lender, putting the onus on the cash-strapped country to rein in its debt to sustainable levels. Economic mismanagement, coupled with the effects of …
Read More »Saudi Arabia releases US national Almadi from prison
22-03-2023 RIYADH: A US citizen jailed in Saudi Arabia for posting criticism of the kingdom’s government on Twitter has been released from prison, but remains banned from travelling, according to his son. Saad Ibrahim Almadi, 72, was jailed for 16 years by a criminal court in 2022 before an appeals …
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