International

01-02-2023 MOSCOW: Russia said on Monday that it wanted to take ties with China to a “new level” and was looking forward to face-to-face talks with Beijing’s leadership as a Russian newspaper reported that China’s top diplomat would visit Moscow in February. “We are convinced that the potential for Russian-Chinese …

01-02-2023 OTTAWA: Canada’s province of British Columbia is starting a first-in-the-nation trial decriminalizing small amounts of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. From Tuesday, adults can possess up to 2.5g of such drugs, as well as methamphetamine, fentanyl and morphine. Canada’s federal government granted the request by the west …

01-02-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies CANBERRA/ SYDNEY: Australia’s nuclear safety agency has joined the hunt for a tiny radioactive capsule missing somewhere in the outback, sending a team with specialized car-mounted and portable detection equipment. The loss of the radioactive capsule, which is believed to have fallen from a truck …

01-02-2023 WASHINGTON: Even compared with the volatile nature of Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories, the last few weeks have been marked by extraordinary tensions and deadly violence between Israelis and Palestinians but when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel this week, he only reiterated Washington’s …

01-02-2023 PARIS: A nationwide strike is under way in France in a second wave of protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Eight big unions are taking part in the strike, which is disrupting schools, public transport and oil refineries. Protests are …

31-01-2023 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies PESHAWAR: A rescue and recovery operation has ended in Pakistan after a suicide bombing at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed at least 100 people, most of them police officials. Kashif Aftab Abbasi, senior superintendent of police operations …

31-01-2023 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: Most Adani Group shares fell sharply on Monday as the Indian conglomerate’s rebuttal of a US short seller’s criticism failed to pacify investors, deepening a market rout that has now led to losses of $65bn in the group’s stock values. Led by Asia’s richest man …

31-01-2023 JERUSALEM/ NABLUS: Israeli officers on Sunday sealed off the Jerusalem family home of a Palestinian gunman who killed seven people outside a synagogue on the outskirts of the city, police said, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “a swift response”. Seven people including a 14-year-old were shot dead on …

31-01-2023 GENEVA: All countries remain “dangerously unprepared” for the next pandemic, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has warned, saying future health crises could also collide with increasingly likely climate-related disasters. Despite three “brutal” years of the COVID-19 pandemic, strong preparedness systems are “severely …

31-01-2023 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies PESHAWAR: Dozens of people have been killed in a bomb attack targeting a mosque in a security compound in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, according to authorities. Muhammed Asim, a spokesperson for the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, told media …