International

24-01-2023 TALLINN/ RIGA/ MOSCOW: Latvia will downgrade its level of diplomatic relations with Russia in solidarity with neighboring Estonia and due to Moscow’s ongoing war on Ukraine, the country’s top diplomat said. “Due to the ongoing brutal Russian aggression against Ukraine and in solidarity with Estonia, Latvia will lower level …

24-01-2023 BRUSSELS/ TEHRAN: The European Union will step up sanctions targeting Iranian officials deemed to be involved in an ongoing crackdown against anti-government protesters in the country, but will not go as far as declaring Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a “terrorist” organization until further legal processes are …

24-01-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies LONDON/ NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD: Days after the BBC aired a documentary on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi titled ‘India: The Modi Question’, former British foreign secretary Jack Straw testified about his government conducting an investigation on its own into the 2002 Gujarat riots in India …

24-01-2023 By SJA Jafri ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI/ LAHORE/ PESHAWAR: Pakistan has suffered a nationwide power outage due to a technical fault that left large swaths of the country, including the capital Islamabad, without electricity. In a statement on Twitter, the energy ministry said the system frequency of the national grid went …

23-01-2023 DAMASCUS: Jamaat al-Tawhid, an affiliate of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a designated terrorist group by the US and United Nations, confirmed to have raided several Syrian army posts on Wednesday. The attacks were carried out in northwestern Syria, close to the border with Turkey. According to media, the group …

23-01-2023 TEHRAN: Iranian officials continued to lash out against the European Union on Friday following a resolution that slaps sanctions on Iran, and as the EU considers listing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Ghalibaf issued an unveiled threat on …

23-01-2023 NASHVILLE: Tennessee has fired two top officials after a report revealed numerous errors in the state’s lethal injection system. The Department of Corrections has fired head lawyer, Debra Inglis, and Inspector General Kelly Young. The independent report found drugs used in Tennessee’s lethal injections were not properly tested for …

23-01-2023 Bureau Report + BBC NEW DELHI/ KYIV: Two Indians have become the first to sell a hybrid beer in Poland that combines Indian rice flakes with European hops. The BBC’s Imran Qureshi finds out how the Ukraine war shaped their journey. A year ago, Chandra Mohan, an Indian living …

23-01-2023 NEW YORK: The former US astronaut Buzz Aldrin has got married for the fourth time on his 93rd birthday. Aldrin was one of the pilots on the legendary Apollo 11 spaceflight in 1969, becoming one of the first two people to walk on the moon after the mission’s commander, …

23-01-2023 MOSCOW: When Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of Russian men in September last year, it took Adam Kalinin, not his real name, a week to decide that the best thing he could do was move to the forest. The IT specialist was against the war from the start, …