International

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

21-03-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: Police in India’s Punjab are searching for a Sikh separatist leader who has been on the run since Saturday. Mobile internet is suspended across the state and more than 100 of Amritpal Singh’s supporters have been detained but despite numerous roadblocks and a …

21-03-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies LONDON/ PARIS/ KARACHI: The Muslim holy month of Ramadan will begin later this week. The pre-sunrise to sunset fast lasts anywhere from 12 to 18 hours, depending on where you are in the world. Muslims believe that Ramadan is the month when the first verses …

21-03-2023 Bureau Report SYDNEY: A major clean-up effort is under way in Australia after millions of fish died in a river in western New South Wales (NSW). Fish will be cleared from “high density areas”, but it will not be possible to remove all the carcasses, police say. Police reassured …