International

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 …

21-03-2023 TEHRAN/ RIYADH: Iran says Saudi Arabia has invited Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi for an official visit just over a week since the countries agreed to restore diplomatic relations. The invitation is said to have come in a letter from King Salman, but has not yet been confirmed by the …

21-03-2023 WASHINGTON/ LONDON/ BAGHDAD: The invasion of March 2003 was a catastrophe for Iraq and its people. More proof of that, measured in broken lives, was at a suspected site of a mass grave in the desert outside Sinjar, not far from the border with Syria. Survivors of one of …

21-03-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies LONDON/ NEW DELHI/ MELBOURNE: A man has been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder after a crowd incident saw windows smashed at the Indian High Commission in London, media reported on Monday. Metropolitan Police officers were called to the building in Aldwych, Westminster, at around …

21-03-2023 BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to embark on his first state visit to Russia in four years, spotlighting an alliance that has faced growing scrutiny since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Here are the key aspects of China and Russia’s bilateral relationship: Common international goal In February 2022, …