International

28-02-2025 GAZA CITY/ CAIRO/ JERUSALEM: Israel has completed forensic tests confirming the identities of four dead Israeli hostages whose bodies were handed over by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners. On Wednesday night, without a ceremony, Hamas passed four coffins to the Red Cross from Gaza. The …

27-02-2025 LONDON: Governments around the world oversaw a record-breaking year for internet shutdowns in 2024, a new report on “digital violence” suggests. There were 296 internet shutdowns documented across 54 countries last year, surpassing the 283 shutdowns in 39 countries in 2023, says the report by Access Now and the …

27-02-2025 TEHRAN/ WASHINGTON: Iran will not engage in direct talks with the United States on his country’s nuclear program amid US President Donald Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” against it, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said. His remarks came a day after the US imposed a fresh round of sanctions …

27-02-2025 DAMASCUS/ JERUSALEM/ DOHA: Israeli warplanes hit a town south of Syria’s capital as well as the southern province of Daraa late on Tuesday, residents, security sources and local broadcaster Syria TV said. Israeli planes struck the town of Kisweh approximately 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Damascus, a Syrian …

27-02-2025 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ NAGPUR: Like thousands of his countrymen in far-flung places, flower-shop owner Ashish Nagose has been learning about trading cryptocurrencies by attending classes every weekday for the past two months in his home city of Nagpur in western India. Nagose bought and sold stock …

27-02-2025 GAZA STRIP: Dozens of babies have died while several severely ill in the past two weeks in Gaza due to the cold weather and lack of adequate shelter and heating, Palestinian medics and health officials say. Doctors at the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society hospital in Gaza City, in the …

27-02-2025 KYIV: A senior Ukrainian official says the US and Ukraine have agreed the terms of a minerals deal. It contains “a number of good amendments,” the official tells media, though details about what’s included in the revised draft remain unclear. US President Donald Trump suggests his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr …

27-02-2025 Warning: This article contains distressing content, including descriptions of rape, from the start. KHARTOUM:  “He told me that if I tried to escape, he would kill me.” Pascaline, 22, recalls the words of her rapist at a prison in Goma, the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, …

27-02-2025 PRETORIA: A South African court has dismissed claims of a white genocide in the country as “clearly imagined” and “not real”, undermining comments made by US President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk. The ruling came as the court blocked a wealthy benefactor’s donation to white supremacist group …

27-02-2025 MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is open to offering the US access to rare minerals, including from Russian-occupied Ukraine. This comes after US President Donald Trump has repeatedly pushed for Ukraine to give up some of its minerals in exchange for support, in a deal which is …