International

01-08-2022 COLOMBO: The mainly youth-led protest movement in crisis-hit Sri Lanka is divided on whether to withdraw from a sea-facing camp they set up months ago near the presidential secretariat in capital Colombo. The GotaGoGama camp, also called Galle Face Green, is the epicentre of the protests in Sri Lanka …

01-08-2022 Bureau Report DUBAI/ ISLAMABAD: Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum surprised a Pakistani expat Abdul Ghafoor Abdul Hakeem by giving him a call, reported Khaleej Times. Ghafoor, who is a delivery rider, impressed Sheikh Hamdan with his act of kindness that was posted by …

01-08-2022 WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s borders fully re-opened to visitors from around the world on Monday, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic closed them in March 2020. New Zealand’s borders started reopening in February first for New Zealanders and restrictions have progressively eased. The process of reopening the borders …

01-08-2022 Bureau Report NEW DELHI/ KOCHI: India confirmed its first monkeypox death on Monday, a young man in the southern state of Kerala, in what is only the fourth known fatality from the disease in the current outbreak. Last week, Spain reported two monkeypox-related deaths and Brazil it’s first. The …

31-07-2022 BAGHDAD: Supporters of powerful Iraqi leader Muqtada al-Sadr who have occupied the country’s parliament say they have no plans to leave, deepening a months-long political standoff. On Saturday, supporters of the firebrand al-Sadr forced their way into the legislative chamber for the second time in days, after October elections …

31-07-2022 OTTAWA: Pope Francis said on Saturday that what happened at residential schools that the Roman Catholic and other Christian Churches ran to forcefully assimilate Canada’s indigenous children was genocide. The pope made the comment while flying back to Rome after a week-long trip to Canada, where he delivered a …

31-07-2022 COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s new president Ranil Wickremesinghe has formally invited MPs to join an all-party unity government to revive the bankrupt economy by undertaking painful reforms, his office said Sunday. Wickremesinghe took office earlier this month after public anger over the island nation’s worst economic crisis forced his predecessor …

31-07-2022 ISTANBUL/ DAMASCUS/ TEHRAN: Turkey pledged to assist the Syrian government in efforts to oust Kurdish militia based in the country’s northeast that Ankara regards as “terrorists”, despite a recent spike in tensions, the country’s top diplomat said. Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, stated in an interview with TV100 that …

31-07-2022 WASHINGTON/ BEIJING: A Chinese rocket fell back to Earth on Saturday over the Indian Ocean but NASA said Beijing had not shared the “specific trajectory information” needed to know where possible debris might fall. U.S. Space Command saidthe Long March 5B rocket re-entered over the Indian Ocean at approximately …

31-07-2022 Bureau Report CANBERRA/ SYDNEY: Details for giving Australia’s indigenous people a voice in parliament will follow a national referendum on the question, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday, adding that timing for the vote has not been decided. Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party government is seeking a referendum, required …