International

30-08-2022 BEIJING/ HONG KONG: Zhang Meng had a breakdown last December. The 20-year-old found herself sobbing on the stairs of her dorm, driven to despair by repeated COVID lockdowns of her university campus in Beijing. The lockdowns had meant she was mostly confined to her room and unable to meet …

30-08-2022 BAGHDAD: Powerful Iraqi leader Muqtada al-Sadr is going on a hunger strike until “violence and the use of weapons” ends, according to an allied legislator. The move came after deadly violence erupted in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, amid protests by al-Sadr’s followers. At least 30 people have been killed and …

30-08-2022 COLOMBO: In her outstretched palms, 49-year-old Nilanthi Gunasekera holds her family’s last remaining handful of dried fish – a reminder of Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis in decades. She is just one of the millions of Sri Lankans battling a calamitous decline in living standards, as they find themselves …

29-08-2022 By SJA Jafri + Agencies KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: The Taliban’s acting defence minister on Sunday claimed Pakistan had allowed American drones to use its airspace to access Afghanistan, a charge Pakistan has recently denied following a US air strike in Kabul. Acting Minister of Defence Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob told reporters …

29-08-2022 BAGHDAD: The Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr has announced that he is quitting political life and closing his political offices in a move that could further inflame tensions in the country. “I hereby announce my final withdrawal,” al-Sadr said on Monday. The statement, published on Twitter, comes amid months …

29-08-2022 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: As India’s capital of New Delhi prepares for winter and the accompanying season of acrid smog, the government is promoting a motorcycle helmet fitted with filters and a fan at the back that it claims can remove 80% of pollutants. State agencies have pumped thousands …

29-08-2022 LONDON: The US dollar climbed to a 20-year high against other major currencies on Monday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled interest rates would be kept higher for longer to bring down soaring inflation. The dollar index, which measures the currency’s value against a basket of peers, scaled …

29-08-2022 JAKARTA: A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, the third tremor to rattle the area since early Monday, according to the country’s geophysics agency. Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency (BMKG) recorded the shallow quake off the Mentawai islands, off Sumatra’s west coast just before 10.30am …

28-08-2022 Bureau Report NEW DELHI/ NOIDA: Indian authorities demolished two illegally constructed skyscrapers in a wide plume of dust debris on Sunday near the capital New Delhi, razing the tallest structures ever pulled down in the country in less than 10 seconds. Crowds watching the collapse from rooftops on nearby …

27-08-2022 Bureau Report SYDNEY: Australian police said on Friday it had seized some A$1.6 billion ($1.1 billion) worth of crystal meth, also known as “ice”, concealed within marble stones in several sea freight containers, in what it said was the biggest ever haul of the drug in the country. More …