International

29-12-2025 JERUSALEM/ HARGEISA: Israel has become the first country to formally recognize Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland as an independent nation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel intended to immediately expand cooperation in agriculture, health, and technology. Somaliland’s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, called the development “a historic moment”. Recognition by …

29-12-2025 PALM BEACH/ LAGOS: US-backed air strikes in Nigeria hit two Islamic State-linked camps in the Bauni forest of Sokoto State, targeting foreign fighters infiltrating from the Sahel, the Nigerian government said. The strikes carried out on Thursday were approved by President Bola Tinubu and launched from maritime platforms domiciled …

29-12-2025 NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar heads to the polls on Sunday as it battles a civil war that has ravaged parts of the country as well as one of Asia’s worst humanitarian crises. Already one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries, Myanmar has been hammered by a conflict triggered by a 2021 coup …

29-12-2025 Bureau Report NEW DELHI/ ALWAR: Foreign companies operating in India have long grappled with complex regulations and confusing tax laws. In the northwestern state of Rajasthan, some of the world’s biggest beverage firms face the additional challenge of securing and managing dwindling water supplies while navigating strict government rules …

29-12-2025 BANGKOK/ PHNOM PENH: Thailand and Cambodia agreed to an “immediate” ceasefire on Saturday, the two countries said in a joint statement, pledging to end weeks of deadly border clashes. At least 47 people were killed and more than a million displaced in three weeks of fighting with artillery, tanks, …

29-12-2025 WASHINGTON/ JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been warning of a grave Iranian threat to Israel and the world for more than 30 years. United States President Donald Trump heeded those warnings in June and bombed Tehran’s nuclear facilities but it appears that Netanyahu is still not satisfied …

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s cabinet on Friday approved a record $785 billion budget for the next fiscal year, aiming to strike a balance between her proactive fiscal policy and debt blowout concerns by limiting new bond issuance. Faced with rising government bond yields and a weak yen, the …

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty of abuse of power and money laundering by the Kuala Lumpur High Court in a major trial related to a multibillion-dollar scandal over the country’s sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB, on Friday. What was the verdict against Najib? Najib, 72, …

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army says an operative with the external arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is among several people killed in strikes it has carried out across Lebanon in another breach of its ceasefire with Hezbollah. Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said the drone strike on Thursday …

ANKARA: Officials from Libya and Turkiye have stepped up coordination over the investigation into a plane crash near Ankara that killed Libya’s army chief and seven other people as forensic work and preparations for repatriating the bodies are conducted. Libya’s Criminal Investigation Department chief, Major General Mahmoud Ashour, led a …