International

03-01-2022 JERUSALEM/ GAZA: Israel’s military said it launched air attacks on Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip, a day after rockets fired from Gaza landed in the Mediterranean Sea. The Israeli military said the attacks late on Saturday hit a rocket manufacturing facility and a military post for Hamas. “As …

03-01-2022 CAPE TOWN: A major fire has erupted at the South African parliament building in Cape Town, with flames bursting from the roof of a building and a plume of smoke that could be seen from miles away. The fire has “burned down” the entire National Assembly where parliamentarians sit, …

  02-01-2022 VIENNA: A law allowing assisted suicide has taken effect in Austria. From Saturday, adults who are terminally ill or have a permanent, debilitating condition, can opt to make provisions for an assisted death. Parliament approved the new law in December, following a constitutional court ruling on the issue. …

02-01-2022 Bureau Report MELBOURNE: A large grassfire is still burning at a former ammunitions factory site in Melbourne’s north west, however authorities says the threat posed by the blaze has been significantly reduced. Dozens of firefighters from Fire Rescue Victoria and Country Fire Authority have spent the afternoon battling the …

02-01-2022 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Mumbai Zone on Saturday detected massive evasion of around 700 million during the crackdown on cryptocurrency service provider WazirX. According to NTDV, the director-general GST Intelligence (DGGI) searched around half a dozen offices of cryptocurrency service providers following the …

02-01-2022 JOHANNESBURG: South Africa has bid farewell to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the last great hero of the struggle against apartheid, in a funeral stripped of pomp but freighted with tears and drenched in rain. The requiem mass started at 10am (08:00 GMT) at Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral where, for …

02-01-2022 VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis used his New Year’s message on Saturday to issue a clarion call for an end to violence against women, saying it was insulting to God. Francis, 85, celebrated a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on the day the Roman Catholic Church marks both the solemnity …

01-01-2022 BAGHDAD: On the second anniversary of the US assassination of anti-terror icon, Qassem Soleimani, and an Iraqi commander, protesters burned US and Israeli flags before setting fire to a replica of American embassy in Baghdad. Staged in front of Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, the event also marked the second …

01-01-2022 Bureau Report SRINAGAR/ ISLAMABAD: Dozens people have died and injured in a stampede at a religious shrine in Indian-administered Kashmir. The disaster happened around 3am (21:30 GMT) while it was still dark on the route to the Vaishno Devi shrine, one of the country’s most revered Hindu sites. “At …

01-01-2022 SHANGHAI: According to recent McKinsey research, 2021 was a year of transformation: people, corporations and society began to look ahead to influencing their futures rather than just surviving the present. It was the year that premature hopes for herd immunity, an end to pandemic lockdowns, and a return to …