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12-06-2020 BAGHDAD/ WASHINGTON: US and Iraq officials have agreed to reduce the number of American troops in the Middle East country in the coming months but, following resumption of dialogue, fell short of providing a timeframe. The decision was announced on Thursday following the long-anticipated talks, the first strategic dialogue between the …

12-06-2020 SAINT PAUL/ WASHINGTON: State authorities in the north-western US state of Washington have hit back after President Donald Trump threatened to “take back” a police-free district controlled by protesters in Seattle. Governor Jay Inslee said Mr Trump should stay out of the state’s business, and Seattle’s mayor said any …

11-06-2020 OSLO: A Norwegian court has sentenced a gunman to 21 years in prison – with a minimum term of 14 years – for killing his teenage step-sister and opening fire at a mosque. Philip Manshaus, 22, opened fire at the al-Noor Islamic Centre in Baerum, west of the capital …

VIRGINIA/ WASHINGTON: Statues of Confederate leaders and the explorer Christopher Columbus have been torn down in the US, as pressure grows on authorities to remove monuments connected to slavery and colonialism. A statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was toppled in Richmond, Virginia, on Wednesday night. Statues of Columbus in …

11-06-2020 JERUSALEM/ GAZA/ BERUIT: Hamas members in the Gaza Strip have elected Yahya Sinwar to head its Gaza political bureau to succeed outgoing leader Ismail Haniya. Sinwar will take over from Haniya, who served out his two-term limit sometime in April. Sinwar was jailed by Israel in 1988 and spent the …

11-06-2020 US President Donald Trump says he will “not even consider” renaming military bases named for Confederate generals. He tweeted that the facilities were part of “a Great American heritage”. Trump’s remarks follow reports that top military officials were open to changes amid nationwide soul-searching after the death of George …

10-06-2020 SAINT PAUL/ WASHINGTON/ NEW YORK: The funeral of George Floyd, an African American whose death in police custody spawned global outrage, has heard impassioned pleas for racial justice. Speakers in the church in Houston, Texas, lined up to remember a man whose “crime was that he was born black”. …

10-06-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies BAGHDAD/ TEHRAN: Fighters from Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, destroyed a headquarters believed to belong to the new ringleader of the Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terror group in the Arab country. The recent operations that almost ended the …

10-06-2020 Bureau Report CANBERRA/ SYDNEY: Travellers should be free to cross all state borders from July under a new push by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to remove barriers he blames for costing jobs and putting tourism at risk. As tourism operators pleaded for certainty so families could book winter holidays, …

By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies SAINT PAUL/ WASHINGTON/ NEW YORK: The Minneapolis city council has said it wants to disband the city’s police department, after days of protests over the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a city police officer knelt on his neck …