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28-06-2026 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: India is drawing up plans to prepare for weaker-than-usual monsoon rains and the likely impact on crops in the world’s most populous nation. The monsoon season has so far brought rains about 43 percent below average and India’s Meteorological Department has forecast continued weak precipitation …

28-06-2026 MANAMA/ WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed to protect Gulf allies’ interests as Washington presses ahead with Iran talks, while President Donald Trump said negotiations were ‘doing great’. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned ships against using an unapproved route through the Strait of Hormuz, saying vessels outside Tehran-approved …

28-06-2026 CARACAS: Venezuela has been struck by powerful back-to-back earthquakes, levelling buildings in the capital, Caracas, and prompting fears of mass casualties. A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck near San Felipe, about 284km (176 miles) west of Caracas, at 22:04 GMT on Wednesday, followed almost immediately by a magnitude 7.5 quake …

27-06-2026 TEHRAN: Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says deal to end the war with US was not the result of pressure and coercion. Israel’s army says it attacked Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz says military will not withdraw from Lebanon, even if US demands …

27-06-2026 BEIRUT: The biggest casualty of the US-Iran deal may not be Israel’s Iran strategy, but the political brand Benjamin Netanyahu spent decades constructing as the Israeli leader who could uniquely bend Washington to his will on Iran, analysts, former US officials and diplomats say. Netanyahu built his political identity …

27-06-2026 NEW YORK: US congressman Dan Goldman has been defeated in a New York primary election, capping a clean sweep for candidates backed by New York’s democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Goldman was beaten by progressive challenger Brad Lander in New York’s 10th congressional district in a contest that laid …

27-06-2026 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: India and ‌the United States discussed pathways to conclude an interim trade deal, the Indian government said in a statement on Wednesday, after talks between its trade minister Piyush Goyal and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Greer, the top US trade diplomat, is in India …

27-06-2026 TRIPOLI: Four pro-Palestinian campaigners detained in Libya for about a month have been released, the Global Sumud Flotilla group has said. In a statement on Wednesday, the organization said Achraf Khoja from Tunisia, Matias Rodriguez from Uruguay, and Domenico Centrone and Leonarda Alberizia, both from Italy, had all arrived …

27-06-2026 PARIS: Much of Western Europe is bracing for another day of a sweltering heatwave that has smashed temperature records in many countries and left tens of thousands of people without power in France. The extreme weather is being driven by atmospheric and circulation patterns that keep hot air trapped …

27-06-2026 COLOMBO: Experts have warned that Sri Lanka is emerging as a hub for transnational cybercrime, after a crackdown in south-east Asia pushed Chinese-run criminal networks to relocate their vast scam operations. Sri Lankan police spokesperson Fredrick Wootler said the country was witnessing an “alarming increase of cybercrimes” perpetrated by …