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25-05-2024 WASHINGTON: Republican US House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would soon address a joint meeting of Congress amid heightened tensions with President Joe Biden over the Israeli leader’s handling of the war in Gaza. Delivering a keynote speech at the Israeli embassy’s annual …

25-05-2024 VATICAN CITY: A London-born teenager whose proficiency at spreading the teachings of the Catholic Church online led to him being called “God’s influencer” is set to become a saint. Carlo Acutis died in 2006, at the age of 15, meaning he would be the first millennial, a person born …

25-05-2024 UNITED NATIONS: United Nations member states have voted to declare 11 July an annual day of remembrance for victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Germany and Rwanda’s proposal passed despite furious lobbying by Serbia against the resolution. President Aleksandar Vucic claimed it was “politicised”, and risked branding Serbia and …

25-05-2024 COLUMBUS, OHIO: Ohio’s governor is pushing state lawmakers to avoid a partisan clash threatening to bar US President Joe Biden from the key swing state’s presidential ballot in November. The state’s top election official said earlier this week that Democrats are nominating their candidate too late to comply with …

24-05-2024 THE HAGUE: The top United Nations court ordered Israel on Friday to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. While Israel is unlikely to comply with the order, it will ratchet up the pressure …

24-05-2024 RAFAH: Israeli tanks advanced to the edge of a crowded district in the heart of Rafah on Wednesday during one of the most intense nights of bombardment of the southern Gaza city since Israel launched its offensive there this month. Israel’s assault on Rafah on Gaza’s southern edge has …

24-05-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: India’s election panel ordered the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition Congress to exercise restraint in their campaigns, after both had reported the other for making divisive speeches during India’s vote. The panel said the parties’ defences for the speeches by Prime Minister …

24-05-2024 UNITED NATIONS/ RAFAH: Food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah has been suspended due to a lack of supplies and insecurity, the UN says. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, warned its distribution centre and a World Food Programme warehouse were now inaccessible because of the …

24-05-2024 TALLINN/ RIGA/ VILNIUS: There have been calls for calm in Finland and the Baltic States after a draft Russian decree proposed revising its borders in the Baltic Sea. Latvia said it was trying to clarify the situation, but Lithuania warned that the Kremlin was aiming to intimidate its neighbors …

24-05-2024 VIENNA: A man who was renovating his wine cellar in Austria has made an extraordinary discovery. It wasn’t a vintage red or white but the remains of prehistoric mammoths. The find has been called an “archaeological sensation” by researchers from the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of …