17-01-2026 WASHINGTON: Four astronauts aboard the International Space Station are returning to Earth, more than a month earlier than originally planned. NASA made the decision to cut SpaceX’s Crew-11 mission short due to an undisclosed medical concern with one of the astronauts; the crew was scheduled to spend a six-month …
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17-01-2026 Bureau Report + Agencies MELBOURNE: One person has died and 300 properties have been destroyed in bushfires that have torn across south-east Australia. The fires have raged in dozens of locations across the country for several days, mostly in the state of Victoria but also in New South Wales, …
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17-01-2026 BEIJING: China on Wednesday reported a record trade surplus of nearly $1.2 trillion in 2025, led by booming exports to non-US markets as producers looked to build global scale to fend off sustained pressure from the Trump administration. A push by policymakers for Chinese firms to diversify beyond the …
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17-01-2026 LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that Elon Musk’s X is acting to ensure full compliance with UK law after the country’s media regulator launched a probe into the platform over sexualized imagery produced by the Grok AI chatbot. “I have been informed this morning that …
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17-01-2026 NEW DELHI: On Christmas Eve, Hindu hardline groups affiliated with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced a shutdown in the central Indian city of Raipur. The protest was called over allegations of “forced” religious conversions by Christians, a claim frequently levelled against the Christian community …
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17-01-2026 TEHRAN/ BAGHDAD: Armed Kurdish separatist groups sought to cross the border into Iran from Iraq, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a sign of foreign entities potentially seeking to take advantage of instability after days of crackdown on protests against Tehran. The three sources, who included …
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17-01-2026 WASHINGTON/ ISRAEL: United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East has announced the launch of the second phase of a US-brokered plan to end Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Steve Witkoff said in a social media post on Wednesday that Trump’s 20-point …
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16-01-2026 PHNOM PENH: Thailand’s military continues to occupy civilian areas in Cambodia, having barricaded some with barbed wire and shipping containers, posing a risk to a truce between the neighbors who clashed twice last year, the Cambodian foreign minister said. Up to 4,000 Cambodian families are unable to return to …
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16-01-2026 DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have asked Lebanese security forces to hand over more than 200 senior officers who fled to Lebanon after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, following an investigation that showed how the neighboring country was a hub for insurgent plotting. On December 18, a top Syrian security official, …
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16-01-2026 TOKYO/ NEW YORK: Japanese yen rebounded from an 18-month low against the dollar on Wednesday as Japanese officials warned of potential intervention to shore up the currency, while the US currency was modestly weaker against the euro as traders continued to evaluate likely Federal Reserve policy. The yen has …
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