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20-05-2026 WASHINGTON/ HAVANA: The US justice department is reportedly preparing to indict aging Cuban leader Raul Castro in the coming days over the shooting down of two aircraft three decades ago. The reported charges, which would need to be approved by a US grand jury, emerged as the director of …

20-05-2026 VIENNA: Bulgarian pop star Dara has won the Eurovision Song Contest with her pneumatic dance anthem Bangaranga. The 27-year-old topped both the public and the jury vote in a nail-biting conclusion, soaring ahead of Israel in second and Romania in third to score a massive 516 points. Dara was …

20-05-2026 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: A filing revealed that the power regulator in Rajasthan, India’s largest solar producer, refused to approve a 3,200 megawatt coal project. The power regulator said it was against clean energy goals, and lacked justification based on demand forecasts. In an order published Thursday, …

20-05-2026 WASHINGTON/ TEHRAN: US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Iran on Saturday over the stalled negotiations on its nuclear program, saying Tehran would face severe consequences if it refused to reach an agreement, even as diplomatic efforts remained mired in mutual accusations and failed proposals. In a …

20-05-2026 TAIPEI: Taiwan has insisted it is a sovereign, independent nation, after US President Donald Trump cautioned it against formally declaring independence from China. Trump’s remarks came after a two-day summit in Beijing, after which he said he had “made no commitment either way” about the self-governing island which China …

20-05-2026 JERUSALEM: Hezbollah has increased its use of small first-person view (FPV) drones to attack Israel including systems controlled by fiber-optic cables to evade sophisticated defences. BBC Verify has geo-located 35 videos shared by the Lebanese armed group since 26 March which show strikes on Israeli soldiers, armored vehicles and …

19-05-2026 KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russia was seeking to draw Belarus deeper into its war in Ukraine and was weighing plans to attack Ukraine’s north or a NATO country from Belarusian ‌territory. “We continue to document Russia’s attempts to draw Belarus deeper into the war against Ukraine,” Zelenskiy …

19-05-2026 BAGHDAD/ LONDON: Iraq exported 10 million barrels of oil via the Strait of Hormuz in April, down from about 93 million barrels monthly before the Iran war, the country’s new oil minister, Basim Mohammed, ‌said at a press conference on Saturday. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz due …

19-05-2026 ABUJA: Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has confirmed the killing of a senior Islamic State (IS) leader in a joint-operation with the US. “Our determined Nigerian Armed Forces, working closely with the Armed Forces of the United States, conducted a daring joint operation that dealt a heavy blow to the …

19-05-2026 GAZA STRIP: Top leaders of the main Palestinian political faction, Fatah, are electing its highest decision-making body, at its first major conference in a decade. The 90-year-old Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas who rules by decree was re-elected as head of Fatah on Wednesday. Leading figures are promising unity and …