09-01-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: India’s government expects economic growth to slow in the financial year that ends on March 31 as pandemic-related distortions ease and pent-up demand for goods levels out going into 2023. Gross domestic product (GDP) will likely rise 7 percent in the current fiscal …
Read More »Myanmar’s military holds election talks with armed groups
09-01-2023 RANGOON: Myanmar’s military government has held talks with three ethnic armed groups on staging elections in areas under rebel control, a spokesman for one of the groups has said. Leaders from the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP), United Wa State Party (UWSP) and National Democratic Alliance Army which have …
Read More »Thousands of Israelis protest against Netanyahu’s new gov’t
09-01-2023 JERUSALEM: Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to protest plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government that they say threaten democracy and freedoms. The protesters gathered in the city of Tel Aviv on Saturday, days after the most right-wing and religiously conservative government in the country’s …
Read More »Prince Harry says he cried once after Diana death
09-01-2023 LONDON: Prince Harry has revealed he cried only once over the death of his mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales, in 1997. In a new interview clip promoting the publication of his autobiography Spare, Prince Harry recounts how he and Prince William were unable to show any emotion as …
Read More »Wikipedia owner denies Saudi infiltration claim
09-01-2023 NEW YORK: Wikipedia’s parent company has denied claims the Saudi government infiltrated its team in the Middle East. Two international human rights groups said Saudi officials had altered or deleted content on the website. The claims came after Wikimedia carried out its own investigation and suspended 16 users for …
Read More »Top spy freed in US after more than 20 years
09-01-2023 WASHINGTON/ HAVANA: Ana Montes, among the best-known Cold War spies caught by the US has been released from prison after more than 20 years in custody. The 65-year-old spent almost two decades spying for Cuba while employed as an analyst at the Defence Intelligence Agency. After her arrest in …
Read More »Indian actress Tunisha Sharma whose death set off a storm
08-01-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: The alleged suicide of a television actress has been making headlines in India because of the circumstances surrounding her death and the arrest of her former boyfriend amid accusations of religious manipulation. Tunisha Sharma was found dead on 24 December in a toilet …
Read More »China suspends social media accounts of COVID critics
08-01-2023 BEIJING: China has suspended or closed the social media accounts of more than 1,000 critics of the government’s COVID-19 policies, as the country moves to roll back harsh anti-virus restrictions. The popular Sina Weibo social media platform said it had addressed 12,854 violations, including attacks on experts, scholars and …
Read More »Iran executes two more activists involved in ongoing protests
08-01-2023 TEHRAN: Two men have been hanged in Iran after being convicted of killing a member of the paramilitary Basij force during protests to mark the 40th day since the death of a protester Hadis Najafi last year. Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini were executed in the early hours …
Read More »Thousands march in Paris against unresolved Shia killings
08-01-2023 PARIS: Thousands of demonstrators have marched in Paris to express their frustration about the unresolved murders of three Shia Kurdish female activists 10 years ago. The marchers were also mourning the three people killed outside a Kurdish cultural centre in Paris two weeks ago in what prosecutors called a …
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