04-09-2024 KINSHASA: An attempt by inmates to break out of a high-security prison in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa, has led to the deaths of 129 people, the authorities say. Interior Minister Shabani Lukoo said that 24 prisoners had died of bullet wounds after warning shots …
Read More »Extremist settlers rapidly seizing West Bank land
04-09-2024 OCCUPIED WEST BANK: Last October, Palestinian grandmother Ayesha Shtayyeh says a man pointed a gun at her head and told her to leave the place she had called home for 50 years. She told the BBC the armed threat was the culmination of an increasingly violent campaign of harassment …
Read More »Putin welcomed in Mongolia despite ICC arrest warrant
04-09-2024 ULAANBAATAR: Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Mongolia, his first visit to an International Criminal Court (ICC) member since it issued a warrant for his arrest last year. He was welcomed by Mongolia’s leader at a lavish ceremony in the Asian nation’s capital Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday. The Russian …
Read More »Netanyahu asks ‘forgiveness’ over hostage deaths as protests continue
04-09-2024 JERUSALEM: Benjamin Netanyahu has asked for “forgiveness” from Israelis for failing to return six hostages found dead in Gaza on Saturday, as Hamas warned more could be “returned to their families in shrouds” if a ceasefire isn’t reached. His comments came as intense street protests over his handling of …
Read More »Oil extends losses on prospect of higher OPEC+ supply
03-09-2024 SINGAPORE/ NEW YORK: Oil prices extended losses on Monday with investors weighing higher OPEC+ production from October against a sharp drop in output from Libya amid sluggish demand in China and the U.S., the world’s two biggest oil consumers. Brent crude futures fell 57 cents, or 0.7%, to $76.36 …
Read More »India braces for another month of rainfall in September
03-09-2024 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: India is forecast to receive above-average rainfall in September after surplus rains in August, the weather department said on Saturday. The rainfall in September is likely to be more than 109% of a 50-year average, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director-general of the India Meteorological …
Read More »Kicked out at 18 to live on the streets in Spain
03-09-2024 BARCELONA, SPAIN: The morning he turned 18, the Spanish children’s centre that Ilyas* (name has been changed) had been sheltering in for two years since he arrived across the border from Morocco unceremoniously kicked him out. He wasn’t even permitted to stay for breakfast. Now that he was an …
Read More »17 bodies found after Russian tourist helicopter crash
03-09-2024 MOSCOW: Rescuers in the Russian far-east have found no survivors in the wreckage of a helicopter that disappeared while carrying 22 people most of them tourists. The aircraft went missing on Saturday after taking off from a base near the Vachkazhets volcano in the Kamchatka peninsula. Officials said on …
Read More »Hounded South African beauty queen wins Nigeria contest
03-09-2024 VICTORIA/ ABUJA: After being hounded over her nationality and forced to drop out of the Miss South Africa contest, Chidimma Adetshina has been crowned beauty queen of a totally different country. Ms Adetshina cried tears of joy as she was named Miss Universe Nigeria on Saturday. “This crown is …
Read More »Striking images reveal depths of Titanic’s slow decay
03-09-2024 LONDON: It was the image that made Titanic’s wreck instantly recognizable, the ship’s bow looming out of the darkness of the Atlantic depths but a new expedition has revealed the effects of slow decay, with a large section of railing now on the sea floor. The loss of the …
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