19-06-2025 BEIJING/ WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will visit China from Tuesday, looking to foster trade ties and woo tourists and students, although thorny issues of security and defence will figure on his agenda in meetings with top leaders. Making his first visit to China since becoming prime …
Read More »UK parliament votes to decriminalize abortion
19-06-2025 LONDON: Britain’s parliament voted on Tuesday to decriminalize abortion in England and Wales to stop a growing number of women from being investigated by police for terminating pregnancies under legislation dating back to the mid-19th century. Abortions have been legal in England and Wales for almost 60 years but …
Read More »Oil prices extend rise as Iran-Israel conflict enters sixth day
19-06-2025 BEIJING: Oil prices ticked up in early trading on Wednesday after ending the previous session up more than 4% on worries that the Iran-Israel conflict could disrupt supplies. Brent crude futures rose 19 cents, or 0.25%, to $76.64 a barrel by 0029 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures …
Read More »China pharma projects disrupted by Sino-US tensions
19-06-2025 SHANGHAI: Drug research and development firms in China including WuXi AppTec, opens new tab and WuXi Biologics, opens new tab are changing project plans, stockpiling supplies and discussing testing locally, said sources with knowledge of the matter, as they seek to mitigate the impact of US-China trade tensions. China’s …
Read More »Carney, Modi hold talks to reset India & Canada ties
19-06-2025 KANANASKIS: The leaders of India and Canada held on Tuesday what they called a productive first bilateral meeting since then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused New Delhi in 2023 of involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist. Relations have been poor for almost two years but there was …
Read More »Australia to begin talks on security; defence with EU
19-06-2025 SYDNEY: Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday the country would commence negotiations on a security and defence partnership with the European Union and was also hopeful of a “symbolically important” trade deal. Albanese met with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President …
Read More »Trump calls for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’
19-06-2025 JERUSALEM/ WASHINGTON: Iran and Israel launched new missile strikes at each other on Wednesday as the air war between the two longtime enemies entered a sixth day despite a call from US President Donald Trump for Iran’s unconditional surrender. The Israeli military said two barrages of Iranian missiles were …
Read More »Khamenei sees his inner circle hollowed out by Israel
18-06-2025 TEHRAN: Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cuts an increasingly lonely figure. Khamenei has seen his main military and security advisers killed by Israeli air strikes, leaving major holes in his inner circle and raising the risk of strategic errors, according to five people familiar with his decision-making …
Read More »India regulator asks Air India for training data of pilots
18-06-2025 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: India’s aviation safety watchdog has asked Air India for the training records of the pilots and dispatcher for the plane that crashed last week as part of its investigation into the incident that killed at least 271 people, government memos showed. The Directorate General of …
Read More »Trump leaves G7 summit early warning Tehran to evacuate
18-06-2025 KANANASKIS: President Donald Trump left early from the Group of Seven summit in Canada, to attend to the conflict between Israel and Iran, the White House announced. Spokespeople from the Pentagon and the White House denied that the US military is getting involved. Before his departure, Trump wrote on …
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