Category: World

Indian authorities on Thursday released three low-level politicians in occupied Kashmir amid international pressure to ease a clampdown imposed more than two months ago when New Delhi downgraded the autonomy of the region and imposed tighter controls. The Indian government decision came days after it announced it would allow tourists back into the region after […]

China said on Thursday that Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity “must be respected” after Turkish forces launched a military operation into Kurdish-controlled areas in the country’s northeast. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed on Wednesday a bombardment on the region that sent thousands of civilians fleeing their homes. The assault followed US President Donald Trump’s […]

The White House declared it will halt any and all cooperation with what it termed the “illegitimate” impeachment probe by House Democrats, sharpening the constitutional clash between President Donald Trump and Congress. Trump attorneys on Tuesday sent a lengthy letter to House leaders bluntly stating White House refusal to participate in the inquiry that was […]

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday was awarded to John B Goodenough, M Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino for the development of lithium-ion batteries. The Nobel Committee said: “Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionised our lives and are used in everything from mobile phones to laptops and electric vehicles. Through their work, this year’s Chemistry […]

Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria on Wednesday, with air strikes hitting the border town of Ras al Ain. President Tayyip Erdogan, announcing the start of the action, said the aim was to eliminate what he called a “terror corridor” on Turkey’s southern border. Turkey had been poised to advance […]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the government of the Indian state of Telangana to “immediately release” Ravi Prakash, the founder of an independent Telugu news website, Tolivelugu. In a statement shared on its website on Tuesday, CPJ, an independent organisation working to promote press freedom worldwide, also urged the government to ensure that Prakash […]

The leader of Al Qaeda’s South Asian branch was killed in a US-Afghan joint raid in southern Afghanistan last month, Afghan officials confirmed on Tuesday. Asim Umar, who led Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) from its inception in 2014, was killed during a September 23 raid on a Taliban compound in the Musa […]

French investigators do not believe the 2002 bombing of a bus transporting French engineers in Karachi was revenge for the non-payment of arms deal bribes, intelligence documents seen by AFP on Tuesday show. The theory of a revenge attack, carried out after former president Jacques Chirac cancelled the payment of bribes on arms deals signed with Pakistan […]

Saudi Arabia welcomed 24,000 tourists in the 10 days after it issued tourism visas for the first time, the Saudi state television reported on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia announced on September 27 it would start offering tourist visas, opening up the kingdom to holidaymakers as part of a push to diversify its economy away from oil. […]

The United Nations is running a deficit of $230 million, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, and may run out of money by the end of October. In a letter intended for the 37,000 employees at the UN secretariat and obtained by AFP, Guterres said unspecified “additional stop-gap measures” would have to be taken to […]