Category: World

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made it clear that the United States is not in Afghanistan to rebuild the nation or teach Afghans how to deal with their women. The secretary’s remarks came during two days of congressional hearings this week on the US State Department’s budget proposals. “Remember, the Afghans will ultimately […]

Sudanese protesters, angry that army commanders have taken control after removing veteran president Omar al-Bashir in a palace coup, defied a night-time curfew to keep up four months of mass demonstrations on Friday. Protest leaders dismissed the transitional military council formed by top brass after they toppled Bashir on Thursday, as the “same old faces” from the […]

France is guilty of human rights abuses of homeless people, violates laws guaranteeing a home for all and fails to protect the most vulnerable, a U.N. Special Rapporteur said on Friday. France, like most European countries, has seen a rise in homelessness in the past decade, fuelled by fallout from the global financial crisis and […]

United States President Donald Trump’s controversial ban on transgender Americans in the military comes into force on Friday following a protracted legal battle. Trump’s administration has insisted that there is “too great a risk to military effectiveness and lethality” to allow transgender people to serve — reversing a policy enacted under his predecessor Barack Obama. […]

Microsoft has been collaborating with researchers linked to a Chinese military-backed university on artificial intelligence, elevating concerns that US firms are contributing to China’s high-tech surveillance and censorship apparatus. Over the past year, researchers at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing have co-authored at least three papers with scholars affiliated with China’s National University of Defence […]

NEW DELHI: A fresh controversy has erupted over India’s Rafale warplanes deal with France, after Kolkata’s Telegraphnewspaper broached on Thursday the possibility of Pakistani pilots having trained on similar planes sold to Qatar. In a follow up to the news item, NDTV checked up with the French embassy about the claim, which denied that Pakistani pilots had been […]

Malaysia and China agreed on Friday to resume construction of a multi-billion dollar rail project after months of negotiations that have strained ties between the two trade partners. They agreed to reduce the cost of the East Coast Rail Line (ECRL) to 44 billion ringgit ($10.68 billion) from the original pricetag of 65.5 billion ringgit, […]

The chief executive and a managing partner of the collapsed Dubai private equity firm Abraaj Capital Ltd were arrested on United States charges that they defrauded their investors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a federal prosecutor said on Thursday. Abraaj founder and Chief Executive Arif Naqvi was arrested in the United Kingdom last […]

The Taliban on Friday announced their annual spring offensive, which comes as the United States and Afghan politicians try to negotiate for a peace settlement with the militants. Operation Fath — which means “victory” in Arabic — will be conducted across Afghanistan with the aim of “eradicating occupation” and “cleansing our Muslim homeland from invasion […]

Sudan’s military ousted President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday, ending his 30 years in power in response to escalating popular protests. The defense minister announced military rule for two years, imposing an emergency clampdown that risks enflaming protesters who have demanded civilian democratic change. Al-Bashir’s fall came just over a week after similar protests in Algeria […]