BEIJING: The world’s biggest nation is about to shrink. China accounts for more than one sixth of the world’s population. Yet after four extraordinary decades in which China’s population has swelled from 660 million to 1.4 billion, its population is on track to turn down this year, for the first time since the great famine […]
JERUSALEM: Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a free trade agreement on Tuesday, the first of its kind that Israel has concluded with an Arab country. The UAE agreed to normalize relations with Israel in a U.S.-brokered deal in 2020, the first of the so-called Abraham Accords that Israel eventually concluded with four Arab […]
London: The World Health Organisation’s top monkeypox expert said she doesn’t expect the hundreds of cases reported to date to turn into another pandemic, but acknowledged there are still many unknowns about the disease, including how exactly it’s spreading and whether the suspension of mass smallpox immunisation decades ago may somehow be speeding its transmission. […]
Kathmandu: At least 16 bodies were recovered from the wreckage site of the Tara Air plane that crashed in Nepal’s mountainous Mustang district on Sunday with 22 people on board, including four Indians, minutes after taking off from the tourist city of Pokhara, authorities said on Monday. The turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane belonging to […]
KRAMATORSK (Ukraine): Russia claimed to have overrun a key rail hub while its troops fought Ukrainian defenders in the streets of another city in eastern Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry said the railroad center Lyman had been “completely liberated’’ by a joint force of Russian soldiers and Kremlin-backed separatists. Meanwhile, nearly 40 miles (60 kilometers) […]
WASHINGTON: The United States expressed concern on Saturday over China’s “efforts to restrict and manipulate” the UN’s Human Rights chief’s visit to the Xinjiang region, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. “The United States remains concerned about the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and her team’s visit to the People’s Republic of […]
Washington: During the COVID-19 pandemic, India and the US played a critical role in supporting each other, New Delhi’s top envoy in Washington Taranjit Singh Sandhu has said. Over the last two years, there has been a tremendous challenge due to the disruption in global supply chains and like the US, India has also been […]
Islamabad: A former chief justice of the Supreme Court, a retired army general and a leading businessman persuaded ousted Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan to not go ahead with the planned sit-in at the end of his party’s long march in Islamabad, a media report said on Saturday. Khan launched his Azadi March’ on March […]
COLOMBO: As the ongoing anti-government protest demanding the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa over the worst economic crisis entered its 50th day, organisers on Saturday said the day would be marked with more intense agitation marches with wider participation. Sri Lanka is near bankruptcy and has severe shortages of essentials from food, fuel, […]
KRAMATORSK: Russia pressed its onslaught on eastern Ukraine Saturday, saying it had captured the strategic town of Lyman and had successfully tested hypersonic missiles in the Arctic. Ukrainian forces down the road battled to repel Russian forces from the outskirts of the key city of Severodonetsk, a Ukrainian official said, however denying claims it had […]