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08-03-2023 DOHA: Worn down by growing debt and a barrage of crises, leaders of the world’s poorest countries have stepped up calls for the rules governing handouts of billions of dollars to be rewritten. Western nations gave out more than $185 billion in grants and cheap loans in 2021, according …

07-03-2023 MOSCOW: The head of Russia’s Wagner private army has said it is not getting the ammunition it needs from Moscow, as it seeks to gain control of Bakhmut. Russian troops from Wagner and regular Russian forces are trying to seize the eastern city from Ukraine but Wagner boss Yevgeny …

07-03-2023 BAGHDAD: Christian politicians in Iraq are attempting to overturn legislation banning the import and sale of alcohol. Customs officials were given orders on Saturday to enforce the ban. It became law last month despite opposition. The group, which has five seats in Iraq’s parliament, filed a lawsuit saying it …

07-03-2023 DHAKA: Bangladesh authorities are investigating the cause of a massive fire in a Rohingya refugee camp which has left 12,000 people without shelter. No casualties have been reported, but the fire on Sunday razed 2,000 shelters after spreading quickly through gas cylinders in kitchens, officials said. Police are investigating …

07-03-2023 ISTANBUL: Songul Yucesoy carefully washes her dishes, soaping the plates and cutlery before rinsing off the bubbles and laying them out to dry. An unremarkable scene, except she’s outdoors, sitting in the shadow of her ruined house. It tilts at an alarming angle, the window frames are hanging out …

07-03-2023 KUALA LUMPUR: A cleanup is under way in parts of Malaysia after days of rain-triggered flooding forced thousands from their homes and killed at least four people. Nearly 50,000 people had been affected by the floods as of Monday morning at 8am (00:00 GMT), state news agency Bernama reported. …

07-03-2023 LARISSA: Relatives of those killed in Greece’s worst-ever train accident stood in silence at the Larissa General Hospital amphitheater, normally used for doctors’ seminars. As they listened to the deputy health minister tell them how they were to give DNA samples that would be used to match the DNA …

07-03-2023 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: Hundreds of women in two north Indian towns have celebrated Holi, the Hindu festival of colours, by playfully hitting men with wooden sticks in response to their “teasing” as part of a ritual. After two years of subdued revelry due to COVID-19, the Holi celebrations …

07-03-2023 TAIPEI CITY: Taiwan must be on alert this year for a “sudden entry” by the Chinese military into areas close to its territory as tensions rise across the Taiwan Strait, its defence minister warned. China has stepped up its military activities around Taiwan in recent years, including almost daily …

06-03-2023 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report QUETTA/ KARACHI: A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle has rammed into a police truck in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan, martyring at least nine soldiers and wounding another 13. Agha Samiullah, the deputy commissioner of Balochistan’s Kachhi district, told media the attack took …