05-05-2023 BEIJING: China has denied media reports of a Chinese consular officer “coercing” a Canadian legislator and his family, saying the claim has “no factual basis and is purely baseless”. The statement from the Chinese consulate-general in Toronto on Thursday came days after The Globe and Mail newspaper reported that …

05-05-2023 NAIROBI: Kenya’s opposition has suspended the latest anti-government protests planned for Thursday after reaching an agreement with the government of President William Ruto. The opposition Azimio La Umoja (Declaration of Unity) alliance, led by veteran opposition politician Raila Odinga, said in a statement on Wednesday that its leadership had …

05-05-2023 BEIJING/ TAIPEI: Chinese authorities monitor the phones of ethnic minority Uighurs for the presence of 50,000 known multimedia files that are used to flag what Beijing views as extremism with possession of the Quran enough to trigger a police interrogation, according to a forensic investigation by Human Rights Watch …

05-05-2023 PRETORIA: Some South Africans are calling for the United Kingdom to return the world’s largest diamond, known as the Star of Africa, which is set in the royal sceptre that King Charles III will hold at his coronation on Saturday. The diamond, which weighs 530 carats, was discovered in …

05-05-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ KOZHIKODE, KERALA: A cash reward of 10 million rupees ($122,280) has been announced by a Muslim group in India’s Kerala state for providing evidence of claims made in an Indian film that thousands of Hindu and Christian women from the state were recruited …

05-05-2023 KYIV: Ukrainian air defences said they downed 18 out of 24 kamikaze drones that Russia launched in a pre-dawn attack on Thursday. In a statement, Kyiv city administration said that all missiles and drones targeting the Ukrainian capital for the third time in four days, have been destroyed. “The …

05-05-2023 LONDON/ WASHINGTON: In an interview on Wednesday, Donald Trump criticized Joe Biden for not attending King Charles III’s coronation, describing it as “disrespectful.” Biden was invited to a state visit to the UK by the new monarch, who will be coroneted this week. Although the President won’t be attending, …

05-05-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies QUEENSLAND/ SYDNEY: The body of Australian fisherman Kevin Darmody was found inside a crocodile after he went missing on Saturday during a fishing trip in a remote part of northern Queensland. The 65-year-old was last seen in a saltwater crocodile habitat at Kennedy’s Bend. Two …

Hyderabad ‘May 4 ‘2023:Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Thursday wondered why the State government failed to make public gangster Nayeem’s diary even after several years of the gangster’s death in an encounter with the police.  On the 49th day of his “People’s March,” his Pada Yatra entered …

May ;4 ‘2023  External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday conveyed to his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang the importance of resolving the eastern Ladakh border row and ensuring peace and tranquillity along the frontier for development of bilateral ties. Jaishankar held bilateral talks with Qin at a beach resort in …