International

16-12-2023 BRUSSELS: European leaders have decided to open EU membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidate status to Georgia. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the decision, made at a summit in Brussels, as “a victory” for his country and Europe. A spokesperson for Charles Michel, the President …

16-12-2023 NAYPYIDAW: The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), an ethnic armed organization operating in Myanmar’s northern Shan State, was massing forces near his village on the Chinese border and he sensed that fighting was imminent. So the 27-year-old, who had already secured a job in the construction sector in …

16-12-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies ISLAMABAD/ KABUL: Caretaker Pakistan government’s Cabinet has approved new changes in the rules and regulations formulated to facilitate the return of illegal Afghan nationals residing in the country, extending the deadline from December 31 to February 29, 2024, along with a warning to impose hefty …

16-12-2023 WASHINGTON/ JERUSALEM: US President Biden says he wants Israel to be ‘focused on how to save civilian lives’ after adviser Jake Sullivan’s meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu focused on shift from “high-intensity” phase of conflict in Gaza. Palestinian telecommunications firms say services cut in Gaza once again, as Israel …

15-12-2023 WASHINGTON: White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to discuss efforts to create a sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the White House said. They also discussed the humanitarian response in Gaza, including how to …

15-12-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies MELBOURNE: Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja says he will “fight” the decision to bar him from making an on-field statement in support of Palestinians. The batter had planned to wear shoes bearing the words “all lives are equal” and “freedom is a human right” at a …

15-12-2023 PARIS: The world has turned topsy-turvy, say angry French farmers, and here are the signs to prove it. Motorists in rural France have recently been astonished to see thousands of road signs at entrances to towns and villages turned upside-down. The name-bearing roadside plaques have been unscrewed, flipped, then …

15-12-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies SYDNEY: A woman once branded “Australia’s worst mother” has had her convictions for killing her four children quashed. The New South Wales Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the evidence originally used to jail Kathleen Folbigg was “not reliable”. The 56-year-old was pardoned and freed …

15-12-2023 WEST BANK: Since the war in Gaza began, Israel’s military operations in the occupied West Bank have become more frequent, and more forceful. The northern city of Jenin, the epicentre of these raids before the Hamas attacks is now a weekly battleground. The Palestinian teenagers I met who were …

15-12-2023 ANTARCTICA’S COASTLINE: Scientists now have good numbers to describe the true scale of the world’s biggest iceberg, A23a. Satellite measurements show the frozen block has a total average thickness of just over 280m (920ft). Combined with its known area of 3,900 sq. km (1,500 sq. miles), this gives a …