International

10-12-2023 BRUSSELS/ LONDON/ STOCKHOLM: Europe on Friday reached a provisional deal on landmark European Union rules governing the use of artificial intelligence including governments’ use of AI in biometric surveillance and how to regulate AI systems such as ChatGPT. With the political agreement, the EU moves toward becoming the first …

10-12-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies SYDNEY: Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday the country’s migration intake needed to be wound back to a “sustainable level”, as he flagged the release this week of details of migration system changes. Long reliant on immigration to supply what is now one …

10-12-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: India’s wheat inventories at state warehouses have dropped to 19 million metric tons, the lowest in seven years, two government sources said as two years of falling production forced state-run agencies to sell more grain to private players. Last year, India, the world’s …

10-12-2023 GAZA CITY: The armed wing of Hamas has released a video which it says shows the bloody aftermath of a failed Israeli operation to free an Israeli hostage. In the footage, a man says he has been held for 40 days, suggesting the video may have been recorded in …

10-12-2023 MOSCOW: Vladimir Putin on Friday moved to prolong his repressive and unyielding grip on Russia for at least another six years, announcing his candidacy in the presidential election next March that he is all but certain to win, according to state media reports. Putin still commands wide support after …

10-12-2023 NEW YORK/ GAZA CITY: Pro-Palestinian activists are challenging TIME Magazine’s choice of Taylor Swift as Person of the Year, arguing that the honour should be bestowed upon Gaza-based journalists who have risked their lives to report on the Israeli bombardment and siege. Swift’s recognition comes after a year of …

09-12-2023 UNITED NATIONS: UN secretary general Antonio Guterres spoke this afternoon about the “serious risk to the maintenance of international peace and security”, citing the spillover of hostilities in “the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen”. He triggered Article 99, prompting Friday’s UN Security Council vote, because he …

09-12-2023 PARIS: A French court has convicted six teenagers in connection with the 2020 beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty, whose murder shocked the country. In a decision on Friday, the court found five of the six defendants, aged 14 through 15 at the time of the attack, guilty of …

09-12-2023 COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s parliament has banned the “inappropriate treatment” of religious texts with a bill widely known in the country as the Quran law. Offenders now face a fine or up to two years in jail after a 94-77 vote. It follows a series of burnings of Islam’s holy book …

09-12-2023 SANA’A/ DUBAI: Yemen’s Houthi group launched several ballistic missiles at military posts in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, the group’s military spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday. Earlier Wednesday, the Mason, a U.S. Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, shot down a drone that originated from a part of Yemen …