International

28-01-2023 KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned “in the strongest terms” the desecration of the Quran by a far-right activist in the Netherlands as demonstrators gathered outside the Swedish and Dutch embassies in Kuala Lumpur to protest the recent destruction of the Quran in both countries. Friday’s …

28-01-2023 WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel next week to Israel, the West Bank and Egypt where he will urge an end to violence after a deadly Israeli raid, the State Department said on Thursday. Blinken will hold his first in-person talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu …

28-01-2023 WASHINGTON: A truck-sized asteroid will pass near Earth on Thursday in one of the closest approaches to our planet ever recorded, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said, emphasizing that it poses no danger. Asteroid 2023 BU, which was recently discovered by an amateur astronomer, will zoom by …

28-01-2023 OTTAWA/ MONTREAL: Canada on Thursday appointed its first special representative on combatting Islamophobia, a position created following several recent attacks on Muslims in the country. Journalist and activist Amira Elghawaby will fill the post to “serve as a champion, adviser, expert and representative to support and enhance the federal …

27-01-2023 SAN FRANCISCO: Social networking giant Meta announced Tuesday it would soon reinstate former president Donald Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram with “new guardrails,” two years after he was banned over the 2021 US Capitol insurrection. “We will be reinstating Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks,” …

27-01-2023 WASHINGTON/BERLIN/KYIV: Ukraine declared an air raid alert over the whole country early on Thursday and senior officials said air defences units were shooting down incoming Russian missiles, while fighting also intensified in Bakhmut in the east. The attacks come after the United States and Germany announced plans to arm …

27-01-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI: Pakistan has confirmed India’s invitation for foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting scheduled to take place in India in May. Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry in a weekly briefing on Thursday said India has …

27-01-2023 GLASGOW, SCOTLAND: Heather Herbert is happier now than at any other point in her life. The 47-year-old Trans woman, who moved to Scotland’s northeast from her birthplace of Leicester, England, around a decade ago, transitioned in 2015. It was a decision she arrived at after “a lot of soul …

27-01-2023 SEOUL: North Korea has ordered a five-day lockdown in the capital over “respiratory illness”, a report said on Wednesday, in what appears to be the first citywide restrictions since the country declared victory over Covid-19 in August 2022. Residents of Pyongyang have been ordered to stay in their homes …

27-01-2023 BEIRUT: Family members of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port blast have tried to break into the Justice Palace in the Lebanese capital as they protested against the lack of progress in the investigation over the explosion. At least 218 people died on August 4, 2020, after hundreds …