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03-01-2023 DUBAI: Dubai has scrapped its 30% alcohol tax in an apparent bid to boost tourism. It will also stop charging for personal alcohol licences, something residents who want to drink at home must have. Dubai has been relaxing laws for some time, allowing the sale of alcohol in daylight …

03-01-2023 KYIV: Ukraine says around 400 Russian soldiers have died in a missile attack on the occupied Donetsk region. Russian officials have contested the figure, admitting to only 63 of their troops being killed in the blast. Neither claim has been verified. The attack hit a building in the city …

03-01-2023 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India has upheld the legality of the government’s decision in 2016 to demonetize 86 percent of the country’s cash in circulation, saying the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed due process. A five-judge bench of the …

02-01-2023 BRASILIA: Leftist leader Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva has pledged to “rebuild” Brazil “with the people” as he was sworn in as the new president of the fiercely polarized country for a historic third term. The inauguration ceremony in Congress began at 3pm (18:00 GMT) on Sunday under tightened …

02-01-2023 DAMASCUS/ JERUSALEM: Syria’s military says an Israeli air raid has killed at least two Syrian soldiers and put the country’s main international airport out of service. The air raid, which targeted the Damascus International Airport and its surroundings, took place at about 2am local time on Monday (23:00 GMT …

02-01-2023 BEIJING/ SHANGHAI: China and the United States must pursue dialogue rather than confrontation and avoid the mistakes made during the Cold War, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said on Sunday in his first public comments since his appointment as head of the ruling Communist Party’s foreign affairs office. Wang …

02-01-2023 JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said a United Nations General Assembly vote asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to provide an opinion on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories was “despicable.” “The Jewish people are not occupiers on their own land nor occupiers in our …

02-01-2023 BEIJING: China’s defence ministry has accused the United States of violating international law and of “slander and hype” following a confrontation between a Chinese fighter jet and an American reconnaissance plane over the contested waters of the South China Sea. The statement late on Saturday came days after the …

02-01-2023 Bureau Report ISLAMABAD/ NEW DELHI: Pakistan says it has handed a list of its nuclear installations and facilities to the Indian mission in Islamabad under a decades-old agreement between the two nuclear-armed rivals. Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement on Sunday that India had simultaneously handed over a …

02-01-2023 Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: An explosion outside the military airport in Kabul has caused multiple casualties, a spokesman for the Taliban-run interior ministry said. “Today morning an explosion took place outside Kabul military airport, due to which a number of our citizens were martyred and injured,” spokesman Abdul Nafi …