A major earthquake of magnitude 7.9 struck central Turkey and northwest Syria on Monday, killing about 300 people as buildings collapsed across the snowy region, and triggering a search for survivors trapped in the rubble. The quake, which hit in the early darkness of a winter morning, was also felt in Cyprus and Lebanon. “I […]
The Biden administration lauded the Pentagon for shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon off the US Atlantic coast on Saturday, but China angrily voiced its “strong dissatisfaction” at the move and said it may make “necessary responses”. The craft spent several days flying over North America before it was targeted off the coast of […]
Beijing said on Saturday that US media and politicians had taken advantage of US allegations that China flew an espionage balloon over the northwest United States. The discovery of the balloon prompted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday to cancel a rare planned trip to Beijing. Moments before the decision to scrap the […]
A Chinese spy balloon has been flying over the United States for a couple of days, US officials said on Thursday, just days ahead of a planned trip to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Fighter jets were mobilised, but military leaders advised US President Joe Biden against shooting the balloon out of […]
LONDON: Half a million workers went on strike in Britain on Wednesday, calling for higher wages in the largest such walkout in over a decade, closing schools and severely disrupting transport. As Europe battles a cost-of-living crisis, Britain’s umbrella labour organisation the Trades Union Congress (TUC) called it the “biggest day of strike action since […]
RAMALLAH: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shuttled from Israel to the Palestinians’ West Bank on Tuesday, appealing for an end to resurgent violence and reaffirming Washington’s backing for a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict. Blinken is urging calm on both sides after last week’s killing by a Palestinian gunman of seven people outside […]
GENEVA: All countries remain “dangerously unprepared” for the next pandemic, the Red Cross warned on Monday, saying future health crises could also collide with increasingly likely climate-related disasters. Despite three “brutal” years of the Covid-19 pandemic, strong preparedness systems are “severely lacking”, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said. The […]
MEMPHIS: The US city of Memphis on Saturday disbanded the special police unit whose officers fatally beat a young Black man, after graphic video of the assault sparked widespread shock and outrage. The video, which shows five officers repeatedly kicking and punching 29-year-old Tyre Nichols as he moans and calls out for his mother, triggered […]
WASHINGTON: The southern US city of Memphis braced itself for unrest on Friday as authorities prepared to release a body-camera video depicting the fatal assault of a Black man by five police officers who, the victim’s mother said, “beat him to a pulp”. In a Tennessee grand jury indictment returned on Thursday, the five officers, […]
ISTANBUL: Turkiye on Tuesday postponed Nato accession talks with Sweden and Finland, further denting the Nordic neighbours’ hopes of joining the Western defence alliance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A Turkish diplomatic source said the tri-party meeting has been pushed back from February to a “later date”, without providing further details. The decision further diminished […]