Seven up: Contest to replace May as British prime minister gets crowded
LONDON: The contest to replace Theresa May as British prime minister hotted up on Saturday with seven candidates now throwing their hat into the ring, saying they would succeed where she failed by taking a deeply-divided Britain out of the European Union. British health minister Matt Hancock, ex-Brexit minister Dominic Raab and former House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom ...
Mexican military helicopter crashes, killing six
MEXICO CITY: A Mexican military helicopter engaged in firefighting operations crashed in central Mexico on Friday, killing five members of the Navy crew and an inspector with the national forestry commission, the Navy said on Saturday. The MI-17 helicopter came down about 55 miles (89 km) north of the town of Jalpan de Sierra in the central state of ...
Battered Congress party closes ranks after election setback
NEW DELHI: The head of India?s main opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, offered to quit on Saturday after a crushing election defeat but senior party officials rejected his offer and called instead for a major internal shake-up. At a meeting of top Congress leaders at the party?s headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday, Gandhi offered to step down as ...
Iran says US troop boost 'threat to international peace'
TEHRAN: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saturday a US decision to deploy 1,500 additional troops to the Middle East is a "threat to international peace", state media reported. Washington says the reinforcements, which come after the deployment earlier this month of an aircraft carrier task force, B-52 bombers, an amphibious assault ship and a missile defence system, ...
Defying Congress, Trump sets big arms sales to Saudis, UAE
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump, saying there is a national emergency because of tensions with Iran, is clearing the sale of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia and other countries, US senators said on Friday, despite strong resistance to the plan from both Republicans and Democrats. The administration has informed congressional committees that it will go ahead with ...
Bomb blast on street in France's Lyon leaves eight wounded
LYON: A bomb blast in a pedestrian street in the heart of Lyon in France left several people wounded, local prosecutors' office said on Friday. The area where the suspected package bomb explosion occurred, on the narrow strip of land between the Saone and Rhone rivers in the historic city centre, has been evacuated, according to AFP journalists at ...
Trump strikes dovish tone on North Korea, Iran
President Donald Trump Monday hailed a ?great respect? between the US and nuclear-armed North Korea, as he also held out the possibility of talks with Iran, stressing he did not want ?terrible things? to happen. ?There?s good respect built, maybe great respect built between? the United States and North Korea, but we will see what happens,? added the ...
Myanmar soldiers jailed for Rohingya killings freed after less than a year
Myanmar has granted early release to seven soldiers jailed for the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys during a 2017 military crackdown in the western state of Rakhine, two prison officials, two former fellow inmates and one of the soldiers told Reuters. The soldiers were freed in November last year, the two inmates said, meaning they ...
Muslim man thrashed after Modi’s unity speech
Moments after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called here on Saturday for Hindu-Muslim unity to deliver truer freedom to India, a Muslim man was thrashed by alleged Hindutva activists in neighbouring Haryana state for wearing a skullcap. It said Barkat, 25, was returning to his shop around 10 pm on Saturday after offering prayers at Jama Masjid in Gurugram when ...
Election violence continues in India’s Bengal
Violent clashes continued in India on Sunday between supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi?s Hindu nationalist party and a regional party in the politically volatile eastern state of West Bengal, officials said. Police said thousands of supporters of the regional Trinamool Congress party ? which has its stronghold in West Bengal ? and the BJP, threw rocks and attacked ...
Explosions in Nepal’s capital leave 4 dead, 8 wounded
Three explosions killed four people and wounded at least eight in different parts of Nepal?s capital on Sunday, with police suspecting that an outlawed communist group was responsible. The first explosion occurred in northern Kathmandu, killing two people and injuring five, police said. Police said a third explosion injured two people who they believe were members of the ...
Trump downplays North Korea launches on Japan visit
Before hitting the course, Trump tweeted that North Korea had tested ?some small weapons? that had ?disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me?. This appeared to be a reference to one of his ?people?, National Security Advisor John Bolton, who had said the previous day there was ?no doubt? the launches had contravened UN Security Council ...
‘Populist school’ in Italy at risk as EU votes
Harnwell, a close associate of former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, founded the Dignitatis Humanae Institute that will run the school and aims to create new leaders through ?hardcore? personality formation. ?Everything that?s of this world we?ll leave to the side, and everything that?s good can be reworked.? The ?threats? the school aims to counter from among its sculpted ...
Spain votes in ‘second round’ local, regional, EU polls
Spain votes in local, regional and European elections on Sunday seen as a ?second round? for acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as he seeks to form a new government and gain influence in the EU. On Friday, outgoing Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, whom Spain could push to become the EU foreign policy chief, told supporters Sanchez was going to ...
Ireland votes overwhelmingly to relax strict divorce law
Ireland voted by an overwhelming majority to relax its constitutional restriction on divorce, results showed Sunday, the latest in a series of reforms to modernise the charter of the once devoutly Catholic nation. The result of the vote comes one year on from the day when 66 percent of voters cast referendum ballots in favour of repealing the republic?s ...
Belgium votes with expected surge by Greens, far right
Belgium held national elections on Sunday, with observers anticipating a surge by the Flemish far right and a good showing from the Greens after a wave of climate protests. Voters began casting ballots in three elections ? national, regional and European ? a political hat-trick that will determine the country?s course for the next five years. Making matters worse, ...
Malawi election results delayed after injunction over alleged irregularities
Final results of Malawi?s presidential elections will be delayed, the electoral commission (MEC) said on Saturday after the high court ordered a review of the polls following opposition allegations of tampering. Voters cast ballots for a president, parliament and ward councillors on May 21, with President Peter Mutharika?s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) facing stiff competition from the Malawi ...
Albanian opposition rally renews call for PM to quit
Albanian opposition supporters took to the streets again on Saturday in a mostly peaceful protest, the sixth national one in three months, calling on Prime Minister Edi Rama to step down to pave the way for early elections. Waving posters and releasing paper lanterns marked ?Quit?, some in the crowd of several thousand threw a dozen paint bombs at ...
Long after guns fall silent, Mosul residents suffer hearing loss
?Some never recovered because their nerve cells were torn by the loud sounds.? Mosul?s health infrastructure was ravaged by Daesh?s reign and subsequent fighting, with the 6,000 hospital beds available before the militant takeover reduced to just 1,000. At Jumhuriya hospital in west Mosul, a specialized hearing impairment center opened its doors less than a year ago with backing from ...
After years in jail, Syrian mother eyes new life
?A newborn came into my life and I didn?t know what to do,? she said, clad in black. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says around 200,000 people have gone missing since the civil war started in 2011 Dbeis shared a cell with her newborn and a 20-year-old Ethiopian woman. ?He didn?t know who I was,? Dbeis said. ?I ...
