Kyiv: Sixteen people, including two children and Ukraine’s interior minister, were killed when a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten outside the capital Kyiv, officials said Wednesday. “In total, 16 people are currently known to have died,” the head of national police, Igor Klymenko, said. Among the dead are several top officials of the interior ministry … Read more
Washington: The US is “putting every ounce of its energy” to eliminate the long visa wait time in India, including sending a cadre of consular officers to the country and opening up its other overseas embassies as far away as Germany and Thailand for Indian visa applicants, according to a senior US visa officer. India … Read more
Washington: A US lawmaker has introduced a legislation in the US House of Representatives that seeks to terminate Pakistan’s designation as a major non-NATO ally, and require annual certification from the president with certain conditions for Islamabad to be given such a designation. The bill (HR 80) was introduced by Congressman Andy Biggs, who represents … Read more
Beijing: The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday it recommended that China monitor excess mortality from COVID-19 to gain a fuller picture of the impact of the surge in cases there. China said on Saturday that nearly 60,000 people with COVID-19 had died in hospital since it abandoned its zero-COVID policy last month, a … Read more
Abu Dhabi: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for “serious and sincere talks” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on “burning points like Kashmir.” In an interview with Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV, Sharif said that Pakistan has learned its lesson after three wars with India and stressed that now it wants peace with its neighbour. … Read more
While still grappling with the fallout from a company he did take private, beleaguered billionaire Elon Musk is now facing a trial over a company he didn’t. Long before Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,37,465 crore) in October, he had set his sights on Tesla, the electric automaker where he continues to … Read more
Beijing: China’s population shrank last year for the first time in more than six decades, official data showed Tuesday, as the world’s most populous country faces a looming demographic crisis. The nation of 1.4 billion has seen birth rates plunge to record lows as its workforce ages, in a rapid decline that analysts warn could … Read more
New York: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Monday listed Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki as a global terrorist under its ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee. This listing comes after China last year put on India’s bid to name the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader a global terrorist. In June 2022, India slammed China after … Read more
Washington: The Biden Administration has announced plans to expand the premium processing of some of the important categories of green card applicants and some categories of visas, particularly those related to training of foreign students. The expansion of these categories would be carried out in phases beginning with the premium processing of EB-1 and EB-2 … Read more
Geneva: A global economic slowdown will force more workers into accepting lower quality, poorly paid jobs in 2023, while inflation gobbles up real term wages, the United Nations warned Monday. As prices rise faster than incomes, the cost-of-living crisis risks pushing more people into poverty, the UN’s International Labour Organization said, while unemployment around the … Read more
Pokhara: Nepal Army on Monday said they have not rescued anyone alive from the site of the plane crash that occurred on Sunday in the central resort city of Pokhara. “We haven’t rescued anyone alive from the crash site,” said Nepal Army Spokesperson Krishna Prasad Bhandari. A Yeti Airlines passenger plane crashed into a river … Read more
Kyiv: Russia and Belarus will begin joint air force drills on Monday, which have triggered fears in Kyiv and the West that Moscow could use its ally to launch a new ground offensive in Ukraine. Minsk says the drills are defensive, and since Moscow used its neighbour as a springboard for its invasion of Ukraine … Read more
Ukraine: Ukraine said Friday it was resisting a “high intensity” Russian offensive in Soledar, a town in the eastern Donetsk region where Kyiv claimed Moscow was deploying more troops. “It was hot overnight in Soledar. Hostilities continued. The enemy relocated almost all of its main forces to the Donetsk front and is maintaining a high … Read more
Beijing: The peak of China’s COVID-19 wave is expected to last two to three months, and will soon swell over the vast countryside where medical resources are relatively scarce, a top Chinese epidemiologist has said. Infections are expected to surge in rural areas as hundreds of millions travel to their hometowns for the Lunar New … Read more
Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut and Soledar in the east would be armed with everything they need to keep Russian troops at bay in some of the bloodiest battles of the war. Kyiv said earlier its troops were fighting to retain control of the now-battered industrial towns in the … Read more