VISA ACTION: ’Visa services have been suspended till further notice,’ the BLS Indian Visa Application Center said, citing ‘operational reasons,’ without elaborating
India’s visa processing center in Canada yesterday suspended services as a rift widened between the countries after Canada’s leader said India might have been involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Parliament on Monday that there were “credible alle
The son of jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai (黎智英) on Wednesday said that he did not want to see his father die in detention, as his lawyers raised the prospect that his long-delayed trial might be pushed back indefinitely.Sebastien Lai (黎崇恩) also said that the British government was “shameful”
Venezuela on Wednesday said that it had seized control of a prison from the hands of a gang with international reach, in a major operation involving 11,000 members of its security forces.The Tocoron Prison had served as the Tren de Aragua gang’s headquarters, where it had installed amenities such as
John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for “systematic theft on a mass scale,” the latest in a wave of legal action by writers concerned that artificial intelligence (AI) programs are using their copyrighted works without permission.In papers filed on Tue
IRANHeadscarf bill advancesThe parliament on Wednesday approved a bill to impose heavier penalties on women who refuse to wear Islamic headscarves in public and those who support them. The bill also extends punishments to business owners who serve women not wearing the mandatory headscarf, known as
UN ASSEMBLY: Developing nations have criticized the focus on the war, with South Africa’s president saying ‘we cannot ... meet the most basic needs of billions of people’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a wartime trip to the UN on Tuesday tried to convince skeptical developing nations they share a stake in Kyiv’s victory.Taking the rostrum of the UN General Assembly in his trademark military fatigues, Zelenskiy renewed an invitation for world leaders to jo
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska on Tuesday urged world leaders to help return Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia, where she said they are being indoctrinated and deprived of their national identity.Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Zelenska said that more than 19,000
LOST BATTLE: The Varroa mite, which Canberra has called the ‘most serious pest’ to face bees, would cause serious economic damage, an ecologist said
Australia yesterday abandoned its fight to eradicate the destructive Varroa mite, an invasive parasite responsible for the collapse of honeybee populations across the planet.Desperate to keep Varroa out of the country, authorities have destroyed more than 14,000 infected beehives since the tiny red-
Communications were on Tuesday severed to the flood-hit Libyan city of Derna and journalists were asked to leave, a day after hundreds protested against authorities they blamed for the thousands of deaths.A tsunami-sized flash flood broke through two aging river dams upstream from the city on the ni
Chinese weather officials stepped up warnings about heavy rain and strong winds in several regions, state media said yesterday, a day after a two tornadoes killed 10 people within hours and wreaked havoc in the eastern Jiangsu Province.The latest incident in weeks of destructive and deadly weather s
INDONESIAWoman jailed for pork videoA court has sentenced a woman to two years in prison and handed her a heavy fine after she recited an Islamic prayer before eating pork in a viral TikTok video widely criticized in the Muslim-majority country. Lina Mukherjee, 33, was on Tuesday found guilty of “sp
GUNNED DOWN: The Canadian PM said there were credible allegations that India was connected to the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey on June 18
India yesterday dismissed allegations that its government was linked to the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada as “absurd,” expelling a senior Canadian diplomat and accusing Canada of interfering in India’s internal affairs.It came a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described what
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) removed former minister of foreign affairs Qin Gang (秦剛) from his post after an investigation concluded that he had conducted an affair and fathered a child while serving as ambassador to the US, the Wall Street Journal reported.Top officials were told in August tha
Belgium yesterday opened a memorial garden on the site where notorious serial killer Marc Dutroux imprisoned his young victims, more than a quarter of a century after his crimes shocked Europe.Authorities in the city of Charleroi last year tore down the “house of horrors,” in which Dutroux tortured
SLOWER PACE OF LIFE: With youth unemployment at a record level and pay being so low, the ‘tangping’ counterculture has thrived, especially in Jingdezhen
China’s “porcelain capital” Jingdezhen is attracting droves of young people drawn to the city of artisans in search of an escape from the urban rat race among its ceramics workshops.The picturesque eastern city that is home to China’s best-known porcelain has seen an influx of young professionals se
As he looked at the missing limbs and grief-stricken faces of wounded Ukrainian soldiers being treated in a US hospital, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had one word for Russian leaders heading to a key UN summit: “Terrorists.”Zelenskiy arrived in New York on Monday to address the UN General
Sydney yesterday implemented its first total fire ban in almost three years, while several schools along the New South Wales coast to the south were closed because of a heightened wildfire danger, caused by unusually hot and dry conditions across southeast Australia.Authorities have forecast the mos
SECURITY: Wang met with the US national security adviser in Malta over the weekend, with the US side noting the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday headed to Russia for security talks after two days of meetings with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan over the weekend in Malta.China’s top foreign policy official will be in Russia until Thursday for a round of China-Russia strateg
Russia yesterday called a Ukrainian case alleging that Moscow abused the Genocide Convention to justify its invasion last year an “abuse of process,” as lawyers for Moscow sought to have judges at the UN’s highest court throw it out.Gennady Kuzmin, the leader of Moscow’s legal team at the Internatio
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