International News Updates

Seoul: North Korea’s handling of nuclear materials remains the worst in the world, a non-profit group said on Thursday. According to the report by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a Washington-based group working to curb the threat of nuclear terrorism and accidents, North Korea ranked the last among the 22 countries reviewed in terms of […]

Washington: US President Donald Trump has blamed the surge of coronavirus cases in the country on the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests triggered by the May 25 death of George Floyd under police custody, the media reported. Addressing the media on Wednesday, Trump suggested that young people demonstrating against police brutality and racism are the […]

United Nations: World leaders will not be coming to New York for the annual UN gathering in September for the first time in the world body’s 75-year history because of the coronavirus pandemic, a spokesperson confirmed. The General Debate of the General Assembly, traditionally the most high-profile UN event of the year, will be a […]

Beijing: The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday informed the US Embassy in China of its decision to withdraw its consent for the establishment and operation of the American Consulate General in Chengdu as a retaliatory move against Washington’s move to close the Asian giant’s mission in Houston. In a statement, the Ministry also made specific […]

Sydney: The Ruby Princess cruise ship, which docked in Sydney in March and has been linked to 700 COVID-19 cases and 21 deaths in Australia, will be the subject of a class-action lawsuit announced on Friday. Shine Lawyers has filed a class action against Carnival Plc and Princess Cruise Lines Ltd, saying that the cruise […]

New Delhi: India and the UK have agreed to establish an ‘Enhanced Trade Partnership’, which is the first step towards a free trade agreement, the UK India Business Council said on Friday. Ministers from both governments agreed to remove barriers to trade at the first virtual Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) meet. “The UK […]

Washington: The US will hold talks with Russia next week in Vienna on nuclear arms control and space security, the State Department said. A US delegation of staff members from the departments of State, Defence, Energy, and the National Security Council will hold a US-Russia Space Security Exchange in the Austrian capital on July 27, […]

London: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has returned to royal duties, four days after her husband Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh’s death last Friday. The 94-year-old monarch hosted an audience…

London: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has admitted that his government did not understand coronavirus during the “first few weeks and months” of the outbreak in the country, adding that it could have handled the crisis “differently”. Speaking to the BBC to mark the first anniversary of his entering Downing Street, Johnson said on Friday: […]

Beijing: China has announced that a formal meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs will be held in September according to Russian arrangements. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Friday that as the current international situation is complicated, Beijing looked forward to exchanging views with other parties on prominent challenges facing the […]

United Nations: Afghanistan has written to the UN Security Council over continued violations of its territory by Pakistani military forces and said it will ask the 15-nation UN body to take necessary measures and actions to end them if the situation is not de-escalated bilaterally. Afghanistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Adela Raz wrote to […]

New Delhi: India’s premier intelligence-gathering satellite EMISAT, operated by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has taken a good look at the positions of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in occupied Tibet. The satellite which carries Kautilya, an ELINT (electronic intelligence) package whose “capabilities are among the most highly-classified and closely-guarded aspects of […]

New Delhi/Kabul: Pakistani terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad, which runs its terror activities in Indian Kashmir, has become active in Afghanistan. In the last two days, at least 13 Pakistani Jaish terrorists were killed by Afghan security forces in the Khogyani district in Afghanistan. The banned Pakistani terror outfit, headed by Masood Azhar, usually targets civilians and […]

Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convened an emergency meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party and adopted a “maximum emergency system” against the COVID-19 pandemic after a defector returned from South Korea with symptoms of the virus, state media reported on Sunday. During the meeting held on Saturday, Kim also said he took “the pre-emptive […]

Rome: A lack of foreign tourists in Italy this month has cost the country more than 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in lost revenue in the hospitality, food, transportation, entertainment and retail sectors, according to a report. The report released on Sunday by the National Confederation of Farmers (Coldiretti) said that in July 2019, “over […]