MOSCOW: Russia’s ambassador to Washington said on Friday that he did not believe Ukraine would have attacked the Nord Stream gas pipelines without the tacit approval of the United States, and that Russia would identify and punish those behind the attack. A sharp pressure drop on the pipelines under the Baltic Sea was registered on September 26 2022 and seismologists detected explosions, triggering a wave of speculation about who sabotaged the multibillion-dollar project that carried Russian gas to Germany. No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which occurred off the Danish island of Bornholm and ruptured three out of four…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
ANKARA: A brawl broke out in Turkiye’s parliament on Friday after lawmakers discussed the fate of a jailed opposition figure controversially stripped of his parliamentary immunity earlier this year. The lawmakers were meeting after the country’s constitutional court earlier this month struck down parliament’s decision to oust Can Atalay from his parliamentary seat. Atalay won his seat last year after having campaigned from prison. Ahmet Sik, a fellow member of the leftist Workers’ Party of Turkiye (TIP), on Friday defended Atalay against the attacks on him by ruling party lawmakers. “It’s no surprise that you call Atalay a terrorist,” he said. “All…
SELANGOR: Forty-one Palestinian civilians who suffered various injuries in the conflict in Gaza were flown to Malaysia on Friday for treatment, officials said. The Palestinians, aged between eight months and 62 years, were flown to the majority Muslim nation from the Egyptian capital Cairo onboard two Malaysian air force transport aircraft. “We carried out this mission purely on humanitarian considerations, and to show our solidarity against what is happening to the people of Palestine,” Malaysian Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin told a news conference after receiving the patients. “It also shows our nation’s stand against this inhumane genocide.” Nordin said the injured…
HEBRON: The Israeli settlers who attacked Hassan Arman’s village of Jit in the occupied West Bank had a simple aim, he says: “To burn, kill, or destroy” — all of which took place on Thursday night. Residents hid in fear while dozens of settlers ransacked their northern village, burning homes and cars, until eventually a young Palestinian man was shot dead. Arman, whose car was destroyed by fire during the attack, said he had “never seen anything like it” in Jit as he opened the charred door of his vehicle. Inside, everything had melted, leaving just a skeleton of twisted…
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered support on Friday to the interim leader of Bangladesh, who took power after prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster on August 5. The comments were made following a phone call between Modi and Bangladesh’s Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is heading the caretaker administration formed after Hasina fled to India. Her fall has raised concerns in New Delhi, which has key investments and close security ties with its eastern neighbour. Modi “reaffirmed India’s support for democratic, stable, peaceful and progressive Bangladesh”, the foreign ministry said in a statement. Hasina’s 15-year rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass…
NEW DELHI: Assembly elections in India-held Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) will be conducted from Sept 18 to Oct 1, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Friday, setting the stage for the first major electoral exercise in the disputed region since its dismemberment in August 2019. The last polls were held in the unbroken state in 2014. Meanwhile, assembly elections in the BJP-ruled Haryana would be held on October 1, the ECI said. The counting of votes will take place on October 4. In 2019, elections in Haryana were held along with Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Chief election commissioner Rajiv…
DOHA: Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha were paused only a day after they began, as the United States offered a “bridging proposal” to Israel and Hamas to seal a deal, with Israel asking the US, Qatar and Egypt to put pressure on the Palestinian group to accept the new proposal before talks resume in Cairo next week. Hamas did not take part in the Doha talks, as its senior official Izzat al-Rishq said Israel “did not abide by what was agreed upon” in the July 2 negotiations, and rejected what it called the “new conditions” which include keeping Israeli troops inside Gaza.…
Firefighters are battling a strong forest fire in the Aegean resort city of Izmir for a third day, Turkish media and officials said on Saturday, with hundreds more people evacuated overnight. Helicopters and water bombers which were grounded due to strong winds continued their fight against the flames on Saturday morning, the NTV news channel reported. The fire started on Thursday and was quickly spread to residential areas by winds blowing at 50 kilometres an hour. Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that 900 residents in five affected districts were evacuated overnight in Izmir. A witness told AFP that thick smoke had turned the…
Hospitals and clinics across India turned away patients except for emergency cases on Saturday as medical professionals started a 24-hour shutdown in protest against the brutal rape and murder of a doctor in the eastern city of Kolkata. More than one million doctors were expected to join the strike, paralysing medical services across the world’s most populous nation. Hospitals said faculty staff from medical colleges had been pressed into service for emergency cases. The strike, which began at 6am, cut off access to elective medical procedures and outpatient consultations, according to a statement by the Indian Medical Association. A 31-year-old trainee doctor was…
QUETTA: The provincial Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has expressed concerns over the delays in the Quetta Development Package, which includes the realignment of roads to cope with increasing traffic jams. The apex audit body of the Balochistan Assembly met on Friday with MPA Asghar Ali Tareen in the chair. The committee noted that Rs2 billion had been spent on the project, which should have been completed by 2020. But the work is still ongoing four years later, Mr Tareen noted. Apex audit body laments four-year lapse despite Rs2bn allocation “The project has been delayed due to the incompetence of the…
