NEW YORK: US Senator Bob Menendez was convicted on Tuesday on all 16 criminal counts he faced at his corruption trial by a jury in Manhattan federal court, completing the once-powerful New Jersey Democrat’s dramatic downfall. The jury deliberated for more than 12 hours over three days before reaching a verdict in a trial that had taken nine weeks. Menendez, 70, had pleaded not guilty to the charges, which included bribery, acting as a foreign agent and obstructing justice. Before being charged, Menendez was not only a powerful Senate committee chair but an important ally in President Joe Biden’s efforts…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
CAIRO: Liberia-flagged oil tanker Chios Lion was assessing damage and investigating a potential oil spill after it was attacked by Yemeni Houthis in the Red Sea, the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) said on Tuesday. An unmanned watercraft inflicted minor damage to Chios Lion’s port side on Monday as part of a swarm of attacks by the Houthis on the vessel and another ship sailing around 100 nautical miles northwest of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah. “While originally headed south, following the attack the vessel turned around and back north out of the threat area to…
BRUSSELS: A top European Union official rebuked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday after he launched a self-styled Ukraine “peace mission” that included talks with Donald Trump and the leaders of Russia and China without EU backing. Orban told fellow leaders of the 27-nation bloc in a letter that Trump, the US Republican presidential candidate, is ready to act “immediately” as a peace broker in the Russia-Ukraine war if he is elected in November. Many European officials fear Trump could cut US support for Kyiv and push Ukraine into peace talks that would give Moscow a substantial slice of…
LONDON: In a development that is being claimed as a victory by both sides, the Royal Courts of Justice this week issued a detailed order in the London properties case, brought by former Altaf Hussain loyalists and MQM-Pakistan against MQM-London, effectively sending the matter involving several multi-million pound London properties, back to the courts. In a statement, MQM-London said the Court of Appeal accepted Mr Hussain’s appeal and decided the case in his favour. The decision, which has been anticipated since April 2024, marks a new turn in the years-long properties case which saw Mr Hussain and his former party…
BEIJING: China on Tuesday expressed willingness to facilitate “reconciliation” between rival Palestinian factions after Fatah said its officials would meet in Beijing this month with Hamas counterparts. Fatah’s central committee deputy secretary general Sabri Saidam said on Monday that the factions would meet with Chinese officials in Beijing on July 20 and 21. The Hamas delegation is to be headed by its Qatar-based political chief Ismail Haniyeh, while the Fatah representation will be led by deputy head Mahmud Alul, Fatah sources said. Asked about the comments on Tuesday, Beijing said it would “publish information at an appropriate time”. Palestinian groups…
MILWAUKEE: Donald Trump received a hero’s welcome on Monday as he entered the Republican convention arena with a bandaged right ear, in his first public appearance since being wounded in an assassination attempt over the weekend. Hours after clinching the formal nomination to be the Republican presidential candidate and announcing right-wing Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate, Trump marched into Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum flanked by aides and waved at supporters on the opening day of what turned out to be a triumphalist gathering. He took his seat to the sound of country singer Lee Greenwood’s patriotic hit, God Bless the USA, without…
SRINAGAR: Five Indian soldiers were killed in a firefight in Indian-held Kashmir on Monday. The clash brings the number of soldiers and police killed this year to 17. Indian officials say Kashmiri fighters had made a “tactical shift” in attacks by moving operations from the mainly Muslim Srinagar valley to the Hindu-dominated southern Jammu area, where “counterinsurgency measures are not as strong”. The Indian army’s 16 Corps said forces had launched an operation in the Doda forest on Monday evening, some 135 kilometres southeast of Srinagar, in the Jammu area. A “heavy firefight ensued”, the army said, saying four men…
LONDON: Over 100 migrants, including several from Pakistan, are now facing the prospect of being in the UK illegally after the care agency that sponsored their visas, Renaissance Personnel, was stripped of its ability to endorse visas by the Home Office. According to a Sky News report, the decision has left these workers and their families in a precarious situation, with only a few weeks to either find new sponsorship or return home. Mohammad, a 45-year-old father of four, moved to the UK from Pakistan in April 2023, after paying a recruitment agent £19,000 in the hope for a better future for…
DHAKA: Bangladesh ordered schools across the country on Tuesday to close indefinitely after six students were killed as protests over quotas for coveted government jobs turned into deadly clashes, prompting the mobilisation of paramilitaries to keep order. Every high school, Islamic seminary and vocational education institute in the country was told to remain shut until further notice, following escalating demonstrations against civil service hiring policies. Tuesday saw a significant escalation in violence as protesters and pro-government student groups attacked each other with hurled bricks and bamboo rods, and police dispersed rallies with tear gas and rubber bullets. Demonstrators mobilised in cities, defying…
GAZA STRIP: Despite renewed US criticism of the high civilian toll, Israeli forces continued to bomb separate areas in Gaza, including a fuel station and a UN-run school in Nuseirat refugee camp, leaving 57 more Palestinians, including a journalist, dead on Tuesday. The Gaza health ministry said an Israeli strike on a fuel station in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza killed 17 people and wounded at least 26. The Palestinian Red Crescent initially gave a toll of eight dead in a separate strike at almost the same time on the UN-run Al-Razi School in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.…
