Author: AFP

ODESA (Ukraine): The Kremlin accused US President Joe Biden on Monday of escalating the 1,000-day-old war in Ukraine, promising a “palpable” response to any use of US long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia. Biden, who in January hands over the White House to Donald Trump, a sceptic

RIO de Janeiro: G20 leaders failed on Monday to break a deadlock in UN climate talks at a summit in Rio that was dominated by divergences over the war in Ukraine and Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House. Ahead of the meeting, the UN had implored the leaders

WELLINGTON: Booming Indigenous Maori “haka” chants rang out across New Zealand’s capital on Tuesday, as tens of thousands rallied against a conservative push to redefine the nation’s founding treaty. More than 35,000 demonstrators poured into the harbourside city of Wellington, police said, shutting down busy streets as their spirited procession

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong court on Tuesday jailed all 45 defendants convicted in the city’s largest trial under its sweeping national security law, with “mastermind” Benny Tai receiving the longest term of 10 years. International condemnation was swift, with the United States, Australia and rights groups slamming the sentencing

RIO DE JANEIRO: G20 leaders gather in Brazil on Monday to discuss fighting poverty, boosting climate financing and other multilateral initiatives that could yet be upended by Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House. US President Joe Biden will attend his last summit of the world’s leading economies, but

ROVANIEMI (Finland): Finland is hosting its first large-scale NATO artillery exercise since the Nordic nation joined the military alliance last year, with live fire drills starting on Sunday. The exercise conducted in the northern Lapland region in November is part of Dynamic Front 25, the largest NATO artillery exercise ever

SINGAPORE: The founder of a failed Singapore oil trading company was sentenced Monday to nearly 18 years in jail for cheating banking giant HSBC out of millions of dollars in one of the country’s most serious cases of fraud. Lim Oon Kuin, 82, better known as O.K. Lim, was convicted

MANILA: Filipinos cleared fallen trees and repaired damaged houses on Monday after the sixth major storm to batter the Philippines in a month smashed flimsy buildings, knocked out power and claimed at least eight lives. The national weather service had warned of a “potentially catastrophic” impact from Man-yi, which was

MANILA: A super typhoon sweeping towards the Philippines on Saturday was intensifying and could have a “potentially catastrophic” impact, the state weather forecaster warned, with millions of people at risk from storm surges. More than 650,000 people have fled their homes ahead of Super Typhoon Man-yi, which is expected to

PARIS: News outlets have begun quitting X, formerly Twitter, once a favourite of global media but now accused of enabling the spread of disinformation under its owner, president-elect Donald Trump ally Elon Musk. Citing a “harsh and extreme” climate, Sweden’s newspaper of reference, the left-liberal Dagens Nyheter (DN), on Friday