Iran election shows declining voter support amid calls for change
TEHRAN: The first round of Iran’s presidential election revealed shrinking support for both reformists and conservatives even though some voters are pushing for change by backing the sole reformist candidate, analysts say. Masoud Pezeshkian, the reformist contender, and ultraconservative Saeed Jalili led the polls held on Friday to replace the late ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi, […]
By Reader correspondent on 8:05 am June 27, 2024No Comment
NEW DELH:President Droupadi Murmu will address the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, where she is expected to unveil the priorities of the newly-elected Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Murmu’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament will also be the first after the constitution of the […]
Amid NEET-UG, UGC-NET row, anti-paper leak law comes into force
Amid massive controversy over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG and UGC-NET examinations, the Centre on Friday notified the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. The law aims to prevent the use of ‘unfair means’ in job examinations and common entrance tests like NEET-UG and UGC-NET. Passed by Parliament in February 2024, the anti-paper […]
Israeli forces step up strikes across Gaza
CAIRO: Israeli forces pounded Rafah and other areas across the Gaza Strip and engaged in close-quarter combat with fighters led by Hamas on Friday. Residents said the Israelis appeared to by trying to complete their capture of Rafah, the city on the enclave’s southern edge that has been the focus of an Israeli assault since […]
Fighting rages in Gaza’s Rafah; tensions with Lebanon soar
GAZA STRIP: Israeli air strikes and clashes between troops and Palestinian militants rocked Gaza on Wednesday, after Israel’s army warned it had readied an offensive against Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement on the country’s northern front. Witnesses and the civil defence agency in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip reported Israeli bombardment in western Rafah, where medics said drone […]
Russian nuclear submarine, frigate arrive in Cuba
HAVANA: A Russian navy frigate and a nuclear-powered submarine churned into Havana harbour on Wednesday, a stopover the US and Cuba said posed no threat, but which was widely seen as a Russian show of force as tensions rise over the Ukraine war. Curious onlookers, fishermen and police lined the Malecon seafront boulevard under grey […]
Experts blame air pollution for 135m premature deaths
SINGAPORE: Pollution from man-made emissions and other sources like wildfires have been linked to around 135 million premature deaths worldwide between 1980 and 2020, a Singapore university said on Monday. Weather phenomena like El Nino and the Indian Ocean Dipole worsened the effects of these pollutants by intensifying their concentration in the air, Singapore’s Nanyang […]
Israeli strike on UN school in Gaza leaves 40 dead
• UN says attacking, targeting its buildings against international law • US, other states call on Tel Aviv, Hamas to swiftly finalise truce deal • Ceasefire talks in Doha show no sign of breakthrough CAIRO: Israel hit a Gaza school on Thursday with what it described as a targeted airstrike on up to 30 Hamas […]
US presses for probe, says ground operation in Rafah not warranted
WASHINGTON: Urging Israel to conduct a thorough investigation into a tent city bombing and uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law, the US on Tuesday said it didn’t believe a major ground operation in Rafah was warranted. White House spokesperson John Kirby maintained that the Israeli strike that killed dozens of Palestinians in Rafah did […]
Helicopter carrying Iran’s president suffers a ‘hard landing,’ state TV says without further details
DUBAI: A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a “hard landing” on Sunday, Iranian state media reported, without immediately elaborating. Raisi was travelling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State TV said the incident happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometres (375 miles) northwest of […]