KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to participate in person at the June 24-25 NATO summit in The Hague, a source in the Ukrainian presidency told AFP on Wednesday. NATO members are expected to agree a major increase in defence spending under pressure from US President Donald Trump at the gathering. “The decision will…
LONDON: Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales, who is recovering from cancer, has pulled out of attending the Royal Ascot race meeting, her Kensington Palace office said on Wednesday. The famed sporting event in Berkshire in southern England is a key event in the royal calendar. Catherine, also known as Kate, would not be attending Royal…
ISTANBUL: A far-right political opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday slammed ongoing graft probes into Turkey’s opposition as unfair, a day after being released from jail. Umit Ozdag, who heads the small anti-immigrant Victory party, was placed in pre-trial detention on charges of inciting public hatred on January 20. A court on Tuesday…
BERLIN: Maritime rescue organisations said Wednesday they had pulled more than 175,000 people from the Mediterranean over the past 10 years, as waves of migrants sought to use the dangerous sea route to reach Europe. The group of 21 NGOS active in the region estimated that at least 28,932 people had died while trying to…
BERLIN: Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Wednesday called Iran to resume talks over its nuclear programme as the conflict between Israel and the Islamic republic raged. Wadephul said he had delivered the message to his Iranian counterpart in a phone call on Monday together with the French and British foreign ministers and the European…
LAGOS: A Nigerian university has ignited an online row after a video showed female staff members touching the breasts of women to check if they were wearing bras before taking part in an exam. Hundreds of thousands of people have viewed the video of staff at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) in the southwestern Ogun state…
WASHINGTON: Elon Musk’s X Corp has filed a lawsuit challenging a New York state law that requires social media companies to report how they moderate hate speech and disinformation. The complaint, filed in a federal court in Manhattan, seeks to halt the law, which X argues violates the First Amendment by forcing platforms to disclose…
AHMEDABAD: More than 200 victims of the Air India jet crash have been identified through DNA testing, Indian authorities said Wednesday, inching towards ending an agonising wait for relatives. There was one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the London-bound plane on Thursday when it slammed into a residential area of Ahmedabad,…
MOSCOW: The leaders of Russia and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday warned of “extremely negative consequences” from the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict , as President Vladimir Putin pushed himself as a possible mediator. In a phone call with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Putin “confirmed Russia’s readiness to provide mediation assistance to promote dialogue…
GENEVA: The United States is “complicit” in Israel’s strikes in Iran, Tehran’s ambassador to the United Nations claimed Wednesday, vowing that his country would respond if Washington crosses a “red line”. After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war, Israel says its surprise air campaign that began on June 13 is aimed at preventing…
