Desmond Tutu, S Africa’s anti-apartheid icon and Nobel laureate, dies at 90
Johannesburg: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon who won the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting racial discrimination in the country, died on Sunday. He was 90. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Tutu passed away in Cape Town in the early hours of Sunday. He was the last surviving South African laureate of the Nobel […]
PM Modi expresses grief at Tutu’s death
Lost a great man: Dalai Lama
New Delhi/ Dharamshala: Paying tributes to Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that he was a guiding light for countless people globally and his emphasis on human dignity and equality will be forever remembered. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced […]
Red Crescent: Bodies of 27 migrants wash ashore in Libya
Cairo: The bodies of 27 Europe-bound migrants, including a baby and two women, have washed ashore in western Libya, the country’s Red Crescent said. The bodies were found late Saturday in two separate locations in the coastal town of Khoms, the Red Crescent’s branch there said. Three other migrants were rescued, and search efforts were […]
China’s Communist Party removes top Xinjiang official sanctioned by US
Beijing: The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CPC), headed by President Xi Jinping, has abruptly replaced its chief in the volatile Xinjiang province, Chen Quanguo, who was sanctioned by the US over alleged human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in the region. Chen no longer serves as Secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regional Committee of […]
On Christmas, pope prays for pandemic’s end, peace dialogues
Rome: Pope Francis prayed Saturday for an end to the coronavirus pandemic, using his Christmas Day address to urge health care for all, vaccines for the poor and for dialogue to prevail in resolving the world’s conflicts. Amid a record-setting rise in COVID-19 cases in Italy this week, only a few thousand people flocked to […]
South Africa moves to stop auction of Nelson Mandela’s Robben Island cell key
Johannesburg: South Africa has initiated urgent steps to halt the auction of the key to the jail cell on Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years as a political prisoner before becoming the country’s first democratically-elected president. The online auction on January 28 announced by US-based Guernsey’s Auctions is expected to […]
40 people dead after fire breaks out aboard packed ferry in Bangladesh
Dhaka: At least 40 people died and over 150 others were injured early Friday after a packed three-storey ferry carrying around 800 passengers caught fire on the Sugandha River in southern Bangladesh, officials said, in the latest maritime tragedy to hit the delta nation criss-crossed by rivers. The fire broke out around 3:00 am (local […]
Biden signs bills on forced labour in China, ALS research
Washington: President Joe Biden signed a bill into law Thursday to block imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless businesses can prove the items were made without forced labour, the latest in a series of intensifying US penalties against the Asian power for alleged abuses. The measure had to overcome some initial hesitation from the White […]
China denounces US law on Xinjiang imports
Beijing: The Chinese government on Friday denounced a US law that restricts imports from Xinjiang as a violation of international law and dismissed complaints of abuses against mostly Muslim minorities in the northwestern region as lies. President Joe Biden signed the measure Thursday amid mounting tension including appeals by activists for a boycott of February’s […]
Putin urges West to act quickly to offer security guarantees
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the West on Thursday to move quickly to meet Russia’s demand for security guarantees precluding NATO’s expansion to Ukraine and the deployment of the military alliance’s weapons there. Speaking during a marathon annual news conference, the Russian leader welcomed talks with the US that are set to start in […]
