International

LIMA: Peruvian authorities raided President Dina Boluarte’s home and the government palace early on Saturday as part of an ongoing corruption investigation related to undisclosed luxury watches. The search was carried out “according to the court order,” Colonel Harvey Colchado of the police told reporters. He would not say whether anything suspect had been found. According to a police document, …

LONDON: A UK-based journalist for independent Iranian media who was attacked outside his Lon­don home, prompting a counter-terrorism police probe, is “doing very well”, his news channel said on Saturday. Pouria Zeraati, a presenter for Persian-language outlet Iran International was in stable condition, the channel’s spokesman Adam Baillie said. “He’s doing very well actually. He’s in the hospital recovering from …

BEIRUT: United Nations peacekeepers said three military observers and a translator were wounded on Saturday in a blast in southern Lebanon, where Israel and the Hezbollah movement trade frequent cross-border fire. Peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol the so-called Blue Line, the border demarcated by the UN in 2000 when Israeli troops pulled out of …

BERLIN: Smoking weed will soon be legal for over-18s in Germany, but addiction experts are calling for more prevention efforts to ensure young people are protected from the dangers of cannabis use. Under one of the most liberal drug laws in Europe, adults in Germany will from April 1 be allowed to carry up to 25 grams of dried cannabis …

GENEVA: An exceptionally rare haze of Saharan dust cloaked Switzerland and southeastern France on Saturday, sparking health warnings as a yellow hue tinged the sky. The phenomenon, which began in Switzerland on Friday, brings with it “a very clear worsening of sunlight and visibility. Added to that is an increase in concentrations of fine particles”, the MeteoSuisse weather service posted …

GAZA CITY: The Palestine Red Crescent said five people were killed and dozens wounded by gunfire and a stampede during an aid delivery Saturday in northern Gaza, where famine looms. The Red Crescent said three of them had been shot dead. Video footage shows a convoy of trucks moving past burning debris near the distribution point in pre-dawn darkness as …

LONDON: The United Kingdom’s Labour party reported a loss of membership by 23,000 over its Gaza policy and environmental messaging, new figures revealed. Official figures showed that memberships fell from 390,000 in January to 366,604 last week, though the party is leading in opinion polls and widely believed to win in the next general election after a 14-year rule of …

Turkish voters went to the polls on Sunday in municipal elections, with all eyes on Istanbul, the national “jewel” that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes to pry away from the opposition. Erdogan’s road to power in Turkiye began in Istanbul when he was elected mayor of the mythic city straddling Europe and Asia in 1994. His allies held the city …

Top leaders of India’s opposition coalition and thousands of supporters rallied in the capital on Sunday, decrying “autocracy” in protest at the arrest of a senior colleague ahead of general elections. Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi and a key leader in an opposition alliance formed to compete against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was detained earlier in March in connection with a …

KYIV: Ukraine imposed emergency blackouts on three regions after Russia fired dozens of missiles and drones at its power stations late on Thursday night. Moscow has stepped up its aerial bombardment of Ukraine in recent weeks, targeting energy infrastructure in response to deadly Ukrainian assaults on Russia’s border regions. National grid operator Ukrenergo said its dispatch centre was “forced to …