International

WASHINGTON: The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives narrowly voted on Tuesday to impeach President Joe Biden’s top border official, as immigration shapes up to be a major issue in this year’s elections. By a vote of 214-213, the House approved two articles of impeachment accusing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of not enforcing US immigration laws, which Republicans argue led …

India’s top court on Thursday struck down a scheme that allowed anonymous political donations in the form of electoral bonds, a critical ruling that comes ahead of national elections expected in April. Electoral bonds have become a key method of political funding, allowing donors to give anonymously through certificates purchased from a bank, but transparency rights activists say the practice …

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Wednesday its fighter jets “began a series of strikes in Lebanon”, raising fears of a war between the two countries after months of cross-border fire. The military gave no further details of the air strikes, while Lebanese media reported air raids on southern villages including Adchit, Sawwaneh and Shiha­biyeh. The strikes came hours after …

PARIS: An appeals court on Wednesday confirmed a conviction for former French president Nicolas Sarkozy over illegal campaign financing, but lightened his original one-year prison sentence. The court said he should serve six months, with another six months suspended. The ruling was still harsher than the one-year suspended sentence that prosecutors had called for. It remains unlikely he would ever …

WASHINGTON: The US State Department emph­­asised on Wednesday that the formation of a coalit­ion government in Pakis­tan aligned with the British parliamentary system, asserting that efforts in this regard remain an internal matter for the country. Responding to a question about the efforts in Pakistan to form a coalition excluding the PTI, spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “That is ultimately an …

WASHINGTON: For­mer US president Donald Trump defended his record on Nato, saying he had made it “strong” after sparking a firestorm of criticism over comments downplaying his commitment to the alliance. Trump was rebuked from all sides after saying in a speech Saturday that he would “encourage” Russia to attack members of Nato who had not met their financial obligations, in his …

WASHINGTON: A day after US State Department endorsed the demand for probing allegations of election rigging through legal means, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged authorities and political leaders in Pakistan to address the post-election situation through legal means, emphasising the need for a peaceful resolution. At a news briefing at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday, the …

PARIS: When Lucas was diagnosed with a rare type of brain tumour at the age of six, there was no doubting the prognosis. French doctor Jacques Grill gets emotional when he remembers having to tell Lucas’s parents that their son was going to die. However, seven years later, Lucas is now 13 years old and there is no trace of …

TBILISI: Armenia said on Tuesday that four of its soldiers were killed by Azerbaijani fire along the heavily militarized border, the first fatal incident since they began negotiating a deal to end more than 30 years of intermittent war last year. Fatal exchanges have been common along the closed, roughly 1,000 km frontier since 1988 when Armenia and Azerbaijan first …

GENEVA: Dismantling the UN agency for Palestinian refugees would be a disaster, its chief said Tuesday, as pressure rose after Israel said it had found a Hamas tunnel beneath its Gaza headquarters. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini called for an independent investigation once the conflict is over, looking into the tunnel allegations and the destruction of UN premises in the Gaza …