PARIS: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded France’s credit score on Friday citing a deterioration in the country’s budgetary position, a blow to Emmanuel Macr­on’s government days bef­ore EU parliamentary elections. In a statement, the American credit assessor justified its decision to drop France’s long-term sovereign debt rating from “AA” to “AA-” on concerns over lower-than-expected growth. It warned that …

MANSEHRA: Chairman of the Datta village council Assad Ali Shah on Saturday demanded an investigation by the National Accountability Bureau into the alleged irregularities during the recent procurement of wheat in the district. “The anti-corruption watchdogs tasked with checking financial irregularities in government departments should hold an investigation into the anomalies allegedly committed in wheat procurement,” Mr Shah told reporters …

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance is projected to win a majority in the general election that concluded on Saturday, an exit poll summary by the NDTV news channel said. The summary of two exit polls projected the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could win more than 350 seats in the 543-member lower house of parliament, where 272 is needed for …

PARIS: A climate activist was arrested on Saturday for sticking an adhesive poster on a Monet painting at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris to draw attention to global warming, a police source said. The action by the woman, a member of “Riposte Alimentaire” (Food Response) — a group of environmental activists and defenders of sustainable food production — is the …

NEW DELHI: A record temperature registered this week for the capital New Delhi of 52.9 degrees Celsius was too high by three °C, the Indian government said on Saturday, blaming a weather sensor error. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had investigated Wednesday’s reading by the weather station at Mungeshpur, a densely packed corner of Delhi, “and found a 3C sensor error”, Earth …

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s campaign said on Friday it had raised nearly $53 million in online small-dollar donations after he was convicted in his New York hush money trial, boasting that the verdict had galvanised his support “like never before.” The record haul was equivalent to more than $2 million raised per hour, it said. Senior campaign aides Chris LaCivita and …

KABUL: Taliban authorities in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday revised the death toll of a boat accident down to eight after earlier reporting 20 people had drowned in a river crossing. “Eight people were killed and two people are still missing after a boat sank in Basawul area of Momand Dara district of Nang­arhar province,” provincial information department head Quraishi Badloon said in …

SEOUL: North Korea again sent trash-carrying balloons into the South on Saturday, the South Korean military said, a day after Seoul warned of countermeasures against such activity. Earlier this week, North Korea sent around 260 balloons carrying bags of trash, including waste batteries, cigarette butts and what appeared to be manure, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. …

RAFAH: Israeli forces hammered Rafah in southern Gaza with tanks and artillery on Saturday, hours after US President Joe Biden said Israel was offering a new roadmap towards a full ceasefire. Residents reported tank fire in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood in west Rafah, while witnesses in the east and centre of Rafah described intense shelling. “From the early hours of …

DUBAI: US-sanctioned former Revolutionary Guards commander Vahid Haghanian was among candidates who registered on Saturday to run for election as Iran’s president after Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash, state media reported. Haghanian, a close aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told reporters after registering that his qualifications were based on “experience from serving 45 years in the presidency and …