International

DUBAI: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has met the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, state media reported on Sunday, a day after a Hamas official said they held a meeting in recent days. Iranian state media said Haniyeh, who has resided between Qatar and Turkiye since 2019, “briefed Khamenei on the latest developments in the Gaza Strip …

MOSCOW: Russia’s new strategic nuclear submarine, the Imperator Alexander III, has successfully tested a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday. The missile, which the Federation of American Scientists says is designed to carry up to six nuclear warheads, was launched from an underwater position in the White Sea off Russia’s northern coast and hit a …

BENGALURU: Nearly five months after murder of a Sikh separatist in British Columbia, India’s High Com­missioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, has alleged that Canada’s police probe into the assassination has been damaged by a high-level Canadian official. Canada has alleged Indian involvement in the murder in a Vancouver suburb of Canadian citizen and Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whom India …

TEHRAN: State television in Iran reported on Sunday that three Israeli spies have been detained in a joint operation with Afghanistan’s Taliban government. The “three Mossad agents who held Iranian nationality” were detained in the mountainous region between Iran and Afghanistan, the broadcaster said. News of the arrests came after a day after a Taliban delegation arrived in Tehran for …

GAZA: An Israeli minister suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza, as ground battles raged in northern Gaza on Sunday, where Israeli troops tightened their encirclement of Gaza City resulting in house-to-house combat with Palestinian fighters. “Soldiers were seen engaged in house-to-house combat as tanks and armoured bulldozers churned through the sand in footage released by the army,” AFP reported. Meanwhile, phone …

The Israeli army said Monday it had arrested the prominent 22-year-old Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi during a raid in the occupied West Bank. “Ahed Tamimi was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence and terrorist activities in the town of Nabi Salih” near the city of Ramallah, an army spokesman told AFP. “Tamimi was transferred to Israeli security forces for further questioning.” …

New Delhi will restrict the use of private vehicles for a week in a bid to offer residents some respite from the toxic smog choking the megacity, authorities announced on Monday. Delhi, home to 30 million people, is blanketed in acrid smog at the onset of winter every year, primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers in the neighbouring agrarian states. The …

LONDON: Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in London on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza amid ongoing bombardments by Israel in the besieged territory. It was the fourth consecutive week that the British capital was the venue for a large rally in support of Palestinians since last month. At the rally, held in Trafalgar Square in central London, …

SHANGHAI: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was “pleased to be in Shanghai” on Saturday at the start of a landmark state visit to China, marking a long-awaited thaw in ties between Beijing and Canberra. It is the first such visit by an Australian leader in seven years as the two nations look to shore up their relationship after …

WAD MADANI: At least 15 civilians in Khartoum were killed on Saturday “when shells fell on their homes”, a medical source said, as paramilitary fighters battling Sudan’s army claimed gains in Darfur. The victims’ bodies were taken to Al-Nau hospital in Omdurman, a district of greater Khartoum, the medical source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. Fighting since April …