International

JERUSALEM: Israel warned more than one million residents of a northern zone around Gaza City to flee to the south as, according to a military spokesman, the Jewish state plans to step up air strikes to “increase pressure on Hamas”. Israel believes that Hamas leaders and infrastructure are concentrated in the north. But hundreds of thousands of civilians are said …

Beijing and Manila traded blame on Sunday for two collisions between Chinese vessels and Philippine boats on a resupply mission to Filipino troops on a remote outpost in the disputed South China Sea. The incidents happened near Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, a hotly contested region where Beijing deploys ships to assert its claims over almost the entire …

An Iranian Revolutionary Court has handed out long prison sentences to two women journalists over their coverage of the death in custody of Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini last year, state media reported on Sunday. The death of 22-year-old Amini last September while in the custody of the morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic dress code unleashed months of mass protests across Iran, marking the …

Meta has apologised after for adding “terrorist” into the profile bios of some Instagram users describing themselves as Palestinian. In a blog post, Meta said it fixed a “problem” faced by some Instagram users, with the word “Palestinian” written in English on their profile, the Palestinian flag emoji and the word “alhamdulillah” written in Arabic. When auto-translated to English the …

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has banned inscribing Quranic verses on jewellery and gold embroidery in an effort “to protect Islam’s sacred text from desecration”, quoting a report. According to a report by Saudi newspaper, the kingdom’s Ministry of Commerce stressed the importance of not inscribing Quranic verses on the jewellery. The ministry cited an official letter issued by the kingdom’s Mufti …

Trucks carrying relief supplies began crossing into the besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday, AFP reported citing TV footage aired on Egyptian media. A humanitarian worker and a security source earlier said that border guards were stationed on the Egyptian side of the crossing and that vehicles loaded with medication were being prepared to roll into Gaza. Previously, a statement from Hamas stated …

BRASILIA: Brazil’s president announced on Friday that he will partially veto a bill restricting Indigenous groups’ claims to ancestral lands, overriding Congress’s recent approval of the legislation. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will veto a core stipulation of the bill which would have only recognized Indigenous peoples’ right to claim territories they occupied or were legally disputing in October …

Former England captain Nasser Hussain shared his views on prolific India batter Virat Kohli’s performance against Bangladesh in Match 17 of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at Pune’s Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Thursday. Virat Kohli proved why he is a class act when he scored a match-winning century to help the hosts maintain its perfect run in the …

Gaza’s Hamas rulers released two Americans on Friday among some 200 hostages they abducted in October 7 attacks in Israel and indicated that more could follow. Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, were handed over to Israeli forces at the Gaza Strip border on Friday, becoming the first captives whose release by Hamas has been confirmed by …

Israel urged its citizens to immediately leave Egypt and Jordan, the national security council said on Saturday as regional tensions flared over the war in Gaza. “Israel’s National Security Council raises its travel warnings for Egypt (including Sinai) and Jordan to level 4 (high threat): recommendation not to travel to these countries and for those staying there to leave… as …