International

Police in Kerala opened an investigation against India’s deputy minister of information technology on Tuesday for allegedly stirring religious hatred on social media after bomb blasts at a Jehovah’s Witnesses convention in the southern state. Homemade bombs exploded, killing three people and wounding 50 in the attack on Sunday that targeted a three-day event organised by the Christian-based religious movement a few …

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s main opposition leader was detained on Sunday, as clashes raged for a second day between police and protesters demonstrating against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, ahead of the upcoming elections. Police also made a series of raids on the homes of senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders, party spokesman Zahir Uddin Swapan said, adding that nearly 3,000 party activists …

KARAGANDA: Kazakhstan held nationwide mourning on Sunday after 45 people died in a blaze at an ArcelorMittal mine, the worst accident in the Central Asian country’s post-Soviet history. The tragedy, which struck at the Kostenko coal mine in the Karaganda region on Saturday, came after a series of deadly incidents at ArcelorMittal mines and has prompted the nationalisation of the company’s local …

FLORIDA: Gunfire erupted in the midst of Halloween festivities early on Sunday around a clutch of bars and clubs in the Florida city of Tampa, leaving at least two people dead and 18 others injured, police said. Videos posted on social media site X showed a chaotic scene of crowds of people running through the streets with the sound of …

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly on Sunday apologised for accusing security and intelligence officials of failing to see signs of the devastating Hamas raid that prompted Israel to invade Gaza. The Israeli premier, who has faced strong opposition criticism over security lapses, had made his accusations in an overnight post on X, formerly Twitter, which he later deleted, …

NEW YORK: Thou­sands of pro-Palestinian protesters poured onto the streets of Brooklyn, New York’s largest district on Saturday to voice their anger at Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Home to between 1.6 and two million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Muslims, New York has for the past three weeks been rocked by demonstrations, rallies and vigils in support …

TAYBEH: Within an hour, the Bedouin village of Wadi al-Seeq in the occupied West Bank had been completely emptied, its 200 residents fleeing on foot with their sheep and goats. On October 12, five days after the start of Israeli hostilities against Gaza, residents say dozens of Israelis turned up at the village and gave them an hour to leave …

GAZA: Bombarded Gazans searched for loved ones and heard news of family members killed as communications gradually returned to the enclave on Sunday after a near total blackout as Israel’s troops and armour pushed into the besieged enclave. The fighting intensified on Friday night as Israeli forces waged ground operations in Gaza in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described …

GAZA STRIP: After days of relentless bombardment from the air, the Israeli army has now intensified its ground campaign, as the Palestinian death toll climbed to over 8,000 amid UN warning that civil order was “starting to break down” in the besieged territory. Despite calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and outrage across the Muslim world, Israel has intensified the war …

At least 13 people were killed and around 50 injured when two trains collided in southeast India, officials said on Monday, updating an earlier toll of eight. The accident occurred late on Sunday after one of the passenger trains overshot a signal between the towns of Alamanda and Kantakapalle in Andhra Pradesh state. A preliminary investigation found that “human error” …