International

Sinead O’Connor, the Irish singer known for her stirring voice, 1990 chart topping hit ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ and outspoken views, has died at the age of 56, Irish media quoted her family as saying on Wednesday. Brash and direct — her shaved head, pained expression, and shapeless wardrobe a direct challenge to popular culture’s long-prevailing notions of femininity and …

SYDNEY: One of Australia’s longest-serving prime ministers on Wednesday said British colonisation was “the luckiest thing that happened” to his country, while predicting a referendum to give Indigenous communities a “voice” in national policymaking would fail. Australia is expected to hold a referendum this year on whether to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders a constitutionally enshrined right to be …

AMELAND: An electric car was suspected in a blaze raging aboard a cargo ship off the Netherlands on Wednesday, which authorities fear could burn for days and threaten nearby natural sites. The cargo aboard the vessel includes electric vehicles and the ship’s owners told Dutch media it was the suspected cause of the deadly fire, which will now be investigated. …

WASHINGTON: A US federal judge on Tuesday voided a 2017 court-martial conviction against Bowe Bergdahl, an Army sergeant who walked off his post in 2009 only to be captured by the Taliban and spend five years as their prisoner. Bergdahl’s conviction in 2017 left him with a dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank to the lowest enlisted pay grade and an effective fine …

NIAMEY: Presidential guards were holding Niger President Mohamed Baz­oum inside his palace in the capital Niamey on Wednesday in what neighbouring countries called an attempted coup, but which the presidency desc­ribed as an “anti-republican” movement “in vain”. West Africa’s main regional and economic bloc ECOWAS said it was concerned about an attempted coup d’etat and called on the plotters to …

PHNOM PENH: Cam­bodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Wednesday he would step down and hand over power to his son next month, ending a near four-decade reign during which he established stability after years of war but stifled democracy in the process. One of the world’s longest ruling leaders, Hun Sen made the announcement days after his Cambodian Peoples …

The Indian government’s effort to privatise part of its space programme by opening bids to build its small satellite launch rocket has attracted initial interest from 20 companies, an official overseeing the process told Reuters. India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) was developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation, the national space agency, and had its first successful satellite launch in …

MILAN: A 16-year-old girl on a camping trip was among two people who died after violent storms hit northern Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday, while in the south wildfires forced the closure of Sicily’s Palermo airport. The teenager was killed when a tree fell on her tent during a scout camp near Brescia, after high winds and torrential rain …

NEW DELHI: India has suspended a drugmaker’s manufacturing licence after the World Health Organisation flagged contamination in its cough syrups found in the Mashall Islands and Micronesia in April, the government told the parliament on Tuesday. Indian regulators are inspecting drugmakers after cough syrups made in the country were linked to at least 89 child deaths in Gambia and Uzbekistan …

WASHINGTON: A missing paddle boarder whose body was recovered from a lake in the Massachusetts resort community of Martha’s Vineyard was the personal chef to former President Barack Obama, authorities said. Tafari Campbell, 45, was the subject of a two-day search after a paddle boarder was seen struggling and going under the water in Edgartown Great Pond near a home …