International

India’s top wrestlers have threatened to hurl their medals into the Ganges river on Tuesday as they demand the arrest of the head of the Wrestling Federation of India over sexual harassment allegations. The wrestlers had been camping in New Delhi since April 23 demanding action against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has denied any …

HONG KONG: Hong Kong has decided to let retail investors trade cryptocurrency under its new regulatory regime because “virtual assets are going to stay”, the city’s minister overseeing financial services said on Tuesday. Cryptocurrencies have been banned in mainland China since 2021, but the former British colony, which has a separate financial system and regulators, has announced plans to become …

ZVECAN: The US-led military alliance Nato is planning to send 700 extra troops to Kosovo and put another battalion on high alert to go in as unrest in the region has intensified since ethnic Albanian mayors took office in the country’s northern Serb-majority area after votes last month. In the town of Zvecan on Tuesday, dozens of Nato soldiers in …

MOSCOW: Ukrainian drones struck districts of Moscow on Tuesday in what President Vladimir Putin said Kyiv’s ‘response’ to a Russian strike on a military intelligence headquarters in Ukraine that was hit by air for the third time in 24 hours. Tuesday’s early morning raid targeted some of Moscow’s wealthiest areas including where Putin and the elite have residences. He was …

BEIJING: China dep­loyed hundreds of police and made arrests in a mostly Muslim south-western town after clashes erupted over the planned partial demolition of a mosque. The town of Nagu, Yunnan province, recently pushed ahead with plans to raze four minarets and the dome roof of the Najiaying Mosque, a resident said on Monday. The area is home to a …

Rare wailing air raid sirens and mobile phone alerts calling for evacuations rattled residents of the South Korean capital, Seoul, early on Wednesday after North Korea tried to launch what it said was a satellite. Nuclear-armed North Korea’s sixth satellite launch ended in failure, with the booster and payload plunging into the sea, but not before prompting emergency alerts and evacuation …

KYIV: Russia fired a barrage of missiles at Kyiv on Monday sending panicked residents running for shelter in an unusual daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital following overnight strikes. A series of explosions rang out in Kyiv on Monday as Russia targeted the city for the second time in 24 hours. The latest barrages hit the pro-Western country as the …

BANGKOK: Thai police said on Monday they have charged a Canadian man they described as a mercenary with the murder of an Indian gangster in the resort island of Phuket. Officers launched an investigation after Jimi “Slice” Sandhu — whose nickname came from a distinctive scar on his face — was shot and killed in February 2022. Interpol issued a …

Shanghai recorded its hottest May day in 100 years on Monday, the city’s meteorological service announced, shattering the previous high by a full degree. Scientists say global warming is exacerbating adverse weather, with many countries experiencing deadly heatwaves and temperatures hitting records across Southeast and South Asia in recent weeks. “At 13:09, the temperature at Xujiahui station hit 36.1 degrees …

STOCKHOLM: A harness-wearing Beluga whale that turned up in Norway in 2019, sparking speculation it was a spy trained by the Russian navy, has appeared off Sweden’s coast, an organisation following him said on Monday. First discovered in Norway’s far northern region of Finnmark, the whale spent more than three years slowly moving down the top half of the Norwegian …