International

US radio broadcaster National Public Radio (NPR) on Wednesday said it was quitting Twitter, in the first significant defection by a major news outlet since Elon Musk’s tumultuous takeover of the platform. The exit caps a week-long row over Twitter’s decision to label NPR as a “state-affiliated media”, branding it the same way as it does major media outlets in authoritarian countries such as Russia or …

AMSTERDAM: Dutch police detained two protesters who ran towards French President Emmanuel Macron in Amsterdam on Wednesday as his domestic troubles intruded once again on his state visit. The dramatic arrests outside Amsterdam University came a day after demonstrators against Macron’s controversial pension reforms heckled him during a speech in The Hague. The pomp of the first state visit to …

LONDON: Prince Harry will attend the coronation in London of his father King Charles III but without his wife Meghan, Buckingham Palace said on Wednesday. The announcement follows weeks of uncertainty over the presence of Harry and Meghan, who have launched a barrage of criticism of the British royal family since announcing they were quitting royal duties in early 2020. …

KOUROU (French Guiana): Could vast, long-hidden oceans be teeming with alien life in our very own Solar System? A new chapter in humanity’s search for extra-terrestrial life opens on Thursday as Europe’s JUICE spacecraft blasts off on a mission to investigate the icy moons of Jupiter. First discovered by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei more than 400 years ago, these ice-covered …

INDIA’S renowned art and cultural institution Kalakshetra has been embroiled over allegations of sexual harassment against a faculty member and three artists who work as substitute teachers at the prestigious dance academy, BBC reported on Wednesday. According to a report, police had arrested an assistant professor and an accomplished dancer Hari Padman last week after a former student lodged a complaint, accusing him …

ISLAMABAD: Min­is­ter of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar will lead a Pakistani delegation to the 4th mee­ting of the “Neighbouring Countries of Afgha­nis­t­­an” to be held in Samar­kand on Thursday (today). On the sidelines of the ministerial huddle, Ms Khar will hold bilateral meetings with leaders of the participating states. The mechanism was launched in 2021 on Pakistan’s …

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday denounced Russian “beasts” after a video appeared to show the beheading of a Ukrainian prisoner, prompting international outrage. The emergence of the disturbing footage, which was unable to independently verify, sparked fury in Ukraine, with Kyiv saying Russia is “worse than ISIS” — a reference to the militant Islamic State group. The European …

WASHINGTON: Former prime minister Imran Khan has spoken to four US lawmakers in less than a month, urging them to support his demand for free and fair elections in Pakistan, according to the PTI’s US chapter. All four legislators — Ted Lieu, Eric Swalwell, Brad Sherman, and Mike Levin — are Democrats, which indicates PTI’s interest in mending its ties …

A soldier died of a gunshot wound at a military base in India’s northern border state of Punjab, but it was not related to the killing of four soldiers there hours earlier, the Indian army said on Thursday. The soldier at Bathinda Military Station on Wednesday evening was thought to have shot himself, a statement from the army said. “There is no …

BANGKOK: A number of people in coup-hit Myanmar’s central region were killed in air strikes on Tuesday, according to local media reports. The country has been in chaos and its economy in tatters since the military seized power in February 2021. The death toll from the early on Tuesday morning strike on the remote Kantbalu township in Sagaing region is …