International

Hundreds of passengers were forced to remain on a plane for almost seven hours after it diverted to a remote airport due to a passenger medical emergency. The story was reported by outlets including Australia’s ABC News. The Jetstar flight from Bangkok to Melbourne landed in Alice Springs, in Australia’s Northern Territory, at about 7.20 a.m. on Sunday. An electrical problem …

WASHINGTON: The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sometimes used rectal feeding on its prisoners kept at secret prison facilities overseas, The New York Times reported on Saturday. Previous reports in the US media have highlighted the agency’s use of various torture techniques on its prisoners after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, but this is the first report that focuses on this discredited practice. The …

G20 finance ministers again failed on Saturday to agree on a joint statement on the global economy at talks in India, after China sought to water down references to the Ukraine war. Instead, the current G20 president of India issued a “chair’s summary” which said “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine” and that there were “different assessments of …

An Iranian general on Friday warned that his country is still seeking to kill former US president Donald Trump and his secretary of state Mike Pompeo in revenge for assassinating top commander Qasem Soleimani. Tehran has repeatedly vowed to avenge the killing of Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ foreign operations, in a US drone strike on Baghdad airport in January …

KANO: Nigeria’s presidential election was marked by long delays at some polling stations on Saturday that did not deter large crowds of voters hoping for a reset after years of worsening violence and hardship under outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari. Africa’s most populous nation is struggling with Islamist insurgencies in the northeast, an epidemic of kidnappings for ransom, a conflict between …

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has signalled the end of her remarkable innings as India’s key political pivot and told her followers at a party plenary on Saturday that she was happy that the end coincided with a potential game changer that saw millions joining Rahul Gandhi in the recent 4000km Unite India march. Taking on the government frontally, …

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s ruling coalition was in turmoil on Saturday after the prime minister said he planned to support a presidential candidate from an opposition party, a decision that prompted the deputy prime minister and three other ministers to resign. Political analysts said the moves did not suggest the fledgling government of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal — a former Maoist …

NEW DELHI: In a sign of the times, India’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharati will now entirely rely on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed news agency, Hindusthan Samachar, for its daily news feed, The Wire reported on Saturday. On Feb 14, Prasar Bharati, which runs Doordarshan and All-India Radio, signed an exclusive contract with Hindusthan Samachar — a decision which came some two years after it cancelled its subscription with …

Hong Kong police said on Sunday they had arrested three people in connection with the murder of 28-year old model Abby Choi, whose legs were found in a refrigerator in a house on the city’s outskirts, along with tools used in dismembering bodies. Police found Choi’s body on Friday but have yet to locate her head, torso and hands. They …

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Central Asia hoping that greater US engagement will reassure former Soviet republics rattled by the Ukraine war, although Russia’s historic clout limits the extent of cooperation. Days after the anniversary of the Ukraine invasion, the top US diplomat will hold talks on Tuesday in Kazakhstan and then Uzbekistan and meet jointly with …