International

Indonesia’s parliament approved a new criminal code on Tuesday that bans sex outside marriage with a punishment of up to one year in jail, despite worries the laws may scare away tourists from its tropical shores and harm investment. The new code, which will apply to Indonesians and foreigners alike, also prohibits cohabitation between unmarried couples. It will also ban …

Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Bahrain on Sunday on the first trip by an Israeli head of state to the small Gulf kingdom, following the normalisation of relations in 2020. Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, met with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. They discussed issues, including regional security and …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed on Sunday to oppose Israeli settlements or annexation in the West Bank but promised to judge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming government by actions and not personalities. Netanyahu is expected within days to return to power after sealing a coalition deal with extreme-right movements including Religious Zionism, which is set for a post in charge …

YANGON: Seventy Rohingya people hiding in a truck transporting ginger were arrested north of Yangon after the vehicle crashed into a roadside canal, the Myanmar junta said on Sunday. Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state are widely regarded as illegal immigrants in the Buddhist-majority country and have long faced discrimination, restrictions on travel and been denied citizenship, health care …

RABAT: Thousands of protesters marched in Morocco’s capital Rabat on Sunday decrying the “high cost of living and repression”, amid surging inflation and rising social discontent. “The people want lower prices… The people want to eliminate despotism and corruption,” chanted the crowd, estimated by journalists to be around 3,000 people, the largest such rally in recent months. “We came to …

BEIRUT: A protester and a policeman were killed on Sunday in Syria’s southern city of Sweida as security forces cracked down on a rare demonstration by hundreds against deteriorating living conditions. Tensions were high in the regime-held city after protesters threw rocks at a government building and stormed it, removing a large picture of President Bashar al-Assad from its facade, …

JAKARTA: A volcano erupted in Indonesia on Sunday spewing a cloud of ash 15 km into the sky and forcing the evacuation of nearly 2,000 people, authorities said, as they issued their highest warning for the area in the east of Java island. There were no immediate reports of any casualties from the eruption of the Semeru volcano and Indonesia’s …

TEHRAN: Iran has scrapped its morality police after more than two months of protests triggered by the arrest of Mahsa Amini for allegedly violating the country’s female dress code, local media said Sunday. Women-led protests, labelled “riots” by the authorities, have swept Iran since the 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin died in custody on Sept 16, three days after her …

HAMBURG: There is no prospect of a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine, according to Irina Scherbakova, one of the co-founders of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Russian rights organisation Memorial. “I am absolutely convinced that there is not a diplomatic solution with Putin’s regime, so long as it is still there,” Scherbakova said on Sunday in Hamburg, Germany. Her …

Businesses reopened and testing requirements were relaxed in Beijing and other Chinese cities on Monday as the country tentatively eases out of a strict zero-Covid policy that sparked nationwide protests. Local authorities across China have begun a slow rollback of the restrictions that have governed daily life for years, encouraged by the central government’s orders for a new approach to fighting …