International

SYDNEY: Australia’s prime minister accused China on Saturday of “form”, or a record, on interference in foreign politics, after his home minister said Beijing’s unveiling of a security deal with the nearby Solomon Islands was timed to influence an election. With most polls showing Scott Morrison’s conservative coalition headed for a loss in the May 21 election, it has sought …

The British Foreign Office said on Sunday Russia is using a troll factory to spread disinformation about the war in Ukraine on social media and target politicians across a number of countries including Britain and South Africa. Britain cited UK-funded expert research, which it did not publish. It said the research exposed how the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign was designed to …

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has suggested encouraging India to voluntarily disengage from Russia instead of slapping sanctions on New Delhi for buying oil and weapons from Moscow. “Where we can, it is far preferable to get countries to voluntarily not engage in these practices, and that’s where our diplomacy is focused,” Mr Blinken said at one …

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will discuss the possibility of “augmenting” the kingdom’s $3 billion deposit in Pakistan’s central bank by extending its term “or through other options,” a joint statement said on Sunday. Last year, Saudi Arabia deposited $3 billion in the State Bank of Pakistan to help support its foreign reserves. With a yawning current account deficit and foreign reserves falling …

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin is discussing the idea of pegging the rouble to gold and other goods, the Kremlin said on Friday, a move that if approved would directly link Russia’s currency to bullion for the first time in more than a century. Meanwhile, Russia’s finance ministry said on Friday it had completed payments on two dollar-denominated bonds amid …

PARIS: France’s left-wing parties attempted Friday to patch together an alliance ahead of June parliamentary elections which would give them a chance of thwarting newly re-elected President Emmanuel Macron. The left fielded four major candidates in France’s April presidential election, splitting the vote. All of them were eliminated in the first round. The hard-left France Unbowed party, the Socia­lists, the …

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have vowed to reset relations, to end a conflict between the two regional heavyweights since the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Erdogan — in his first visit since the 2018 killing of Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate, which drove a wedge between the two countries — met the …

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates announced on Friday it will send an astronaut on a six-month mission to space, as it seeks to become a major player in the industry. The wealthy Gulf country signed “a new agreement to send the first Arab astronaut on a long 180-day mission to the International Space Station”, tweeted UAE’s vice president, Dubai ruler …

LONDON: German tennis great Boris Becker was jailed by a London court on Friday for hiding hundreds of thousands of pounds of assets after he was declared bankrupt. Becker was convicted earlier this month of four charges under Britain’s Insolvency Act, including failing to disclose, concealing and removing significant assets following a bankruptcy trial. The 54-year-old six-times Grand Slam champion …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has strongly condemned the raid by Israeli forces on Al Aqsa mosque on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan that injured many innocent Palestinians, and the ban on Shab-i-Qadr and Jumatul Wida congregations by Indian authorities at a Srinagar mosque in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Also, PM Shehbaz Sharif, while expressing solidarity with the Pales­tinian …