International

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party was set for a resounding victory but a reduced majority at elections in the country’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh, exit polls forecast on Monday. Exit polls are not always reliable in India, but an average of four indicated that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led in the state by firebrand monk …

IRPIN: The rickety plank is barely 50 centimetres wide and half submerged in icy water, but already 10,000 people have used it to cross a river and flee Russian bombardment. Moving ever closer behind the citizens of Irpin come Russian tanks and guns, and ahead of them — over this last crowded obstacle — lies the road into Kyiv, still …

KYIV: The Ukrainian military has paraded captured Russian soldiers before the media and made them recite repentances for their invasion, prompting the Red Cross to warn prisoners must not be mistreated. Eyes red, faces gaunt and in some cases scratched, 10 young Russians in green fatigues were lined up before the press and cameras at an event attended by AFP on March …

Fears of an energy war between Russia and the West grew on Tuesday after the United States pushed its allies to ban Russian oil imports as punishment for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, where talks on humanitarian corridors made little progress. Russia warned it could stop the flow of gas through pipelines from Russia to Germany in response to Berlin’s decision …

The United States has seen “very credible reports” of deliberate attacks on civilians, US State Secretary Antony Blinken said on Sunday, adding that Washington was documenting these reports to support appropriate organisations in their potential war crimes investigation. “We’ve seen very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians which would constitute a war crime,” Blinken told CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ show. …

BIREUN: A boat carrying more than 100 Rohingya refugees, including dozens of children, landed on the coast of Indonesia’s westernmost province Aceh early on Sunday, police said. The vessel, which sailed from a Rohingya camp in Bangladesh, arrived shortly after 3am on a beach in Bireun district. It was carrying 114 people, including 58 men, 21 women and 35 children …

ADEN: Gunmen in Yemen have kidnapped two foreign employees of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in eastern Hadra­mout governorate, a security source and two other local sources said. The medical charity told Reuters that it had lost contact with some of its staff in Yemen and that it could not share more details at this time out of concern for their …

MEXICO CITY: At a police station in Mexico City, women train with riot gear in preparation for an International Women’s Day march in one of the countries hardest hit by gender-based violence. The squad of 500 officers is tasked with ensuring the demonstrations that draw thousands of women do not block roads or damage public property. Although their work usually …

WARSAW: Jarred by discriminatory treatment and left to evacuate themselves from Ukraine, people from African, Asian and Latin American countries who succeed in getting out are forming impromptu networks to help thousands of others hoping to flee. Stepping into the gap was an easy decision for Alexander Somto Orah, 25, a Nigerian student in Ukraine who, like some others, described …

BANGKOK: The official global death toll from Covid-19 is on the verge of eclipsing six million, underscoring that the pandemic, now in its third year, is far from over. The milestone is the latest tragic reminder of the unrelenting nature of the pandemic even as people are shedding masks, travel is resuming and businesses are reopening around the globe. The …