World

India has told the UN Security Council that the humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, calls for relaxation of sanctions imposed on Syria, saying the international community must act with a “sense of urgency” to help the Syrian people. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said this on Monday while addressing the Security Council briefing on Syria

Colombo, Mar 13: Sri Lanka will ban the wearing of the burqa and shut more than 1,000 Islamic schools, the latest actions affecting the country’s minority Muslim population. Minister for Public Security Sarath Weerasekera told a news conference on Saturday that he had signed a paper on Friday for cabinet approval to ban the burqa on “national security” grounds. A “burqa” is an outer garment that

Beijing, Mar 12: Ahead of the Quad summit on Friday, China said exchanges and cooperation between countries should contribute to mutual understanding rather than targeting a third party and refrain from pursuing exclusive blocs. US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will attend the virtual summit, which

Warren Buffett has been a fixture at the top of the world’s wealth rankings for decades, but in recent years he’s slipped down the list as tech fortunes soared and his hot hand cooled. Now, at 90, his net worth has blown past $100 billion. The Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman’s wealth jumped on Wednesday to $100.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That makes Buffett the sixth

Islamabad, Mar 6: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday won a trust vote in the National Assembly amid a boycott call by the Opposition parties, strengthening his government's legitimacy after an embarrassing defeat of the finance minister in the hotly-contested Senate elections. Prime Minister Khan secured 178 votes in the 342-member lower house of Parliament during a special session

Washington, Mar 3: Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said that the law enforcement agency classifies the deadly January 6 Capitol riot by former President Donald Trump's supporters as domestic terrorism. "That attack, that siege, was criminal behavior, plain and simple, and it's behaviour that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism," Wray said at a hearing

Washington, Mar 2: New Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday alleged that ex-US president Donald Trump had dismantled the country's immigration system and it takes time to "rebuild it from scratch". The previous Trump government hardened the immigration rules on those allowed to seek asylum in the US and advocated a merit-based immigration system to protect US workers. "We are

Washington, Mar 2: The Biden administration on Monday indicated it is still undecided on ending the Trump-era ban on issuing of new H-1B visas, with the Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asserting that its top priority is the acute needs of individuals fleeing persecution. In January, the then President Donald Trump had extended the ban on issuing of new H-1B visas till March 31

Yangon, Mar 1: Myanmar's former de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday appeared in court via video link, marking her first public appearance since her detention and the subsequent military coup on February 1. Since her detention, the former State Counsellor has been under house arrest in an undisclosed location, said a BBC report. The report quoted Suu Kyi's lawyers as saying that she appeared

Washington, Mar 1: Amidst the tense border tension between India and China, a Chinese government-linked group of hackers targeted India's critical power grid system through malware, a US company has claimed in its latest study, raising suspicion whether last year's massive power outage in Mumbai was a result of the online intrusion. Recorded Future, a Massachusetts-based company which studies the