Author: News Desk

Russia opened fire with artillery, multiple rocket launchers and tanks around Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv and shelled cities in the east, Ukraine’s general staff said on Monday, after a strike that killed 18 people in an apartment building. The rocket strike on the five-storey residental block in Chasiv Yar on Saturday night also left two dozen people trapped in the rubble, the emergency service said. Rescuers were in voice contact with two people under the wreckage, it said. The rocket attack was part of Russia’s push to capture all of Donetsk province, which makes up part of the industrial…

Tensions between China and the United States, and the withdrawal of the remote Pacific island nation of Kiribati, have overshadowed the Pacific Islands Forum as leaders arrived in Fiji on Monday for the first in-person summit in three years. During the four-day meeting, Pacific island leaders will discuss how to gather more international support and funding to fight the impact of rising sea levels and climate change, as well as China’s ambitions for greater security ties across the region. A bid by Beijing to sign a broader regional trade and security deal with 10 nations that recognise China, but is…

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi warned on Monday in a policy speech in the Indonesian capital that countries should avoid being used as “chess pieces” by major powers in a region that he said was at risk of being reshaped by geopolitical factors. Addressing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretariat in Jakarta, Wang, who was speaking through a translator, said many countries in the region were under pressure to take sides. “We should insulate this region from geopolitical calculations… from being used as chess pieces from major power rivalry and from coercion,” he said, adding: “The future of…

The Russian parliament’s organising council was due to meet on Monday to decide on calling an extraordinary meeting of parliament on July 15, but it was not immediately clear what was to be discussed. The lower house of parliament said the council was to meet on Monday due to “issues that require urgent solutions” and the need to consider “government initiatives”. It gave no further details. At the scheduled start of the council meeting, there was no public live translation on the meeting and no agenda was published, Reuters reporters said.

Lithuania on Monday expanded restrictions on trade through its territory to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, as phase-ins on earlier-announced European Union sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine took effect. Additional goods barred from Monday morning include concrete, wood, alcohol and alcohol-based industrial chemicals, a spokesperson for Lithuanian customs said. Russia warned Lithuania and the European Union on Friday that it could adopt “harsh measures” against them if the transit of some goods to and from Kaliningrad did not resume “within the coming days”. On Monday, the Kaliningrad regional governor proposed a total ban on overland movement of…

France’s energy-intensive companies are speeding up contingency plans and converting their gas boilers to run on oil as they seek to avoid disruption in the event any further reduction in Russian gas supplies leads to power outages. Gathered over the weekend at a business and economics conference in southern France, several top executives said they were preparing for possible blackouts. “What we’ve done is we’ve converted our boilers, so they’re capable of running on gas or oil, and we can even switch to coal if we need to,” said Florent Menegaux, the boss of Michelin, one of the world’s leading…

Manama: His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa today issued a Royal Decree, pardoning 107 inmates, who were convicted in various court cases and have served part of their jail terms. The kind royal gesture, marking Aid Adha, reflects HM the King’s keenness to provide the pardoned inmates with the opportunity to integrate into society anew and participate in Bahrain’s development, progress and prosperity.

London: The overall number of people who contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) topped 549.9 million worldwide.  According to the results of a Reuters tally released today, 6,767,857 people have died due to the pandemic.  COVID-19 Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

Danila Davydov said he left Russia within weeks of the Kremlin sending troops into Ukraine because he feared having to fight in a war he doesn’t support. The 22-year-old digital artist who had been living in St Petersburg said that as the conflict dragged on he was concerned that Russia could place pressure on young people like him to serve in the military. “I didn’t want to go to war or go to prison, so I decided to leave,” Davydov told Reuters from Kazakhstan, where he said he’s currently working. He is among what some lawyers and rights advocates say…

Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe has died in hospital after he was shot at a political campaign event. Mr Abe was shot at twice while he was giving a speech in the southern city of Nara on Friday morning. Security officials at the scene tackled the gunman, and the 41-year-old suspect is now in police custody. A search of the alleged gunman’s home uncovered what police believe are explosives, local media reported. Speaking before Mr Abe’s death was announced, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the attack, saying: “It is barbaric and malicious and it cannot be tolerated.” “This attack…