Author: News Desk

Three Chinese astronauts returned to earth on Saturday after 183 days in space, state television reported, completing the country’s longest crewed space mission to date. The astronauts landed nine hours after they left a key module of China’s first space station. While in orbit, the Shenzhou-13 mission astronauts took manual control in the Tianhe living quarters module for what state media called a “docking experiment” with the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft. Following their launch in October, the astronauts – Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and a female crew member Wang Yaping – spent 183 days in space, completing the fifth of 11…

Twitter Inc adopted a ‘poison pill’ on Friday to limit Elon Musk’s ability to raise his stake in the social media platform, as a buyout firm emerged to challenge his $43 billion bid for the company. Thoma Bravo, a technology-focused private equity firm that had more than $103 billion in assets under management as of the end of December, has informed Twitter that it is exploring the possibility of putting together a bid, people familiar with the matter said. It is not clear how much Thoma Bravo would be prepared to offer and there is no certainty that such a rival…

Pakistan’s new ruling alliance took control of the lower house of parliament on Saturday with the election of a new speaker, cementing control of the assembly after former premier Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote. The previous speaker and his deputy, both Khan allies, had attempted to block and then delay the vote, only for the country’s top court to deem their actions illegal. The lower house of parliament eventually voted in favour of removing Khan from office on Sunday. The new ruling alliance has already elected their candidate, Shehbaz Sharif as the new prime minister. The new…

The Interior Ministry has condemned the arrest of two Bahraini and four Asian fishermen by the Qatari Coast and Border Guard Patrols on April 13 and the confiscation of their boats over charges of entering the regional waters. The Ministry said that their arrest had violated the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)’s brotherhood and good neighbouring principles, adding that it is also a violation of humanitarian and traditional values and Arab and Islamic agreements. The Ministry revealed coordination with the Foreign Ministry to follow up on legal procedures to protect the rights of fishermen and sailors out of dedication to protecting…

Ukraine’s defence ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said on Friday that for, the first time since the start of its invasion, Russia used long-range bombers to attack the besieged port city of Mariupol. Motuzyanyk said Russia was concentrating its efforts on seizing the cities of Rubizhne, Popasna and Mariupol.

Earlier this month Chinese truck driver Dong Zhigang finished a job in the coastal city of Nantong and began what should have been a four-hour journey north to his home village in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province. On Friday, nine sticky days in his cab later, he still had not made it home. Like many Chinese truckers, Dong, 30, had fallen victim to some of the country’s recent hardline anti-COVID measures and disruption as local authorities scramble to maintain China’s zero-COVID policy. He got as far as a highway exit leading to his village before he was told by officials that to…

Twitter Inc on Friday adopted a limited-duration shareholder rights plan to protect itself from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s $43 billion cash takeover offer. Musk made the bid on Wednesday in a letter to the board of Twitter- the micro-blogging platform that has become a global means of communication for individuals and world leaders – and it was made public in a regulatory filing on Thursday. After his TED talk on Thursday, Musk hinted at the possibility of a hostile bid in which he would bypass Twitter’s board and put the offer directly to its shareholders, tweeting: “It would be utterly…

Smashed tanks in the mud, destroyed buildings and mourning families mark a recaptured east Ukrainian village whose residents are contemplating the price both they and their former Russian occupiers have had to pay. Ukrainian soldiers last month retook Husarivka, an agricultural village with a peacetime population of 500-600 around 150 km southeast of Kharkiv city, after heavy fighting following the Russian invasion on Feb. 24. As Russian forces pull back after failing to take major cities including Kyiv and Kharkiv to refocus their offensive on the Donbas region in the southeast, residents of the surrounding areas are beginning to clean…

Russia on Friday expelled 18 European Union diplomats in retaliation for Brussels’ decision to declare 19 Russians personae non gratae earlier this month. The EU on April 5 said the 19 Russian diplomats had been “engaging in activities contrary to their diplomatic status” and ordered them to leave Belgium. Russia’s foreign ministry said in its statement that it had summoned EU ambassador to Russia, Markus Ederer, and handed him a note of protest. “The Russian side declared that the EU is responsible for the consistent destruction of the architecture of bilateral dialogue and cooperation that had taken decades to form,”…

Moody’s said Russia may be in default because it tried to service its dollar bonds in roubles, which would be one of the starkest consequences to date of Moscow’s exclusion from the Western financial system since President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. If Moscow is declared in default, it would mark Russia’s first major default on foreign bonds since the years following the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, though the Kremlin says the West is forcing a default by imposing crippling sanctions. Russia made a payment due on April 4 on two sovereign bonds – maturing in 2022 and 2042 – in…