Russian bank staff and branches could be joining the fight against Ukrainian drone attacks under an ambitious plan approved by the country’s lower house of parliament. The banks would bear the cost of installing electronic jamming systems on their premises while selected employees would also shoot down incoming drones, according to the draft bill passed…
Heat records have tumbled across Europe for the second straight day as an unprecedentedly early heatwave continues to bake the continent, with some fatalities reported. In London, temperatures topped 35 degrees Celsius in the mid-afternoon, officially making Tuesday the hottest day in May since records began. This broke the previous record, set only a day…
A tanker sailing in the Gulf of Oman was damaged by an explosion near the vessel’s waterline on Tuesday, maritime authorities said, as tensions remained high around the blockaded Strait of Hormuz. An explosion damaged a tanker close to its waterline as it sailed off Oman. (REUTERS) The blast occurred about 60 nautical miles east…
IF YOU ARE confused about the status of talks between America and Iran, you are in good company. Diplomats in Washington went into the long Memorial Day weekend hopeful that a deal might be imminent. Officials from Pakistan and Qatar, which are helping mediate, visited Tehran, the Iranian capital, on Friday. After a call with…
Is peace at hand between the U.S. and Iran, or is talk of an end to the war just more hype and spin? Is the potential agreement, as President Trump insists, a good deal that is much tougher than anything the Obama administration managed to negotiate? Or is it the thinly disguised surrender of a…
THE LAST TIME that Xi Jinping left China was in late October. Since then the world has come to him: a dozen heads of state have visited China. The foreign ministry’s protocol department has handled it flawlessly, setting up grand receptions for its visitors, lining up soldiers and schoolchildren to greet them and flying their…
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that negotiating a deal with Iran could “take a few days,” dimming hopes for an imminent end to the conflict after the U.S. conducted what it called defensive strikes in southern Iran. Tehran sees its control of Hormuz and Washington views its blockade of Iranian ports…
Several people are feared dead after a train collided with a school bus in the Belgian town of Buggenhout on Tuesday morning, according to a source at the scene quoted by Reuters. Belgium train collision with school bus leaves several feared dead. (AFP) Belgium’s interior minister Bernard Quintin expressed grief over the accident in a…
Every time Vanny Birungi, a volunteer with the Red Cross in eastern Congo, goes out to raise awareness about the latest Ebola outbreak as suspected cases near 1,000, she faces a double threat. The Ebola outbreak has more than 900 suspected cases and over 220 suspected deaths. (AFP) One is the rare Bundibugyo type of…
South Korean retail tycoon Chung Yong-jin on Tuesday issued his second apology in two weeks as Starbucks’ local operation faces a backlash over a recent marketing campaign that was widely perceived as mocking victims of a bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1980. Shinsegae Chairman Chung Yong-jin speaks during a press conference in Seoul…