Pakistan ex-PM Khan barred from office, sparking protests
Islamabad, PakistanReuters Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was barred from holding public office on Friday after the top election tribunal found him guilty of unlawfully selling gifts from foreign dignitaries and heads of state, a lawyer and a minister said. The ruling adds to the political and economic uncertainty plaguing Pakistan since earlier this […]
Protests rage in Iran’s south-east, amid crackdown call
Dubai, United Arab Emirates Reuters Protests broke in restive southeastern Iran on Friday, with demonstrators attacking banks, state media reported, as a senior cleric called for tough measures against demonstrators across the country. The Islamic Republic has been gripped by five weeks of demonstrations that erupted after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa […]
Zelenskiy calls on West to warn Russia not to blow up dam
Frontline north of Kherson, Ukraine Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the West to warn Russia not to blow up a dam that would flood a large area of southern Ukraine, as his forces prepared to push Moscow’s troops from the occupied city of Kherson. In a television address, Zelenskiy said Russian forces had planted […]
The big reveal: Xi set to introduce China’s next standing committee
Beijing, ChinaReuters Xi Jinping, poised to clinch a third five-year term as China’s leader, will on Sunday preside over the most dramatic moment of the Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress and reveal the members of its elite Politburo Standing Committee. Xi’s break with precedent to rule beyond a decade was set in motion when he abandoned […]
Snapshot: Beale Street, Memphis, US
See HEIDI KADEN’s image…
Texas city stops migrant busing as Venezuelans pushed back to Mexico
Deming, New Mexico, USReuters The Democrat-led city of El Paso, Texas, is ending a months-long effort to bus migrants to northern cities after a new policy put in place by the Biden administration is forcing Venezuelan migrants back to Mexico and easing pressure on the border city. A spokesperson for El Paso said the busing […]
Defiant Ukrainians wrap up warm to face power outages
Kyiv, UkraineReuters Ukrainians turned off domestic appliances, wrapped themselves in blankets to keep warm and remained defiant on Thursday as they faced the first nationwide electricity outages of the war against Russia. In response to requests by the President and government, towns and cities restricted power supplies and limited electricity use so that energy companies […]
Brazil electoral court cracks down on disinformation ahead of Lula-Bolsonaro runoff
Brasilia, BrazilReuters Brazil’s national electoral authority is announcing moves to crack down harder on online disinformation in a fierce presidential campaign between far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and leftist challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) said the measures are intended to curb the “distribution and sharing of knowingly untrue or gravely […]
Colombia’s potential cocaine production at record high, UN says
Bogota, ColombiaReuters Potential production of cocaine in Colombia and the area sown with coca, the drug’s base ingredient, rose last year to their highest levels in two decades of monitoring, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said on Thursday. Possible output rose 14 per cent to 1,400 metric tons and the area sown […]
Lost livelihoods: Pakistan floods leave cotton workers’ dreams in tatters
WAQAR MUSTAFA, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on the devastation floods in Pakistan have wrought on cotton farmers…