TEL AVIV: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday said that around 250 Hezbollah fighters, including a number of battalion and company commanders have been killed since the start of its ground operation in Lebanon earlier this week. It further said that the chief of Hezbollah’s communication networks, Mohammed Rashid Skafi, was killed in the latest airstrike on Beirut....more
TEHRAN: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel "won't last long" as he backed the Palestinian and Lebanese movements against Israel in his rare Friday sermon. Addressing tens of thousands of supporters at a mosque in Tehran, Khamenei justified its missile strikes on Israel as a "public service"....more
By Deepak Arora
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 3: The United Nations Security Council on Thursday expressed its full support for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after Israel's foreign minister Katz said he was barring him from entering the country. Katz had declared Guterres persona non grata. The 15-member council said in a statement that "any decision not to engage with the U.N. Secretary-General or the United Nations is counterproductive, especially in the context of escalating tensions in the Middle East."...more
SANAA: The US military launched airstrikes against several Houthi targets in Yemen, targeting weapons systems, bases, and other equipment belonging to the Iranian-backed rebel group. A US official confirmed the strikes, noting that aircraft and naval vessels were involved in the operation, which was still concluding at the time of reporting. Houthi media reported that seven strikes targeted the airport in Hodeida, a key port city, and the Katheib area, which houses a military base controlled by the Houthis. Additional strikes were conducted in Seiyana, the capital Sanaa, and Dhamar province, with reports of three air raids in Bayda province as well....more
RAIPUR: Thirty-six Maoists were shot dead by security forces in a forest along the Narayanpur-Dantewada border in Chhattisgarh today, according to sources. The District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the Special Task Force (STF) began the anti-Maoist operation yesterday, and contact happened at 12.30 pm today, sources said, adding the encounter is going on. Several assault rifles including AK series and other weapons have been recovered, sources said....more
NEW DELHI: S Jaishankar will visit Pakistan later this month to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, becoming the first External Affairs Minister to do so in nine years. The last visit was by Sushma Swaraj in 2015. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday that Jaishankar will lead a delegation to Pakistan to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government meeting....more
By Deepak Arora
NEW YORK: Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung has called upon the United Nations to incorporate Taiwan in the UN system to maintain peace in the Indo-Pacific region. In an article, Foregin Minister Lin Chia-lung said Beijing’s attempts to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and expand authoritarianism throughout the Indo-Pacific region were a profound threat to peace and security all around the world. He said "now is the right time for the United Nations to evolve and to rethink its unjustified policies that exclude Taiwan."...more
TAIPEI: Ahead of the opening of the United Nations' 79th General Assembly beginning September 10, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang has once again sought Taiwan's role in contributing towards U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Speaking to news persons in Taipei City to detail Taiwan’s annual U.N. campaign, Minister Tien Chung-kwang said the theme of the UN General Assembly general debate, set to kick off from September 24, is “Leaving No One Behind: Acting Together for the Advancement of Peace, Sustainable Development and Human Dignity for Present and Future Generations.” Ironically, he said Taiwan’s 23.5 million people are still excluded from the global organization....more
WASHINGTON: Registered voters who watched Tuesday’s debate between vice presidential nominees Tim Walz and JD Vance were closely divided over which candidate did the better job, according to a CNN instant poll of debate watchers conducted by SSRS, and the event left viewers with more positive views of both candidates than they held pre-debate....more
NEW YORK: Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 47% to 40% in the race to win the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, as she appeared to blunt Trump's edge on the economy and jobs, a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday found. Harris had a six percentage point lead based on unrounded figures - which showed her with support from 46.61% of registered voters while Trump was backed by 40.48%, according to the three-day poll that closed on Monday. The Democrat's lead was slightly higher than her five-point advantage over Trump in a Sept 11-12 Reuters/Ipsos poll....more
NEW DELHI: India gross Goods and Services Tax collection growth in September reached a 40-month low of 6.5%, resulting in revenues of Rs 1.73 lakh crore, while the net collection, after adjusting refunds, grew merely 3.9%, slowest so far in the current fiscal year. The September mop-up is about 1% less than what it collected in the preceding month, while on a net basis, it's 1.5% higher than August receipts of Rs 1.53 lakh crore, according to the government's provisional data released on Tuesday....more
NEW YORK: Taiwan has welcomed the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell’s reiteration of his country’s long-standing support of stability in the Taiwan Strait together with backing from ten allies for Taiwan’s inclusion in the United Nations, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During a September 18 congressional hearing, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell voiced his disapproval of China’s distortion and misuse of U.N. Resolution 2758 to suppress Taiwan and deny its legitimacy, according to a statement by the MOFA....more
NEW YORK: Indian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is now commander of the International Space Station. She was in space on an eight-day mission that had to be extended to over eight months because the Boeing Starliner spacecraft she travelled in faced technical glitches. NASA has announced that Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko handed over the command of the space station to Sunita Williams at a ceremony onboard the space station....more
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ordered an independent probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the allegations of using animal fat in laddoos served as prasad at the Tirupati temple. The SIT will comprise two CBI officers, two state police officials, and a senior officer from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the central food regulator, the court said....more
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