India will resume visa services for Canadians after they ceased in a major diplomatic row in September, India’s High Commission in Ottawa says. At the time, India said the move was due to “security threats” disrupting work at its Canadian missions, reports BBC. But the suspension came amid a serious dispute over the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian ...
Read More »International
Gaza death toll rises to 6,546: Hamas health ministry
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Wednesday that 6,546 people have been killed in the territory since the outbreak of war with Israel. The death toll includes 2,704 children. A total of 17,439 people have also been wounded since the conflict erupted on October 7.
Read More »Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader holds talks with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group held talks on Wednesday in Beirut with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures in a key meeting of three top anti-Israel militant groups amid the war raging in Gaza, reports Associated Press. In neighboring Syria, meanwhile, state media said an Israeli airstrike hit the international airport in the northern city of Aleppo on ...
Read More »Muslims banned from entering Al-Aqsa mosque
Israeli police have shut down Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s old city, preventing Muslim worshippers from entering, the Palestinian state news agency (WAFA) reported on Tuesday citing the Islamic Waqf department. The Islamic Waqf – the Jordanian appointed Islamic organization managing the complex – said that police officers abruptly shut down all gates leading to the walled compound and stopped Muslims ...
Read More »Armed attacks in Mexico leave 22 dead, including 12 police
Three separate armed attacks in Mexico on Monday left at least 22 people dead, including a dozen police officers, in regions across the country, authorities said. In the largest of the attacks, unidentified attackers targeted a security patrol in Guerrero state’s municipality of Coyuca de Benitez, prosecutor Alejandro Hernandez said. According to preliminary information, 11 members of the municipal police ...
Read More »French President Macron arrives in Israel
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday to express his country’s “full solidarity” with Israel after the deadly October 7 attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas, according to an AFP journalist. The French head of state was also expected to call for the “preservation of the civilian population” in Gaza, as Israel carries out a relentless bombardment ...
Read More »400 Palestinians killed in single day by Israeli air strikes
Some 400 Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes on Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to Palestinian health officials, reports Al Jazeera. Most of those killed were women and children, medical sources told the Palestinian news agency WAFA. The attacks were concentrated in Jabalya and Beit Lahiya in the north, the Al-Gusta and Al-Rimal neighborhoods and Al-Shati refugee camp in ...
Read More »Ex-PM Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan after 4yrs of exile
Three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif arrived back in Pakistan Saturday after four years of self-imposed exile, primed to make a political comeback ahead of elections. The South Asian nation is facing overlapping security, economic and political crises ahead of polls already pushed back to January 2024, with Sharif’s primary opponent, the fiercely popular Imran Khan, languishing in jail. Sharif spent ...
Read More »First of 20 aid trucks enter besieged Gaza from Egypt
The first of 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the war-torn and besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, said AFP correspondents on both sides. UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said he was “confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies… to the people of Gaza” and ...
Read More »‘Sliver of hope’ as Hamas releases American hostages, but Gaza aid stalled
Hamas released two American hostages held in Gaza on Friday, offering a “sliver of hope” to desperate families, as Israel pounded the densely-populated territory where millions are still awaiting promised aid deliveries. The Islamist group took more than 200 people hostage when it stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly ...
Read More »