Region

NEW DELHI: South Asian nations will set up a toll-free helpline and online platform to fight human trafficking, one of the region’s biggest problems, and trace the thousands of children who go missing in the region annually, India’s government said late on Wednesday. Ministers from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and […]

TEHRAN: Iranian Muslims will miss the annual Hajj pilgrimage in September because Tehran and Riyadh failed to agree organisational details after they cut diplomatic ties in January, the IRNA news agency reported on Thursday. The official Iranian agency quoted Tehran’s Islamic Guidance and Culture Minister Ali Jannati as blaming Riyadh for the impasse. Last year’s […]

JAKARTA: Indonesia has started to probe the tax reports of 78 individuals after finding differences between their wealth reports and data from the “Panama Papers”, the head of the country’s tax office said on Thursday. The country’s finance minister has instructed the tax office to scrutinise names in the data leaked from a Panamanian law […]

COLOMBO: A brother of former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa was arrested on Thursday by the police Financial Crimes Investigation Division over a land deal allegedly involving money laundering, his lawyer and police said. Several members of the Rajapaksa family are facing police investigations for alleged financial crimes. They include Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was president […]

LJUBLJANA: Slovenia said it took in its first 28 migrants on Thursday under a European Union relocation scheme that many other EU countries have been slow to carry out or rejected outright. The migrants include families and individuals from Iraq and Syria and will be housed initially in a centre for asylum seekers in the […]

BEIJING/TAIPEI: China and Taiwan have added tourism to their bones of contention since the pro-independence opposition swept to power in January elections, trading accusations about who is to blame for a decline in Chinese visitors to the self-ruled island. China has made no secret of its dislike for incoming President Tsai Ing-wen, who takes office […]

MANILA: Philippine leader Benigno Aquino III had called this week’s election a referendum on his “straight path” style of reformist governance, but his candidate lost by millions of votes to a shoot-from-the-lip mayor. And if the vice presidency goes to a son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was ousted 30 years ago by a revolt […]

DHAKA: Police on Wednesday charged Bangladesh’s main opposition chief, Khaleda Zia, with masterminding arson attacks during deadly anti-government protests last year, a day after the execution of one of her key political allies. Police said they had brought charges against Zia, a two-time former prime minister, and 27 officials from her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) […]

LONDON: Europe is becoming “a bad word” due to the strains of the migrant crisis and growing inequality among euro zone countries that risk driving the continent apart, Italy’s Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said on Wednesday. Speaking at an event hosted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which was set up 25 […]

TAIPEI: Taiwan’s new government will be to blame for any crisis with China that erupts once it assumes office, Beijing said on Wednesday, heaping on the pressure ahead of the inauguration of a new president from a pro-independence party. China and self-ruled Taiwan underwent a rapprochement under the outgoing government which was run by China-friendly […]