South Africa

Is China trying to refurbish its global image as Xi speaks to Zelenskyy?

29 Apr 2023 00:52 AM IST

From the everchanging canvas of global affairs, here are a couple of significant global developments this week. This week indeed remained dynamic from global politics’ point of view. On one hand, another chapter in the Russia-Ukraine war opened, on the other hand, Xi spoke to Zelenskyy over phone first time

Pakistan’s former PM Imran Khan gets bail in mutiny case

29 Apr 2023 00:51 AM IST

A top court here on Friday granted protective bail till May 3 to Imran Khan in a mutiny case registered against the former Pakistan prime minister. Manzoor Ahmed Khan, a magistrate, earlier this month filed a first information report (FIR) at Islamabad’s Ramna police station against the ousted prime minister

Trump, in New Hampshire speech, turns focus to Biden rematch

29 Apr 2023 00:49 AM IST

Former President Donald Trump turned his attention to the general election on Thursday, using his first campaign appearance since President Joe Biden launched his own re-election bid to boast of his poll numbers and suggest that he has no need to debate his Republican rivals.Trump’s appearance in New Hampshire marked

AI Evolution: The robots run the show as Swiss radio tests AI voices for a day

29 Apr 2023 00:48 AM IST

The voices sound like well-known personalities, the music features trendy dance beats and hip-hop syncopations, and the jokes and laughter are contagious.But listeners of an offbeat Swiss public radio station repeatedly got the message on Thursday: Today’s programming is brought to you by Artificial Intelligence. Three months in the making,

Russian, Iranian entities come under us sanctions

29 Apr 2023 00:46 AM IST

The Biden administration on Thursday sanctioned Russia’s Federal Security Service and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence organisation, accusing them of wrongfully detaining Americans. It’s the first rollout of new sanctions authorisations established last year by President Joe Biden for use against those holding Americans unjustly captive. Still, the sanctions

PM Sunak, wife Akshata to lead with UK flag at Coronation

28 Apr 2023 23:52 PM IST

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty will be at the head of a procession of flag-bearers as the UK’s flag is carried by a high-ranking Royal Air Force (RAF) cadet at the Coronation ceremony of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in London on May 6,

Queen’s coronation recalled as UK prepares to crown her son

28 Apr 2023 23:51 PM IST

In 1953, London was still recovering from World War II. The city was pockmarked with bomb damage, food supplies were tight and life was dull for children who had never eaten anything so exotic as a banana. But the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II helped lift the gloom. Central London

Concerned about North Korea, South’s Yoon seeks more US help

28 Apr 2023 23:49 PM IST

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol urged ever more strengthening of the U.S.-led security alliance against nuclear-armed North Korea on Thursday, drawing cheers from Congress as he saluted the “great American heroes” who helped preserve his country’s democracy in the Korean War. Democratic and Republicans lawmakers rose to their feet

China flies 38 warplanes, 6 navy vessels near Taiwan

28 Apr 2023 23:48 PM IST

China’s military flew 38 fighter jets and other warplanes near Taiwan, the Taiwanese defence ministry said on Friday, in the largest such flight display since the large military exercise in which it simulated sealing off the island earlier in the month. Naval vessels were also seen in the area as

Heavy clashes rock Sudan’s capital despite truce extension

28 Apr 2023 23:46 PM IST

Heavy explosions and gunfire rocked parts of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman early on Friday, residents said, despite the extension of a fragile truce between the county’s two top generals whose power struggle has killed hundreds. The escalation came hours after both sides accepted a 72-hour

Ukraine war: As Kyiv prepares counter offensive it needs to convince

28 Apr 2023 23:45 PM IST

After a long campaign of attritional warfare in the east of Ukraine over the winter months, things appear to be stirring in the south where there have been multiple reports of preparations for the long-awaited Ukrainian spring offensive. The gradual arrival of the sophisticated military equipment promised by Kyiv’s western

Russian cruise missile & drone attacks in Ukraine kill 21 people

28 Apr 2023 23:44 PM IST

Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Ukraine early on Friday, killing at least 21 people, most of them when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in the centre of the country, officials said. Three children, including a toddler, were among the dead. The missile