Monday, 23 March 2026

Author: AFP

Indian election parties hit by clampdown

NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered parties to name anonymous donors behind tens of millions of dollars in funding as hostilities intensified in the country’s mega-election. The order came ahead of the second round of voting and after the election watchdog called for a clampdown on Prime Minister

China to add ‘eco-friendly’ toilet on Mount Everest

BEIJING: Climbers with pressing needs on Mount Everest will soon find an “eco-friendly” toilet at a Chinese campsite 7,028 metres above sea level in an ongoing campaign to deal with the peak’s waste problem. Decades of commercial mountaineering have turned Mount Everest into the world’s highest rubbish dump as an

Kim gains more power in N. Korea leadership shuffle

SEOUL: North Korea has replaced its long-serving head of state with a close aide to leader Kim Jong Un, promoting a man who was placed on a US sanctions list last year for alleged human rights abuses, state media said Friday. The move came as part of a top-ranking reshuffle

Assange held in jail ahead of long legal fight

LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange woke up in a British jail yesterday at the start of a likely lengthy extradition battle after a dramatic end to his seven-year stay in Ecuador’s London embassy. Within hours of police hauling him out of the embassy, the 47-year-old Australia appeared in court for

Sagan leads trio into cycling’s cobbled ‘Hell’

PARIS: Known as the Hell of the North, and widely regarded as cycling’s toughest one-day race, the Paris-Roubaix will be hotly contested on Sunday with Slovak superstar Peter Sagan heading a trio of former champions in contention. Mud, dust, treacherous patches of moss and 54 kilometres of roughly cobbled former

Man Utd desperate to end slump against West Ham

MANCHESTER: The Ole Gunnar Solskjaer feelgood factor at Manchester United has been replaced by a fear factor as the club face the real prospect of missing out on next season’s Champions League. United’s popular new boss has little margin for error after a damaging run that has seen his side

World’s biggest election tests nationalist Modi’s grip on power in India

NEW DELHI: Tens of millions of Indians joined nationwide queues Thursday to give their verdict on nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi as the world’s biggest election started amid deadly clashes. Election officials reported a heavy turnout across the 20 states taking part in the first day of the massive exercise

Indonesia’s KPU probes vote-rigging claims in Malaysia ahead of polls

JAKARTA: Indonesia is probing vote-rigging claims after the discovery of thousands of stray election ballots in neighbouring Malaysia, officials said, as the opposition threatens to challenge next week’s poll results over separate voter list irregularities. The General Elections Commission (KPU) has sent a team to Malaysia to investigate as many

Koepka, DeChambeau share Masters lead

AUGUSTA: Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau burst out of the crowd Thursday at Augusta National, firing six-under par 66s to share a one-shot lead over Phil Mickelson after the first round of the Masters. Hours after 14-time major champion Tiger Woods electrified fans by briefly putting his name atop the