WELLINGTON: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday ordered an independent judicial inquiry into whether police and intelligence services could have prevented the Christchurch mosque attacks on March 15. Ardern said a royal commission – the most powerful judicial probe available under New Zealand law – was needed to find
MISHMERET (Israel): A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a house in a community north of Tel Aviv yesterday, wounding seven Israelis and leading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short a visit to the United States. Israel’s army said the rocket was fired from the Palestinian enclave run
SEOUL: North Korea has returned its staff to an inter-Korean liaison office, Seoul said yesterday, just days after unilaterally withdrawing from the joint facility. The office in the Northern city of Kaesong was opened in September as the two Koreas knitted closer ties, but the North pulled its staff out
BEIRA (Mozambique): Disease is threatening to aggravate the already dire conditions facing millions of survivors following the powerful tropical cyclone which ravaged southern Africa 10 days ago, officials warned on Sunday. Cyclone Idai smashed into Mozambique’s coast unleashing hurricane-force wind and rain that flooded swathes of the poor country before
BAGHOUZ (Syria): Dozens of Islamic State group jihadists emerged from tunnels to surrender to US-backed forces in eastern Syria on Sunday, a day after their “caliphate” was declared defeated. Syria’s Kurds warned that despite the demise of the proto-state, the thousands of foreign jihadists they have detained are a time-bomb
KABUL: At least 13 civilians were killed, mostly children, in an air strike by “international forces” in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz late last week, the United Nations said yesterday. The strike happened between late Friday and early Saturday in support of ground operations conducted by pro-government forces fighting
MUMBAI: India’s troubled Jet Airways said yesterday that founder Naresh Goyal has stepped down as chairman and left the company board as part of a rescue plan. Jet, which has debts of more than $1 billion, said in a statement that its creditors would inject up to $218 million of
MIAMI: Naomi Osaka crashed out of the third round of the WTA and ATP Miami Open on Saturday as Hsieh Su-Wei exacted revenge for a painful Australian Open defeat with a 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 victory. World number one Osaka had looked in little danger after winning the first set
MIAMI: Defending champion Paul Casey clung to a one-stroke lead over top-ranked Dustin Johnson despite a closing bogey in Saturday’s third round of the US PGA Tour Valspar Championship. The 41-year-old Englishman missed a 14-foot par putt at the par-4 18th and settled for a bogey and a three-under par
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas: The port of Corpus Christi in Texas is pulling out all the stops to capitalise on America’s soaring energy export ambitions: giant new oil pipelines, terminal expansions and dredging – but at risk of environmental damage. Exports through the port, which ships out more crude than virtually