WORLD

Beijing: A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the sea area near Hualien, Taiwan at 7:58 a.m. Wednesday (Beijing Time), as reported by the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC). Following the seismic activity, a red alert for tsunami was promptly issued.The epicenter of the earthquake was pinpointed at 23.81 degrees north latitude and 121.74 degrees east longitude, with a depth of 12 km, according to CENC's report.Reports from local media indicated significant tremors felt across various parts of Taiwan, leading to the suspension of Taipei’s metro operations.Taiwan’s meteorological agency corroborated the seismic event, citing a 7.2-magnitude earthquake at 7:58 a.m. Wednesday, with a depth of 15.5 km. The epicenter was noted 25 km south-southeast of the Hualien county go...

New Delhi: India, along with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, has once again voiced strong condemnation against China's repeated attempts to rename places within India's easternmost state, Arunachal Pradesh.MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, in Delhi, rebuked China's actions, stating, "We firmly reject such attempts. Assigning invented names will not alter the reality that Arunachal Pradesh is, has been, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India."Chief Minister Pema Khandu of Arunachal Pradesh took to social media to express his disdain, calling China's actions "another gimmick" and reaffirming Arunachal Pradesh's unwavering allegiance to India.

Gaza: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has announced Israel's readiness to dispatch delegations to Qatar and Egypt for negotiations concerning a Gaza ceasefire deal. This decision follows discussions with David Barnea, Head of the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency, and Ronen Bar, Chief of the internal security agency Shin Bet. Netanyahu has endorsed the next round of talks, providing guidelines for advancing negotiations, as outlined in a statement released on Friday and quoted by a news agency report.The forthcoming talks are scheduled to take place in Doha and Cairo in the upcoming days. Previously, Israel withdrew the majority of its negotiating team from Doha after Hamas rejected the latest offer. However, reports indicate that a small, mid-ranking Mossad team re...

Damascus: The death toll resulting from Israeli airstrikes striking Syria's northern city of Aleppo has tragically climbed to 42, as reported by a war monitor, updating the previous count of 36 fatalities.According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the airstrikes specifically targeted a Hezbollah warehouse in the Jibrin area near Aleppo International Airport before dawn on Friday. The attacks, resonating across the northern Aleppo countryside for approximately three hours, mark the deadliest Israeli airstrikes in Syria over the past three years, according to news agency.Additionally, defense factories in the Safira area were also among the targets, as confirmed by the watchdog group. Unnamed Lebanese military sources revealed that six members of Hezbollah were among the c...

Tehran: Reports indicate that the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran, Iran, will soon resume its operations, signaling a significant development in bilateral relations. An official from the Iranian Foreign Ministry, speaking anonymously, noted promising agreements between Iran and Azerbaijan, facilitating this diplomatic resurgence.The revival of the embassy is accompanied by plans for official meetings between the two nations, as highlighted in a report by news agency. Additionally, Iran is set to appoint a new ambassador to Azerbaijan, following the conclusion of Ambassador Seyed Abbas Mousavi's tenure as Tehran's envoy to Baku.The decision to reopen the embassy comes after Azerbaijan closed its diplomatic mission in Tehran following a tragic armed attack on January 27, 2023. The atta...

Gaza: The death toll among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has tragically climbed to 32,623, as reported by the Hamas-run Health Ministry in a recent press statement. According to a news agency report, the Israeli army's actions in the past 24 hours alone resulted in the deaths of 71 Palestinians and injuries to 112 others.This escalation brings the total number of casualties to 32,623 deaths and 75,092 injuries since the onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict. In the latest wave of violence, at least 20 Palestinians, including women and children, lost their lives during Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, according to the official news agency.The ongoing conflict stems from Israel's response to a Hamas incursion across the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023, which resulted in appr...

Gaza: The Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) has highlighted a concerning cash liquidity crisis in the Gaza Strip, attributing it to the disruption of banking operations caused by the continuous Israeli attacks.According to reports from the news agency, numerous banks have been demolished amidst the conflict, rendering it unfeasible to operate the remaining bank branches across the region due to bombings, power outages, and security risks.The liquidity shortage has worsened as a significant portion of ATMs has become non-operational, exacerbating the financial strain on residents, as stated in a PMA statement issued on Sunday.The authority has expressed alarm over reports of extortion activities targeting Gaza residents by certain individuals, traders, and unlicensed currency e...