A group of Indian defense officials and industry representatives told Reuters on Tuesday that India quietly banned military drone manufacturers from using Chinese parts several months ago, due to concerns about security vulnerabilities that could compromise the equipment. India is spending a great deal of money to modernize its military, and the government has decided Chinese parts…
Aug 8 (Reuters) – Iraq’s official media regulator on Tuesday ordered all media and social media companies operating in the Arab state not to use the term “homosexuality” and instead to say “sexual deviance,” the regulator said. The Iraqi Communications and Media Commission (CMC) said in a statement that the use of the term “gender”…
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but the Islamic State group operates across the border in Afghanistan. KHAR, Pakistan — A powerful bomb ripped through a rally held by supporters of a hard-line cleric and political leader in the country’s northwestern Bajur District that borders Afghanistan on Sunday, police and health officials said….
India has outlawed the export of non-basmati white rice in an attempt to ward off looming domestic price spikes. Heavy rains have hurt crops in the country and rice prices have risen by more than 11% over the last 12 months. Non-basmati white grain currently accounts for about a quarter of India’s rice exports, the…
On Monday, Russia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) issued a statement calling for a “a peaceful solution” to the dispute over the Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunbs islands “in accordance with international law.” Iran on Wednesday summoned Russia’s ambassador in Tehran, Alexey Dedov, after a statement Moscow made in favor of the…
ISLAMABAD, June 12 (Reuters) – Pakistan paid for its first government-to-government import of discounted Russian crude in Chinese currency, the South Asian country’s petroleum minister said on Monday, a significant shift in its U.S. dollar-dominated export payments policy. Discounted crude offers respite as Pakistan faces an acute balance of payments crisis, risking a default on…
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has spoken of an “historic opportunity” for Arab states to remake their region “with the least amount of foreign interference”, in his first trip to an Arab League summit in over a decade. He said Arab leaders should build on the reconciliation ahead of the summit. Syria had been suspended from…
Azerbaijani authorities have arrested a number of cells they claim were working with Iranian security services in recent months. At least seven individuals were arrested by Azerbaijani authorities on charges of attempting to carry out a coup to establish a state under Sharia law in Azerbaijan and to carry out riots and assassinations, the country’s…
Twitter’s decision to block certain content in Turkey the day before its presidential election was wrong, says the founder of Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales told the BBC his organisation had spent two and a half years in court to avoid similar demands made by Turkey in the past. He said he believed the tech sector should…
Iranian authorities have executed at least 150 people this year alone, according to human rights organizations. Iran on Monday executed two men convicted of blasphemy, the country’s judiciary announced, carrying out a rare death sentence for such a crime. The judiciary’s Mizan news agency said in a report that Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare…