Author: Gopika Gopan

New Delhi:”Bangladesh is historically an important trading and transport hub for our subcontinent,” said Harsh V Shringla, India’s foreign secretary. “India and Bangladesh” signed an agreement to transfer cargo to the northeastern part of India using the Chattogram and Mongla ports. Fully operationalizing this agreement will bring economic benefits to a range of stakeholders from both countries,” Shringla said during an interaction with the Bangladesh delegation at the 10th India-Bangladesh friendship dialogue. While North East India will benefit from a steady supply of goods, the transport and logistics sector in Bangladesh…

New Delhi: India denies allegations made by UN mission in Geneva against judicial harassment of journalist Rana Ayub. India’s permanent mission in Geneva dubbed the allegations as “baseless and unwarranted” asserting that the country upholds the rule of law and no one was above it. “Allegations of so-called judicial harassment are baseless & unwarranted. India upholds the rule of law but is equally clear that no one is above the law. We expect SRs to be objective & accurately informed. Advancing a misleading narrative only tarnishes @UNGeneva’s reputation,” tweeted India’s…

DUBAI | Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Saturday that the country was looking to schedule a fifth round of direct talks with rival Iran, although no significant progress had been made, and urged Tehran to change its behavior in the region. Saudi Arabia and Iran, which severed ties in 2016, began talks last year hosted by Iraq, and global powers sought to defend the nuclear deal with Tehran, blaming the Gulf states for failing to deal with Iran’s missile program and proxies network. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin…

MUNICH | At the height of the East-West conflict since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the world is now a more dangerous place than it was during the Cold War. Guterres warned that a small mistake or miscommunication between major powers could have catastrophic consequences. “I am often asked whether we are in a new Cold War,” Guterres said in his opening speech at an annual security conference in Munich. “My answer is that the threat to global security…

LONDON | Millions of people in the U.K. were urged to cancel travel plans and stay indoors Friday as the second major storm this week prompted warnings of high winds and flying debris across northern Europe. Britain’s weather service said Storm Eunice, known as Storm Zeynep in Germany, was likely to cause significant disruption and dangerous conditions, with gusts that may exceed 90 miles per hour in highly exposed coastal areas. Authorities in the U.K. took the unusual step of issuing ”red” warnings — indicating a danger to life —…

OTTAWA | Going nose-to-nose with protesters in some cases, police began arresting people and towing away trucks Friday in a bid to break the three-week, traffic-snarling siege of Canada’s capital by hundreds of truckers angry over the country’s COVID-19 restrictions. Hundreds of officers descended into the protest zone and led demonstrators away in handcuffs through Ottawa’s newly snow-covered streets as drivers blared their horns in defiance. Scuffles broke out in front of a downtown hotel, and members of the crowd began singing the national anthem, “O Canada.” Tow truck operators…

Ukraine and Russia have been locked in a tense border stand-off for weeks, with the latest satellite images suggesting continued military deployment of troops along the border by Moscow. According to Military Times, new satellite images released by Maxar Technologies highlight an increase in military activity in western Russia, Belarus, and Crimea, as well as the movement of Russian troops out of staging areas toward combat positions, suggesting capacity buildup ahead of an attack on Ukraine. While Moscow has denied that it is planning a military intervention, the aggressive lining up…

UNITED NATIONS  – United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned Monday it was time to “defuse tensions” between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis, saying he was “deeply worried” about the threat of conflict. “The time is now to defuse tensions and de-escalate actions on the ground,” said Guterres, who earlier spoke to the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine and expressed his serious concern over the situation. Calling for an end to “incendiary rhetoric,” the UN secretary-general told reporters he was “deeply worried by the heightened tensions and…