Washington, Aug 15 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has said that European leaders may also be part of meeting he hopes to broker between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky aimed at halting the war”The more important meeting will be the second meeting that we’re having,” Trump said on Thursday in the Oval Office ahead of his Friday sit-down with Putin in Alaska. “We’re going to have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelensky, myself, and maybe we’…

Quetta, Aug 15 (IANS) Several Baloch human rights organisations, on Thursday, raised grave concern after two Baloch scholars were forcibly disappeared by Pakistan’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) amid an ongoing wave of enforced disappearances across the province. Baloch Voice for Justice (BVJ) said that Usman Qazi, a PhD holder and Assistant Professor at BUITEMS University, and his younger brother Jibran Ahmed, an MPhil Economics student, were taken into custody by the CTD personnel in the …

Sanaa, Aug 15 (IANS) Yemen’s Houthi armed group has claimed responsibility for a fresh “hypersonic ballistic missile” strike on an airport in Israel. “The Yemeni armed forces (Houthi armed forces) carried out a qualitative military operation targeting Ben Gurion Airport, using a hypersonic ballistic missile,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said on Thursday in a statement aired by the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.”The operation successfully achieved its goal … and forced millions of Israe…

Vilnius, Aug 15 (IANS) Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has submitted to the country’s Parliament, the Seimas, the nomination of Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) member Inga Ruginiene as Prime Minister, the Presidential Office said. Juozas Olekas, first Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, said on Thursday that the Board of the Seimas is expected to decide on Monday when to call an extraordinary session to approve the nomination, the Baltic News Service (BNS) reported.Once confirmed, Rugin…

Jerusalem, Aug 15 (IANS) Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said that he had reviewed a military plan for seizing Gaza City, signalling preparations for what would be one of the most extensive ground operations in Gaza since the war began in October 2023. Katz met at military headquarters in Tel Aviv on Thursday with Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and other top Commanders, who presented the main principles of an operation to conquer Gaza City and other areas where Israel has not yet gained full…

Jerusalem, Aug 15 (IANS) Israel’s Mossad Chief David Barnea visited Doha for talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani on a Gaza hostage deal, media reported. A senior Israeli official told Israel’s state-owned Kan TV on Thursday that Barnea informed the Qatari Prime Minister that a phased deal for the release of the 50 hostages held in Gaza “is off the table”.The official said the meeting focused on “issues involving the Mossad” and not on renewing the…

New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) Citing the strongly-worded statement issued by the European leaders a few days ago reiterating their continued substantive military and financial support to Ukraine, as well as more sanctions on Russia, distinguished Indian diplomat and former Foreign Secretary of India Kanwal Sibal on Thursday said that Europe seeks to derail as much as possible the US-Russian peace negotiations over Ukraine. “They have made Ukraine’s security an issue vital to Europe’s own security. Eu…

Dubai, Aug 14 (IANS) India’s general elections and the electoral process , often referred to as the largest democratic exercise on the planet, remains “one of the most trusted in the world” cited a report published in a leading English daily of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday. However, the term, it said, hardly does justice to the scale considering that approximately 980 million people were eligible to vote during the Lok Sabha elections held in 2024. The elections were conducted acro…

Moscow: US President Donald Trump will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the US Joint Military Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday. Putin has met five US presidents, including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. He is one of the successful statesmen in the world today. The West wanted Ukraine to be a Western bulwark on Russia’s borders and the core element in this policy was NATO expansion eastwards. Russia made it unequivocal…

Dhaka, Aug 14 (IANS) In yet another case of mob violence in Bangladesh, two men were brutally beaten to death in Taraganj upazila area of Rangpur district on suspicion of theft with the widely circulating video of the incident on social media sparking massive outrage all over the world.The deceased, both family members, were identified as Ruplal Das, aged 40, of the Ghanirampur area in the upazila, and Pradip Das, aged 35, of Mithapukur upazila. The incident reportedly occurred over the weekend …