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The president of the European Parliament has promised a wide-ranging reform package to be ready in the new year to tackle corruption among MEPS, following the scandal over an alleged attempt by Qatar to buy influence.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s international air travel fell to a four-year low in March as the West Asia conflict disrupted key routes, with Air India Express emerging as the worst-hit among local carriers.The low-cost carrier of Air India, which has a heavy exposure to the region, recorded the steepest decline. Its departures plunged 68% to 1,263 in March from 3,928 a year ago.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Akasa Air, India’s third largest airline, is tapping into the month-long demand for Hajj travel to deploy its aircraft capacity left underutilized after services to parts of West Asia were scaled back due to the ongoing war in the region, according to a person aware of the development.Approximately five to six airplanes were used on the West Asia route, which are now being used majorly for Hajj travel," said the person quoted above, requesting anonymity as this plan is part of business strategy.Flights to and from Doha, Riyadh and Kuwait have been suspended until 30 April, according to the airline’s 21 April post on X. While it continues to operate flights to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia—the main gateway for pilgrims going to Mecca—from Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kochi and Kozhikode, Akasa is evaluating resumption of flights to Abu Dhabi, the post said.Akasa Air did not respond to Mint’s queries on aircraft utilization, Hajj travel and the impact of the West Asia crisis.The airline has inducted eight new aircraft in 2026, taking the fleet size to 38.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Three years before his death in 2011, celebrated artist Maqbool Fida Husain penned the following lines on the margins of a sketch, “May I present for the kind glance of Her Highness a concept of ART COMPLEX, my dream to educate and entertain. Being a painter’s museum, colours’ play in architectural concept has to be predominant." Addressed to his patron, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of the Qatar Foundation, the drawing depicted Husain’s vision of a museum dedicated to his two passions: art and cinema.

QatarEnergy LNG for its North Field Production Sustainability Offshore Compression Project. The order is estimated at around $4 billion (about ₹34,000) crore), according to people familiar with the matter, It surpasses the ₹25,000 crore order won last year by the Railway Strategic Business Group of L&T Construction from an authorised Japanese agency to construct 508 route km of high-speed electrification system works for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Bullet Train Project. The infrastructure firm, in its statement, referred to the project awarded to its offshore hydrocarbon business as an «ultra-mega» project, a term it uses for projects above ₹15,000 crore, without mentioning the order value. Doha-based QatarEnergy is a state-owned petroleum company and one of the largest gas companies in the world.

Following the offer on Friday, Israel said the Palestinian militants had «not budged a millimetre» after a proposal from US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy. The first phase of the truce, which began in January, ended on March 1 without agreement on next steps. A Hamas official said negotiations began in Doha on Tuesday. «The ball is in Israel's court,» a Hamas spokesman said. «We want to solidify the ceasefire agreement and force (Israel) to implement its terms,» Abdul Latif al-Qanou told AFP, accusing Israel of «delaying» its enforcement.

World Bank officials, including President Ajay Banga, have faced criticism for flying private jets to a UN climate summit while advocating for carbon reduction. Critics have condemned their actions as «hypocrisy,» citing the massive carbon footprint of their travel and the organization's lavish spending habits.

Qatar Airways has responded to a distressing incident aboard a flight from Melbourne to Doha, where a deceased woman’s body was placed next to an Australian couple for several hours. The airline conducted an internal review and stated that its crew «acted quickly, appropriately and professionally» in handling the situation. The incident gained attention after Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin, who were traveling to Venice, shared their experience with Channel Nine in Australia.

Taliban representative to the country soon, the latest step from New Delhi to improve ties with Kabul and counter China’s growing influence in Afghanistan.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The broad terms of the cease-fire deal that Israel and Hamas finally agreed to Wednesday after a year of fruitless negotiations aren’t substantially different from those that were available to both sides eight months ago. What changed is everything else.

hostage release agreement designed to end the war in Gaza, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters on Monday.

Joe Biden will likely talk with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu soon, his national security adviser said on Sunday, as U.S. officials race to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20. Jake Sullivan told CNN's «State of the Union» program that the parties were «very, very close» to reaching a deal to halt the fighting in the enclave and free the remaining 98 hostages held there, but still had to get it across the finish line. Biden was getting daily updates on the talks in Doha, where Israeli and Palestinian officials have said since Thursday that some progress has been made in the indirect talks between Israel and militant group Hamas, Sullivan said.

Paris Olympics silver medallist Neeraj Chopra has been named the best male javelin thrower in the world in 2024 by globally-renowned American magazine 'Track and Field News'. The 27-year-old Chopra, who was beaten by Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem for the Olympic gold medal in August last year, pipped two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada for the top spot in the 2024 rankings published by the California-based magazine. Nadeem was ranked fifth as he competed in only one event in 2024 besides the Olympic Games where he came up with a monster throw of 92.97m as against 89.45m of Chopra. He finished fourth in Paris Diamond League. Founded in 1948, the magazine, which claims itself to be 'The Bible Of The Sport', publishes world and American rankings every year. The magazine is considered an authority in global track and field circles.

Supreme Court on Friday restored China Development Bank, Exim Bank of China, Asset Care and Reconstruction Enterprises and others as financial creditors in the insolvency process of Reliance Infratel Ltd, which is now acquired by Reliance Project & Property Management Services, a subsidiary of Reliance Jio Infocomm. A Bench led by Abhay S Oka struck down a 2022 order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal that declassified these four indirect creditors of Reliance Infratel including China Development Bank, etc as financial creditors of the beleaguered telecom company. Reliance Infratel’s resolution professional had earlier admitted claims worth Rs 41,055 crore from 35 financial creditors, including Rs 10,952 crore of China Development Bank and other three creditors.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the claims, amounting to more than ₹10,952 crore, of four indirect creditors of Reliance Infratel Ltd, the tower and fibre business of Anil Ambani's telecom company Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom). Reliance Infratel’s total debt exceeds ₹41,055 crore.

During his panel discussion at the Doha Forum in Qatar, the Foreign Minister was asked this question, to which he responded, saying, «We've been trying to attract them into the Indian sphere.» Jaishankar was adressing the 22nd edition of the Doha Forum panel on 'Conflict Resolution in a New Era' where Qatar Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thand Norway Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide were also present.

Geir Pedersen, has called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an "orderly political transition" in Syria. Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha Forum in Qatar, he said the talks in Switzerland would discuss the implementation of a UN resolution that called for a Syrian-led political process.

participative diplomacy, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said that the general sort of the needle is moving more towards the reality of a negotiation than the continuation of the Russia-Ukraine war. Jaishankar also highlighted the impact of the conflict situations in the Gulf and the Mediterranean region on countries all over, including India, in terms of cost escalation for oil, fertilisers and shipping etc. Visiting Doha to participate in the Doha Forum at the invitation of Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of State of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman and was addressing a panel along with him and Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide. Answering a question about the situation in the Gulf region and the latest in Syria, the External Affairs Minister highlighted how there is a widening of conflict and gave examples of Israel-Iran firing at each other; said how the situation in Red Sea is impacting shipping for Asia, and then, referred to a previous session of journalists who said even when the job is tough, journalists need to do it.

Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal and warned Hamas that its Doha office «no longer serves its purpose», a diplomatic source told AFP on Saturday.

Pankaj Advani clinched a historic 28th world title, seventh in a row, defeating England's Robert Hall 4-2 at the IBSF World Billiards Championship in Doha on Saturday. Advani's winning streak had begun in 2016 and has also survived two years (2020, 2021) of vacuum created by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hamas official said Friday the group received a proposal from mediators Egypt and Qatar for a short-term truce in Gaza and rejected it for not including a lasting ceasefire. «The proposals do not include a permanent cessation of aggression, nor do they entail the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip or the return of displaced persons,» the official, a member of Hamas's political bureau, told on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly on the issue. A senior Hamas leader, Taher al-Nunu, had already warned on Thursday that the group would reject any proposal for a temporary halt to the fighting.