Plea to speed up Tiruchi Airport runway expansion work gets shriller

US-Iran war has stranded up to 20,000 seafarers, mostly Indian and Filipino crews, with none knowing when the nightmare will end The panicked crew of a cargo ship broadcast a distress signal late on Monday night from their location in the strait of Hormuz. About 20 nautical miles north of the coast of Oman, the Minoan Pioneer bulk carrier was hit by an unknown projectile, causing a blackout in the engine room and a fire in the accommodation area. The crew scrambled to put out the blaze and called for help from nearby vessels. When they managed to disembark from the Greek-owned, Liberian-flagged ship on Tuesday morning, they realised the third engineer was missing. Days later, he is yet to be found...

The FSSAI announced on Sunday (August 2, 2026) it had prohibited sales of Diageo’s Royal Challenge Whisky made in the State of Madhya Pradesh and some ‌whisky and rum brands made in some Indian States by Diageo and India’s ‌Inbrew

Just outside the Nigerian capital Abuja, where Green Agriculture West Africa Limited (Gawal) is based, locals do not refer to the company by name, instead as the place where the Chinese supply “magic” rice seeds. Ahmed Yusuf, 42, credits the seeds with turning around his rice business for good. Before Gawal, Yusuf’s yields averaged just 2 tonnes per hectare, putting him on the verge of forsaking farming after more than a decade of toiling. “Each year I was making losses, and I couldn’t meet the...