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US stocks are sinking Wednesday after another climb for oil prices raised worries about inflation, which may have been primed to worsen even before the war with Iran began. The S&P 500 fell 0.5 per cent and was on track for its first loss this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 377 points, or 0.8 per cent, as of 11 am. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5 per cent lower. Stocks fell under the pressure of a 6.2 per cent climb for the price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, to USD 109.84. Benchmark US oil rose 2.3 per cent to USD 97.70 per barrel. Oil and natural gas prices have been spiking since the war began because of disruptions to the Persian Gulf's energy industry. Iran's state television said Wednesday that the Islamic Republic would be attacking oil and gas infrastructure in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after an attack on facilities associated with its offshore South Pars natural gas field. If the disruptions .
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is travelling Wednesday to the United States for what she expects to be a "very difficult" meeting with US President Donald Trump after he called on Japan and other allies to send warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz. The three-day visit to Washington was originally expected to focus on trade and strengthening the US-Japanese alliance as China's influence grows in Asia. It is now expected to be overshadowed by the war the United States and Israel launched against Iran on February 28. "I think the US visit will be a very difficult one, but I will do everything to maximise our national interest and to protect the daily lives of the people when the situation changes daily," Takaichi told parliament on Wednesday, hours before her departure. Takaichi held her first meeting with Trump in October in Tokyo, days after becoming Japan's first female prime minister. A hard-line conservative, Takaichi is a protege of former leader Shinzo Abe, who ...
Amid the escalating West Asia conflict, the government on Wednesday said around 2.6 lakh people have returned from the region to India since February 28. At an inter-ministerial briefing here on the West Asia situation, Additional Secretary (Gulf), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Aseem R Mahajan, said that on Wednesday, around 70 flights were expected to operate from various airports in the UAE to different destinations in India. The flight situation is "reassuring," he said. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal spoke about a telephonic conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Tuesday. "The two leaders discussed the current situation in West Asia. The prime minister reiterated India's strong condemnation of all attacks on the UAE that have resulted in loss of innocent lives and damage to civilian infrastructure," he said. The two leaders agreed on the importance of "ensuring safe and free navigation through the Strai
Israel said Wednesday it killed another top Iranian official, the third in two days, while Iran lashed out with attacks on its Persian Gulf neighbours and Israel, using some of its latest missiles to evade air defences and killing two people near Tel Aviv as the war in the Middle East showed no signs of slowing. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib had been killed in an overnight strike and promised that "significant surprises are expected throughout this day on all fronts," without elaborating. Iran did not immediately confirm Khatib's death. Israel killed top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's Basij force on Tuesday. In Lebanon, Israel kept up its intense pressure with strikes it said targeted Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, hitting multiple apartment buildings in Beirut and killing at least a dozen people. In Iran, the Bushehr nuclear power plant complex was hit by a ...
Indian-flagged oil tanker Jag Laadki has reached Mundra port in Gujarat after sailing safely from Fujairah in the UAE, despite an attack on the terminal, taking the total number of vessels transiting the conflict-hit zone to four. The tanker, with 80,886 tonne of crude oil sourced from the UAE, departed from Fujairah Port following the incident and completed its voyage to Mundra Port on Wednesday, according to shipping sources. Jag Laadki is the second vessel from the war zone to have reached Adani group's Mundra port. Previously, LPG tanker Shivalik reached the port on Monday. Adani's Mundra port provided the safe berthing of the vessel and maritime coordination in safeguarding vital energy lifelines of India, they said. All 22 Indian seafarers onboard are reported safe. Originally, there were 28 Indian-flagged vessels in the Strait of Hormuz when the war in West Asia broke out following US-Israel attacks on Iran. Of these, 24 were on the west side of the strait and 4 on the east
Claiming to have eliminated Iran's top security official Ali Larijani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said that the joint US-Israeli strikes were aimed at weakening the Iranian government to give the Iranian people the chance to take their "destiny into their own hands". "This morning, we eliminated Ali Larijani...Alongside him, we also eliminated the commander of the Basij they are the gangsters' assistants who are terrorising the population in the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities," he said in a statement. Larijani had effectively evolved as the in-charge of Iran's war management following the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by Israel on February 28 in the opening strike of the war, which is now in its eighteenth day. There was no word from the Iranian government on the fate of Larijani, the Secretary of the country's Supreme National Security Council. "We are undermining this regime in the hope of giving the Iranian people a
India has evacuated over 550 of its nationals from Iran through Armenia, with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar thanking Yerevan on Monday for facilitating the land-border transit. New Delhi has been urging Indian nationals stuck in Iran to cross over to Armenia for subsequent travel to India in view of the escalating conflict in West Asia. "Thank the Government and the people of Armenia for facilitating the safe evacuation of over 550 Indian nationals from Iran so far," Jaishankar, currently on a visit to Brussels, said. "Appreciate their support in these challenging times," he said on social media. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said last week that around 9,000 Indians were staying in Iran, and the government of India is assisting those who want to travel to Azerbaijan and Armenia for their subsequent return to India. "These 9,000 Indian nationals comprise students; they also comprise seafarers, some business people, some professionals, and some ...
India has fast-tracked fertiliser imports to safeguard supplies for the kharif sowing season as the West Asia crisis disrupts gas shipments, and shipping routes, government sources said on Saturday. India has brought forward a global tender for urea imports and ordered 13.5 lakh tonnes of fertiliser by mid-February. About 90 per cent of this order is expected to arrive by the end of March, the sources said. Urea, India's most consumed and heavily subsidised fertiliser, is produced domestically at around 30-31 million tonnes annually, with imports of 6-10 million tonnes bridging demand shortfalls. Production is heavily dependent on natural gas. India also imports phosphatic fertilisers, including Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) and NPK compounds. A five-year supply contract with Saudi Arabia for 3 million tonnes of DAP remains intact with "no force majeure," the sources said. Supplies of urea, DAP and NPK from Russia and Morocco are flowing uninterrupted via the Cape of Good Hope ...