China’s top health body said on Wednesday the true scale of coronavirus infections in the country is now “impossible” to track, with officials warning cases are rising rapidly in Beijing after the government abruptly abandoned its zero-Covid policy last week. After nearly three years of attempting to stamp out the virus, the sudden end of […]
ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sunday that it was imperative the Kremlin “clear” Kurdish forces from northern Syria. Erdogan has been threatening to launch a new incursion into northern Syria to push out Kurdish forces he blames for a November bomb blast that killed six people in Istanbul. […]
LONDON: Britain, Italy and Japan said on Friday they will jointly develop a future fighter jet in a project that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said would guarantee national security and safeguard thousands of jobs. The three nations held out the prospect of cooperation with European and US allies, which are developing their own “sixth-generation” […]
Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia this week, meeting the king and de facto ruler of the world’s biggest oil exporter, Saudi state media reported on Tuesday. Xi, head of the world’s number-two economy, will also attend a summit with rulers from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council and talks […]
Rescuers evacuated more people on Monday from nearby villages after the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Semeru, with officials warning of danger from cooling lava despite less activity from the volcano. More than 2,400 villagers have now fled their homes and taken shelter in 11 evacuation centres after the highest mountain on the country’s main island of Java […]
The body of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin arrived in Beijing on Thursday ahead of a public memorial service, Chinese state media said, as hundreds of people gathered in his hometown to pay their respects. A special flight carrying Jiang’s remains from Shanghai — where he died on Wednesday of leukaemia and multiple organ failure — was […]
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar concluded a one-day trip to Kabul on Tuesday where she held wide-ranging talks with Afghan Taliban leadership on security issues and economic cooperation. Khar, who was leading a high-level delegation, was the first minister to travel to the Afghan capital since the government of Prime Minister […]
Iran will reject a newly-appointed independent United Nation’s investigation into the country’s repression of anti-government protests, the foreign ministry said on Monday, as demonstrations showed no signs of abating. “Iran will have no cooperation with the political committee formed by the UN Rights Council,” ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said. The UN Rights Council voted […]
TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign ministry has condemned a United Nations Human Rights Council decision to probe the country’s response to unrest following the death of Mahsa Amini. A majority of the 47-member council backed launching a probe of Iran’s response to the ongoing protests, as the resolution was adopted on Thursday with 25 votes in favour, […]
KABUL: Three women and 11 men were flogged on Wednesday on the orders of an Afghan court after they were found guilty of theft and “moral crimes”, a provincial official said. The lashings are the first to be confirmed since the Taliban’s supreme leader ordered judges this month to fully enforce Islamic law, or sharia, […]