BRUSSELS/KYIV: US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that Nato would “respond” if Russian President Vladimir Putin used a chemical weapon in his war on Ukraine. “We will respond if he uses it. The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use,” Biden said after a Nato summit in Brussels. The […]
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Kabul on Thursday morning in a trip that was not earlier announced, officials confirmed. Director General of the Afghan state-run Bakhtar News Agency, Abdul Wahid Rayan, confirmed the arrival of the Chinese foreign minister in Afghanistan’s capital. The visit comes a week before Beijing hosts a […]
WASHINGTON: The Iranian nuclear deal could be finalised as early as this week, says a British media outlet as rapidly rising oil prices force the West to look beyond Russia. “Agreement on the international deal on Iran’s nuclear programme could be reached within 48 hours,” Britain’s Independent newspaper reported on Saturday, quoting a senior participant in the […]
KABUL: The Taliban on Friday welcomed a UN Security Council resolution formally extending the world body’s presence in Afghanistan, although the government of the hardline group remains unrecognised by the international community. Thursday’s resolution — which avoids using the word “Taliban” — allows the UN to continue work in Afghanistan, still reeling after decades of war and […]
Russian missiles struck near Lviv’s airport in the far west of Ukraine early Friday, as Moscow expanded a countrywide aerial bombardment campaign that has intensified allegations of war crimes and deliberate targeting of civilians. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said Russian forces had destroyed an aircraft repair plant — which sits near the Polish border. Ambulance […]
Tens of thousands of Japanese households remained without power on Thursday morning after a magnitude 7.4 quake struck shortly before midnight, throwing a swathe of northeastern Japan into darkness, severing key transportation links and killing four. Companies including Toyota Motor Corp and chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp raced to assess the impact, with any supply chain […]
MOSCOW: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow had received guarantees from Washington on its ability to trade with Tehran as part of ongoing talks to salvage the Iran nuclear deal. “We received written guarantees. They are included in the text of the agreement itself on the resumption of the Joint Comprehensive […]
WASHINGTON: Top advisers to Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in Rome on Monday to discuss China’s support for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, even as the Kremlin denied reports that it had requested Chinese military equipment to use in the war. US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy […]
BEIJING: China placed all 17 million residents in one of its biggest cities under lockdown on Sunday, as virus cases doubled nationwide to nearly 3,400 and anxiety mounted over the resilience of its ‘zero-Covid’ approach in the face of the worst outbreak in two years. The southern tech hub of Shenzhen told all residents to […]
Russian forces inched towards Kyiv on Saturday and pounded civilian areas in other Ukrainian cities as concerns grew over the besieged southern port of Mariupol, where officials said more than 1,500 people had been killed. Air raid sirens sounded on Saturday in several cities, including the capital Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipro and Kharkiv, according to Ukrainian […]