International

BEIJING: Beijing sanctioned on Friday two US defence companies, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, over their roles in supplying arms to Taiwan. The United States Congress, under the Taiwan Relations Act, requires the supply of weapons to the self-governing democracy for its defence. President Joe Biden’s administration has recently announced a slew of arms sales to the island. “Despite China’s …

GENEVA: The United Nations is urgently seeking more than $71 million to assist those most in need after deadly flash floods swept Libya over the weekend. Hurricane-strength Storm Daniel slammed into Libya on September 10, killing at least 4,000 people, with thousands more still missing. In a flash appeal on Thursday, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said it expects the …

HAVANA: The G77+China, a group of developing and emerging countries representing 80 per cent of the global population, gathers on Friday in Cuba seeking to promote a “new economic world order” amid warnings of growing polarisation. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, who arrived on the island on Thursday, will join some 30 heads of state and government from Africa, Asia …

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Friday that no agreements had been signed during North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s ongoing visit to Russia, amid Western concern that the two isolated countries could be preparing an arms deal. Kim is on a rare trip out of his reclusive country in the Russian Far East, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier …

Iranians at home and abroad marked the first anniversary on Saturday of the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, with activists speaking of a renewed crackdown to prevent any resurgence of the protests which rocked major cities last year. Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died a few days after her arrest by religious police for allegedly violating the strict dress code …

Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have arrested at least 18 staff of an international NGO, including an American woman, accusing them of carrying out Christian missionary work, the country’s leaders said Saturday. The International Assistance Mission (IAM) confirmed its staffers were picked up from its office in Ghor province, central Afghanistan, and taken to Kabul. Security and intelligence forces had been observing …

WASHINGTON: A senior US diplomat has identified the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as the greatest threat to regional stability. Addressing a seminar at the Stimson Center on Tuesday, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West, however, admitted that the Taliban rulers had “significantly degraded” the capabilities of the militant Islamic State (IS) group. Mr West said the Doha agreement that …

WASHINGTON: When Michel Sadelain began his decades-long quest to genetically modify immune cells to fight cancer, his peers dismissed his ideas as absurd and even his mother grew concerned for his career. On Thursday, the French and Canadian scientist was announced as a winner of the prestigious Breakthrough Prize for his pioneering work in CAR T-cell therapy, a new form …

ISLAMABAD: The participants of the second Pakistan-Afghanistan Civil Society Conference on Exploring Approaches for Regional Peace and Stability discussed the need for a joint strategy to counter proxy terrorist organisations. According to a press release, the participants at the conference organised by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) in collaboration with its Afghan partner, the Organisation for Economic …

ISLAMABAD: A new Unicef-World Bank analysis estimates that one in six children globally (around 333 million) live in extreme poverty, and warns that at current rates of reduction, the Sustainable Development Goal of ending extreme child poverty by 2030 will not be met. The “Global Trends in Child Monetary Poverty According to International Poverty Lines”, which for the first time …