International

HAMBURG: Leaders of nine small island states turned to the UN maritime court on Monday to seek protection of the world’s oceans from catastrophic climate change that threatens the very existence of entire countries. The island states are asking the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) to determine if carbon dioxide emissions absorbed by the oceans can …

Lead poisoning has a far greater impact on global health than previously thought, potentially contributing to over five million deaths a year and posing a similar threat to air pollution, modelling research suggested on Tuesday. The study, described as a “wake-up call”, also estimated that exposure to the toxic metal causes young children in developing countries to lose an average of …

NEW DELHI: A new ports and railway corridor for the Middle East and South Asia will include train links to India, an Indian foreign ministry official said on Monday, offering new details about the plan unveiled over the weekend at the G20 summit in Delhi. Asked about the proposals, Ausaf Sayeed, a secretary in the Foreign Ministry, spelled out that the corridor …

TALAT NYACOUB: Moroccan rescuers supported by foreign teams on Monday faced an intensifying race against time to dig out any survivors from the rubble of mountain villages after the country’s strongest-ever earthquake. The 6.8-magnitude quake struck the Atlas mountains late on Friday southwest of the tourist centre of Marrakesh. It killed at least 2,862 people and injured over 2,562 others, according …

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau belatedly left India on Tuesday after an aircraft breakdown forced a two-day extension of his rocky visit to New Delhi for the G20 summit. Trudeau arrived in India for the meeting of the leaders of 20 leading economies on Friday and was due to return home on Sunday after laying a wreath at a memorial to Indian independence …

HANOI: US President Joe Biden hailed closer ties with Vietnam on Sunday as the two countries struck a deal to deepen cooperation, inclu­ding on semiconductors, but said he was not aiming to contain China. The “comprehensive strategic partnership” with Hanoi is part of Washington’s push to bolster its network of allies around Asia and the Pacific in the face of …

KYIV: Two aid workers, one Canadian and one Spanish, were killed in east Ukraine, said Kyiv on Sunday blaming Russian forces and calling their deaths near war-ravaged Bakhmut “a painful, irreparable loss”. The defence ministry said Moscow’s troops had killed Emma Igual, a Spanish citizen who studied at the University of California at Berkeley, and Anthony Ihnat, a Canadian citizen …

WAD MADANI: Air strikes killed at least 46 people and injured dozens on Sunday at a Khartoum market, local activists said, one of the deadliest single attacks in Sudan’s nearly five months of war. The bombing in the south of Sudan’s capital came about a week after another air strike, also in southern Khartoum, killed 20 civilians on Sept 2, according to …

NEW DELHI: Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not be arrested if he attends the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next year, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said. The Russian president skipped this year’s gathering in New Delhi, avoiding possible political opprobrium and any risk of criminal detention under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant. India is not a member …

WASHINGTON: Muna Habib could not have known anything about his deals and stocks and was not involved in “any conceivable way”, former US ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson writes in a letter which is included in the documents submitted to the trial court. The letter, which is part of the documents submitted to a US court in the District of …