International

BEIJING: US climate envoy John Kerry held four hours of talks with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Monday, calling for “urgent action” as the two countries revived stalled diplomacy on reducing planet-warming emissions. Climate talks between the two biggest greenhouse gas emitters came to a halt last year after Nancy Pelosi, then-speaker of the US House of Representatives, enraged …

Amid Islamabad’s calls for Afghanistan to rein in militants responsible for escalating militancy within Pakistan, the United States on Tuesday also asked the Afghan Taliban to prevent their country from becoming a “safe haven” for terrorist attacks. The statement from US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller comes a day after Pakistan Army blamed Kabul for the uptick in militancy, saying that “safe havens and …

WASHINGTON: Scientists for the past 15 years have been looking for evidence of a type of star only hypothesized but never observed — one powered not by the fusion of atoms like the sun and other ordinary stars but by mysterious stuff called dark matter. Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope’s ability to peer back to the dawn of …

MARSEILLE: Aid group SOS Mediterranee on Thursday accused Italy of hampering its work after the authorities there ordered its migrant rescue ship Ocean Viking held “for an indefinite period” in port. Officials had cited “a very small number of technical and administrative shortcomings,” said the aid group. Having the ship blocked in the port of Civitavecchia, north of Rome, “prevents …

LONDON: The BBC on Thursday resumed an internal inquiry after its star news anchor was revealed as the man at the centre of a sex pictures scandal, following days of fevered speculation about his identity. Huw Edwards, 61, was dramatically named on Wednesday in a statement by his wife, six days after The Sun daily reported claims that an unnamed presenter had paid a young person $45,000 for …

STRASBOURG: The EU parliament on Thursday urged India to end violence and protect minorities in the country’s northeastern Manipur state, criticising “nationalistic rhetoric” it said was adding to tensions. It came as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began a visit to France. Greeted by his French counterpart Elisabeth Borne at Orly airport outside Paris, Modi stepped off his official plane to …

GENEVA: “The end of AIDS” is still possible by 2030, the United Nations insisted on Thursday, but cautioned that the world’s deadliest pandemic could only be halted if leaders grasped the opportunity. “AIDS can be ended” as a public health threat, the UNAIDS agency said, as it outlined a roadmap of investment, evidence-based prevention and treatment, empowering civil society and tackling …

JAKARTA: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Beijing’s top diplomat on Thursday of consequences over hacking after a breach blamed on China again threatened to undermine a nascent stability in ties between the two powers. Less than a month after Blinken paid a rare visit to Beijing, he met for more than an hour and a half with Wang …

France’s president on Friday awarded the country’s top honour to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the start of Bastille Day celebrations where he is the featured guest. Emmanuel Macron awarded Modi the grand cross of the Legion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour), the highest grade of France’s order of merit that “salutes the role of the prime minister in the …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reaffirmed its commitment to engage with Afghanistan on all aspects of cooperation and concern, including issues relating to terror threats. At her weekly news briefing here on Thursday, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch urged Afghan authorities to fulfil their promises that their soil will not be used for terrorism against Pakistan. She said it was their …