Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada struck early blows as Pakistan started their second innings on the third day of the second Test against South Africa at Newlands on Saturday. Facing a first innings deficit of 254 runs, Pakistan were 37 for two at lunch, still needing 217 runs to make South Africa bat again. Steyn had Imam-ul-Haq caught at third …

Two days of violent protests in south India sparked by two women entering one of Hinduism’s holiest temples have seen more than 750 people arrested, police said, as they braced for more trouble on Friday. The Sabarimala temple in Kerala state has been at the centre of a prolonged showdown between Hindu devotees and women activists over access to the shrine. As …

Investigators in Poland on Saturday blamed a gas leak in a heating system at an “Escape Room” for a fire that killed five teenage girls and injured a man. The bodies of the 15-year-old victims were found on Friday in Koszalin, in northern Poland, after firefighters extinguished a blaze in an adjacent room. Prosecutors said that carbon monoxide inhalation was …

YANGON: Thirteen pol­ice­men were killed and nine injured in early morning at­­tacks on Friday on police out­­­­posts in Myanmar’s Ra­­khine state by the insurgent Arakan Army, state media reported. The Arakan Army is a rebel group seeking autonomy for Rakhine state from Myanmar’s central government. It has no links with the Arakan Rohingya Salva­tion Army, a Muslim insurgent group whose …

PARIS: France will tigh­ten security at its northern ports and increase surveillance along beaches to counter the rise in migrants trying to cross the English Chan­­nel to reach Britain, its interior minister said on Friday. More than 500 mig­rants, mostly Iranian, tried to cross the narrow stretch of water, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, during 2018, …

LONDON: Teenage girls are twice as likely as boys to show depressive symptoms linked to social media use — mainly due to online harassment and disturbed sleep, as well as poor body image and lower self-esteem, researchers said on Friday. In a study analysing data from nearly 11,000 young people in Britain, researchers found that 14-year-old girls were heavier users …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have finalised the terms and conditions of a support package of about $6.2 billion expected to be announced by Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during his visit to the country starting on Sunday (Jan 6) to help Islamabad address its balance of payments challenge. The package involves $3.2bn worth of oil …

Floods and blackouts caused by Tropical Storm Pabuk left nearly 30,000 people in evacuation shelters across southern Thailand Saturday, as relieved tourists stranded on islands further north were spared the worst and began to plot routes home. Pabuk, a once in three-decades weather system, packed winds of up to 75 kilometres (45 miles) an hour and brought heavy rains and …

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations has called upon the authorities in Bangladesh to hold accountable all those responsible for alleged human rights violations “before, during and after” the Dec 30 elections. In a statement released in Geneva on Thursday, the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR} said: “There are credible reports of fatalities and numerous injuries on …

A Democratic congresswoman kicked off her term with an expletive-laced vow to impeach Donald Trump, testing her party’s discipline and earning a chiding on Friday from the United States president. As a clip of Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib’s animated comments circulated widely on social media, Trump tartly dismissed the threat of impeachment, while the newly elected Democratic House Speaker Nancy …