Iranian security forces opened fire on protesters who massed in their thousands on Wednesday in Mahsa Amini’s hometown to mark 40 days since her death, a human rights group said. “Security forces have shot tear gas and opened fire on people in Zindan square, Saqez city,” Hengaw, a Norway-based group that monitors rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish regions, tweeted without specifying …

THE HAGUE: Dutch authorities said on Wednesday they were investigating reports that China has set up two illegal police stations in the Netherlands which it uses to harass dissidents. Dutch media reported that the police posts in Amsterdam and Rotterdam purported to offer diplomatic assistance, but that they had not been declared to the Netherlands. China’s foreign ministry said the …

LONDON: A British court on Wednesday rejected an appeal against deportation to Pakistan by two members of a gang jailed a decade ago for grooming young girls for sex in northern England. In a ruling by an immigration tribunal, judges said there was a “very strong public interest” in removing the men — Adil Khan, 51, and Qari Abdul Rauf, …

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter Inc’s stock inched closer to Elon Musk’s $54.20 per share buyout offer for the micro-blogging site on Wednesday, signaling that investors finally expect the deal to go through ahead of a court deadline at the end of this week. Shares of the social media company were last up 0.3pc at a near seven-month high of $52.94, the …

ROME: Italy’s coastguard said on Wednesday it had rescued more than 1,000 migrants from two fishing boats in the Mediterranean overnight, while two bodies had been recovered. The two “complex” operations off the coast of Syracuse in Sicily, involving boats from Libya, followed an alert on Tuesday from Alarm Phone, a group running a hotline for migrants needing rescue. From …

ARSAL: Hundreds of Syrian refugees living in Lebanon returned home on Wednesday, the first day of repatriations organised by Beirut, amid concerns from rights groups that the scheme may involve elements of coercion. Lugging suitcases, power generators, fridges and even chickens, around 700 Syrians who had agreed to cross over gathered from early morning in a desolate northeastern border zone. …

TOKYO: The United States, Japan and South Korea warned on Wednesday that an “unparalleled” scale of response would be warranted if North Korea conducts a seventh nuclear bomb test. Washington and its allies believe North Korea could be about to resume nuclear bomb testing for the first time since 2017. “We agreed that an unparalleled scale of response would be …

LONDON: Britain’s new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday delayed the announcement of a keenly awaited plan for repairing the country’s public finances until Nov 17, two-and-a-half weeks later than previously planned. The postponement, Sunak’s first policy decision since taking over from Liz Truss on Tuesday, briefly raised British borrowing costs in financial markets but there was no repeat of …

President Xi Jinping said China and the United States must “find ways to get along” to safeguard world peace and development, state media reported on Thursday, as he embarks on his precedent-breaking third term in power. China and the United States have butted heads in recent years on issues ranging from Beijing’s aggression towards self-governing Taiwan to its crackdown in …

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah on Wed­n­esday removed administrative objections fro­m the petition filed by former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Cha­i­rman Imran Khan against his disqualification. The registrar office is, however, yet to fix the petition before a single-judge IHC bench for regular hearing. Since the Judicial Com­mission of Pakistan (JCP) has recommended Justice Minallah’s …