HONG KONG: Hong Kong authorities on Saturday detained multiple people as they pounced on any attempt at public commemoration of the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, while around the world tribute was paid to the victims of the bloody event. As night fell, candles appeared in the windows of several foreign countries’ missions to Hong Kong — in defiance …

ATHENS: A wildfire whipped by gale-force winds blazed through vegetation in a southern suburb of Athens on Saturday, the Fire Brigade said, forcing residents to evacuate. The Greek Civil Protection issued an emergency appeal via sms for people to leave Ano Voula and the surrounding areas as the flames spread to within yards (metres) of houses. Six water-bombing aircraft, three …

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s main airport on Saturday denied the island nation’s government was behind a decision to detain an Aeroflot aircraft, after Russia lodged a diplomatic protest over the move. The Airbus A330 was seized at the Bandaranaike International Airport on Thursday, the same day it arrived from Moscow, after a directive from a court in the capital Colombo. Flight …

KYIV: Ukraine said on Saturday it had recaptured a swathe of the battlefield city of Sievierodonetsk, in a rare counter-offensive against Russia’s main assault force that had been steadily advancing in the east. The Ukrainian claim could not be independently verified and Moscow said its own forces were making gains there. But it was the first time Kyiv has claimed …

BEIJING: China will launch a spacecraft on Sunday carrying three astronauts to the core module of the unfinished Chinese space station, where they will work and live for six months as construction enters advanced stages. A Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft is set to blast off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the northwestern province of Gansu at …

LUCKNOW: At least 10 people were killed and 22 injured in a chemical explosion at an electronics factory in northern India’s Hapur district on Saturday, a police official said. The accident happened at an industrial facility in Dhaulana, about 60 km (37 miles) from the capital, New Delhi, police spokesman Surendra Singh said. “The firm was registered to manufacture electronic …

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia and Israel — planned for late June — has now been postponed to July, various US media outlets reported on Saturday. Speculations about the visit started in mid-May and several US media outlets reported last week that Mr Biden might visit the two Middle Eastern countries as early as late June. …

At least 38 people died and hundreds were injured after a fire that sparked a huge chemical explosion and was still blazing on Sunday at a shipping container depot in Bangladesh, officials said. The toll was expected to rise with some of the more than 300 people injured in a serious condition. Volunteers, some with only flip flops on their …

Three people were killed and 11 others wounded on Saturday after multiple shooters opened fire into a crowd on a popular Philadelphia street, police said. Police Inspector DF Pace told local media that two men and a woman had been killed, adding that officers responding to the incident “observed several active shooters shooting into the crowd.” “You can imagine there …

PESHAWAR: A senior lawyer on Saturday moved the Peshawar High Court seeking the disqualification of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan from holding public office for threatening to use the province’s ‘force’ against the centre during the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s future march on Islamabad. In the petition, Mohim Khan Afridi said the chief minister’s announcement regarding the use of force against centre …