WASHINGTON: Joe Biden, the consoler-in-chief, will no doubt find exactly the right message on Sunday as he visits Texas to meet the families of children massacred as they celebrated the end of the school year. But Biden, the dealmaker, has remained conspicuous in his absence from the war of words being waged over gun control that has followed the atrocity, …

A passenger plane with 22 people on board went missing in Nepal on Sunday, the operating airline and officials said, as poor weather hampered a search operation. Nepal’s air industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between hard-to-reach areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers. But it has a poor safety record. The Twin Otter aircraft …

COLOMBO: Cash-strapped Sri Lanka took delivery on Saturday of Russian oil — which could soon be subject to a European embargo — to restart operations at the country’s only refinery, the energy minister said. The island nation is suffering its worst economic meltdown since independence, with shortages of fuel and other vital goods making life miserable for its 22 million …

Israeli police faced off with Palestinians holed up inside Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque on Sunday as hundreds of Jews visited the holy compound ahead of a contentious Jewish nationalist march through the heart of the Old City. The annual Jerusalem procession celebrates Israel’s capture of the Old City in the 1967 Middle East war and draws thousands of cheering, chanting participants …

Spraying a cow with pesticides, health workers target blood-sucking ticks at the heart of Iraq’s worst detected outbreak of a fever that causes people to bleed to death. The sight of the health workers, dressed in full protective kit, is one that has become common in the Iraqi countryside, as the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever spreads, jumping from animals to humans. …

Israel President Isaac Herzog has said that he recently received a delegation of Pakistani-Americans, calling it an “amazing experience” and referring to it as an example that showed him “great change” vis-a-vis Israel’s ties with the Muslim world. Herzog delivered these remarks during a special address at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting on May 26 in Davos, Switzerland, while talking …

ISLAMABAD: Two Chinese working on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) sustained critical burn injuries in a fire incident here on Saturday, police said. They were identified as Zhang Haihong and Jiang Nan, working with China Energy Engineering Group North III Electric Power Company Limited at CPEC, they said, adding that both were residing in a guesthouse for Chinese at F-7/1 …

BAHAWALPUR: PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz has taken strong exception to PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s call to the Supreme Court seeking unhindered access to Islamabad for his party’s second long march. “The court should remain impartial and away from IK’s politics of anarchy. He drags national institutions into politics and then defames them,” she told a public meeting held in connection with …

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman on Saturday warned of 50pc cut in production of mangos in the country due to the changing climate. “Pakistan ranks 5th mango producing countries in the world. But this year, due to severe water shortage and rising temperature, mango production is expected to decline by 50pc,” Sherry Rehman told media. This year, most …

ISLAMABAD: An audio recording of an alleged telephonic conversation between Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari and property tycoon Malik Riaz was widely reported by the electronic media and shared on social media on Saturday, where the latter could be heard telling Mr Zardari that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan was desperate for a “patch-up” with him. …