International

LONDON: Prince Harry and his mixed-race wife Meghan’s popularity has fallen sharply in Britain after their explosive interview accusing the royal family of racism, a poll suggested on Friday. More than 11 million people in Britain, and 50 million in the United States watched the couple claim that an unnamed royal had asked how dark their baby’s skin would be. …

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan informed the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that India’s inhuman military siege of occupied Jammu and Kashmir has caused $3.5 billion in economic loss to the civilian population, saying the coercive actions of Indian troops in the disputed territory violated UN resolutions. In a statement submitted to the 15-member council that debated the link between conflict …

  LONDON: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman dismissed Mohamed Benten as minister for the Haj and Umrah, a position with a leading role in organising Islam’s annual pilgrimage, a royal decree carried by state news agency (SPA) said on Friday. State minister, Issam ben Saeed, was appointed acting minister. Haj and Umrah, which generated billions of dollars each year before the pandemic, is …

NEW YORK: Democratic Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jerry Nadler and several other New York political leaders on Friday joined calls for Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign after a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him in recent weeks. The statements by 14 US representatives came a day after the New York state legislature announced it would review accusations made by six …

DUBAI: An Iranian container ship was damaged in an attack in the Mediterranean, the state-run shipping company said on Friday, adding it would take legal action to identify the perpetrators of what it called terrorism and naval piracy. The ship, Shahre Kord, was slightly damaged in Wednesday’s incident by an explosive object which caused a small fire, but no one …

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation said on Friday there was no reason to stop using AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine after several countries suspended the rollout over blood clot fears and as the EU added severe allergies to the list of its possible side effects. The WHO, which said its vaccines advisory committee was examining the safety data coming in, stressed that …

MOSCOW: Russia said on Friday it backed the Taliban’s integration into a future interim government in Afghanistan, as global powers ramped up efforts to secure a peace deal and end decades of war. The Russian foreign ministry’s comments have come as a May deadline looms for the United States to end its two-decade military involvement in the ravaged country. Washington …

las A powerful car bomb killed at least eight people and injured 47 in Afghanistan’s western Herat province, officials said on Saturday. The death toll in the explosion, late on Friday, that also destroyed 14 houses is expected to rise because several of the injured were critical, said Rafiq Sherzai, a spokesman for the provincial hospital. One among the dead …

WASHINGTON: The United States, India, Japan and Australia on Friday announced a joint drive to ramp up the Covid-19 vaccine supply in Asia, mounting a challenge to China in the first-ever summit of the four like-minded powers. US President Joe Biden, who has vowed to reinvigorate alliances in the face of growing worries about China, met virtually with the three …

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told an emotional memorial service marking two years since the Christchurch mosque attacks that the country had “a duty” to support its Muslim community. Hundreds of people turned out for the service, held amid tight security, to remember the 51 people killed and dozens wounded when a heavily armed gunman opened fire in two mosques on …