International

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin arrive in Tokyo on Monday on their first overseas trip, looking to rally key Asian allies as a bulwark to China. The pair, travelling separately, will meet in Japan for the first leg of their trip, holding talks with their counterparts as well as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. They will …

Pakistan was among the biggest importers of major arms in Asia and Oceania from 2016-2020 while globally it ranked 10th, accounting for 2.7 per cent of major arms imports, a report published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) said on Monday. The five largest major arms importers in the time period under consideration were Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Australia, and …

TEHRAN: Protesters attacked a coast guard station in southern Iran after a patrol from the force shot and killed a fuel smuggler, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported on Saturday. The report said the attack happened on Friday when coast guard patrols shot at vessels smuggling fuel to neighbouring countries, killing at least one smuggler. Fars didn’t identify the person killed but said …

CAPE CANAVERAL: A pair of Nasa astronauts floated out on a spacewalk on Saturday to rearrange space station plumbing, careful to avoid toxic ammonia coolant still lingering in the lines. The hose work should have been completed during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station a week ago, but was put off when power upgrades took longer than expected. Eager …

MINNEAPOLIS: The Minnesota city of Minneapolis reached a $27 million “wrongful death” settlement on Friday with the family of George Floyd, the black man who died while being arrested by a white police officer, sparking mass protests for racial justice across the United States. Lawyers for the Floyd family said it is the “largest pre-trial settlement in a civil rights …

MILAN: Italy reported 317 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday against 380 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections fell to 26,062 from 26,824 the day before. Some 372,944 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 369,636, the health ministry said. Italy on Friday announced tough new restrictions …

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Authority and the Arab League on Saturday condemned the Czech Republic’s opening of a diplomatic office in Jerusalem as a violation of international law. Prague opened a Jerusalem branch of its Israel embassy, which is located in Tel Aviv, on Thursday. The inauguration was attended by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, two weeks after Israel sent 5,000 …

WASHINGTON: The United States, Japan and Australia have decided to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines in India as part of their joint effort to fight back the coronavirus pandemic that has already killed more than 2.5 million people across the globe. Australia, India, Japan and the United States are members of an informal strategic forum known as the Quad that aims to …

LONDON: A serving British police officer accused of the kidnap and murder of a woman in London appeared in court for the first time on Saturday. Wayne Couzens, 48, is charged with kidnapping and killing 33-year-old Sarah Everard, who went missing while walking home from a friend’s apartment in south London on the evening of March 3. The case has …

The acting leader of Myanmar’s parallel civilian government said it will seek to give people the legal right to defend themselves as the death toll in protests against last month’s coup exceeded 80, according to an advocacy group. Mahn Win Khaing Than, who is on the run along with most senior officials from the ruling National League for Democracy Party, addressed the …