International

BERLIN: Germany’s Catholic bishops elected a woman as their general secretary for the first time on Tuesday, in a decision hailed as a “strong sign” of modernisation in the crisis-hit Church. Theologian Beate Gilles, 50, will succeed Hans Langendoerfer on July 1 as a high-ranking official charged with implementing decisions taken by the bishops. “This is a strong sign that …

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the reinstatement of parliament after it was dissolved by the prime minister, in a ruling likely to thrust the Himalayan nation into a political crisis. The order came in response to several cases filed with the court charging that Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli’s decision to dissolve the legislature was unconstitutional. The court …

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Sheikh Zaki Yamani, the embodiment of the ascent of Arab petroleum power and the face of the 1973 oil embargo that brought the West to its knees, died in London on Tuesday. He was 90. Yamani was a witness to the 1975 assassination of King Faisal who had plucked him, a non-royal, from obscurity to be oil …

LUMUT: Malaysia on Tuesday deported more than 1,000 Myanmar detainees back to their strife-torn homeland just weeks after a coup, despite a court order halting the repatriation and a storm of criticism. The migrants, whom activists say include vulnerable asylum seekers, departed on three Myanmar navy ships from a Malaysian military base after arriving on packed trucks and buses under …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the United States will vie for a seat at the UN’s human rights body, which would cement a US return to the Geneva-based body that was shunned by the Trump administration. The top US diplomat said the US would seek a three-year term starting next year at the Human Rights …

Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Wednesday that the only way forward for the subcontinent is to resolve existing issues through dialogue. “Immediately when I came into power, I approached our neighbour India and explained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the way forward for the subcontinent is to resolve our differences through dialogue. “I didn’t succeed but I am …

CAPE CANAVERAL: Nasa on Monday released the first high-quality video of a spacecraft landing on Mars, a three-minute trailer showing the enormous orange and white parachute hurtling open and the red dust kicking up as rocket engines lowered the rover to the surface. The footage was so good and the images so breathtaking that members of the rover team said …

MADRID: Police found a would-be migrant hidden in a sack of toxic waste at the port in Spain’s Melilla enclave on Morocco’s northern coast last week, police said on Monday. The discovery was made on Friday when a person was found unconscious in a sealed plastic bag containing flue ash, a by-product of burning coal which is classed as toxic …

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation on Monday blasted wealthy countries for not only hogging Covid vaccines but in doing so, hindering the pathway for poorer nations to get them too. WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said some rich countries’ direct deals with manufacturers had meant that previously-agreed vaccine allocations for poorer countries, via the Covax programme, were being reduced. …

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled a map out of lockdown for England on Monday that would keep some businesses shuttered until the summer, saying caution was necessary to ensure there were no reversals on a “one-way road to freedom”. After imposing one of the strictest lockdowns in the western world last month to counter a highly contagious variant …