International

From flat battery to full charge in just five minutes — an Israeli start-up has developed technology it says could eliminate the “range anxiety” associated with electric cars. Ultra-fast recharge specialists StoreDot have developed a first-generation lithium-ion battery that can rival the filling time of a standard car at the pump. “We are changing the entire experience of the driver, …

BAGHDAD: Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, one of the top Shia clerics, told Pope Francis in an important meeting in Iraq on Saturday that the country’s Christians should live in “peace”. The meeting, on the second day of the first-ever papal visit to Iraq, marked an important moment in modern religious history. Pope Francis later addressed the rich spectrum of Iraq’s …

DOHA: Washington’s special envoy to Afghanistan met Taliban negotiators in Qatar, the insurgents said on Saturday, as efforts are intensified to revive a peace process that faces mounting violence and a US troop withdrawal deadline. The US envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, held talks in Kabul recently with Afghan leaders, including President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, chair of Afghanistan’s High Council …

Myanmar police fired tear gas to break up a sit-in demonstration by tens of thousands of people in Mandalay on Sunday, while protests were held in at least half a dozen other cities in some of the most widespread action against last month’s coup. Security forces cracked down on many of the protests. Police fired tear gas and stun grenades …

Muslim and Christian residents of Mosul told Pope Francis of their lives under the brutal rule of Islamic State (IS) on Sunday as the pontiff blessed their vow to rise up from ashes, telling them that “fraternity is more durable than fratricide.” Francis, on a historic trip to Iraq, flew into Mosul by helicopter to encourage the binding of sectarian wounds …

KUNDUZ: At least 14 people were killed after an avalanche hit a gold mine in a remote area of northern Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban, officials said Friday. Farid Nekfar, who heads the disaster management department of Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, said efforts were ongoing to recover at least two bodies after the avalanche on Thursday afternoon. “We are in contact …

GENEVA: The arrival of Covid-19 vaccines should not tempt countries to relax efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, top World Health Organisation officials said on Friday, citing concern that Brazil’s epidemic could spread to other countries. “We think we’re through this. We’re not,” Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergency expert, told an online briefing. “Countries are going to lurch back into …

FRANKFURT: A German court on Friday ordered a temporary halt to plans by the domestic intelligence agency to spy on the far-right AfD party for posing a threat to democracy. The Cologne administrative court ruled that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) had to await the outcome of a legal challenge brought by the AfD first. …

NEW YORK: Antivirus software entrepreneur John McAfee was indicted on fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges alleging that he and cohorts made over $13 million by fooling investors zealous over the emerging cryptocurrency market, authorities said on Friday. McAfee, 75, was charged in a newly unsealed indictment in Manhattan federal court along with Jimmy Gale Watson Jr., who served as …

BAGHDAD: Pope Francis, beginning the first trip by a pontiff to Iraq, made an impassioned call on Friday for an end to the militant violence and religious strife that has plagued the country for decades, saying peacemakers should finally be given a chance. “May the clash of arms be silenced … may there be an end to acts of violence …