International

ANKARA: Turkey said on Sunday its military killed 15 militants from the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which it said was preparing to carry out an attack in a region of northeast Syria controlled by Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies. In an offensive last year dubbed the Peace Spring Operation, Turkey seized a 120-km (75-mile) stretch of border territory in …

RENNES: Thousands were left without electricity and planes were delayed or forced to re-route on Sunday as storm Bella caused torrential rain and heavy winds in much of northern France. Some 12,000 households suffered power cuts in Brittany and Normandy in northern France and up to 6,000 around the Calais region. Power company Enedis said normal electricity supplies should be …

NASHVILLE: FBI agents investigating the Nashville motor home explosion have visited a real estate agency where a person of interest in the bombing had worked on computers, local media reported on Sunday. Steve Fridrich, owner of Fridrich & Clark Realty in Nashville’s Green Hills neighbourhood, told the Tennessean newspaper he spoke with the agents late on Saturday about Anthony Q. …

MANAMA: Top Gulf Arab officials held a virtual meeting on Sunday to bolster “cooperation” ahead of a summit next month amid efforts to end a rift between a Saudi-led alliance and Qatar. The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait took part in the meeting hosted by Manama, while Qatar was represented by its …

BEIRUT: More than 300 Syrian refugees were forced to flee an informal camp in northern Lebanon as a blaze raged through and burnt tents to the ground, UN and Lebanese officials said on Sunday. The fire that began late on Saturday raged for four hours as firefighters tried to put it out, the Lebanese civil defence personnel said. The fire …

KABUL: The next round of negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government would be held in Qatar from next month, a top official said on Sunday, despite President Ashraf Ghani’s recent calls for them to be moved home. Peace talks began on September 12 at a luxury hotel in Doha, but negotiations are currently on a break until January …

Stay home, stay safe — that’s the message from Sydney, one of the world’s first major cities to welcome each New Year with a public countdown featuring a fireworks display over its well-known Opera House, to people. The city has banned large gatherings that night amid an outbreak of the coronavirus. Because of swift border closures, lockdowns, widespread testing, social …

Britain and Turkey are set to sign a free trade deal on Tuesday, the UK trade ministry said on Sunday, the first since Prime Minister Boris Johnson secured a new trade agreement with the European Union. The two nations will sign a deal that replicates the existing trading terms between Ankara and London, but British trade minister Liz Truss said that she …

Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry on Monday extended a ban on entry to the kingdom by air, land and sea for another week amid concerns over a fast-spreading variant of the new coronavirus, the state news agency SPA reported. Saudi Arabia shut its borders on Monday Dec 21 and suspended international commercial flights on a rolling weekly basis although foreign flights already in the country were allowed …

Europe launched a massive vaccination drive on Sunday with pensioners and medics lining up to take the first shots to see off the Covid-19 pandemic that has crippled economies and claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide. “Thank God,” 96-year-old Araceli Hidalgo said as she became the first person in Spain to get a vaccine. She told staff at her …