International

BEIJING: China’s new carrier rocket, the Long March-8, made its maiden flight on Tuesday, the country’s space agency said, the first phase of a strategy to deploy launch vehicles that can be reused. The Long March-8 series is part of China’s endeavours to develop reusable rockets, potentially lowering mission costs and paving the way towards commercial launch services. The programme …

SEOUL: South Korea said it scrambled fighter jets in response to an intrusion into its air defence identification zone by 19 Russian and Chinese military aircraft on Tuesday. Four Chinese warplanes entered the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone (KADIZ) followed by 15 Russian aircraft, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The South Korean military dispatched air force …

p MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed legislation that will grant former presidents lifetime immunity once they leave office. The bill, which was published online on Tuesday, gives former presidents and their families immunity from prosecution for crimes committed during their lifetime. They will also be exempt from questioning by police or investigators, as well as searches or …

WASHINGTON: US Defe­nce Secretary Christ­opher Miller met on Tuesday Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul during an unannounced visit to Afghanistan. Miller, who is acting head of the Pentagon until Pres­ident-elect Joe Biden takes office next month, and Ghani discussed the ongoing talks with the Taliban, which the Defense Department said in a statement were a “historic opportunity” to achieve …

NEW DELHI: An alliance of Kashmiri parties opposed to the state’s annexation by India last year was poised to sweep local body polls against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, and claimed it was a verdict to reverse New Delhi’s arbitrary rule in the region, reports said. The Farooq Abdullah-led People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, which was heading for …

BRUSSELS: The European Commission on Tuesday urged EU nations to lift travel bans imposed on Britain to halt the spread of a coronavirus variant that has swept the UK and spurred global panic just as vaccines are being rolled out worldwide. The new strain of the virus, which has also been detected in small numbers elsewhere, appears to spread more …

Toronto Police on Tuesday evening termed the death of Baloch rights activist Karima Baloch, who went missing over the weekend before being found dead, as “non-criminal”. Karima Baloch, who hailed from Balochistan and was also known as Karima Mehrab, went missing on Sunday in Toronto’s downtown waterfront area. She was living in the Canadian city in exile for about five years. …

British telecoms regulator Office of Communications (Ofcom) on Tuesday fined Worldview Media Network £20,000 after its Indian channel Republic Bharat TV aired a programme which showed “hate speech” against Pakistanis. In a decision published earlier this year, Ofcom found that in a current affairs programme — Poochta Hai Bharat — the presenter Arnab Goswami and some of his guests made “several statements which amounted to hate …

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday summoned the Indian Charge d’affaires to register Pakistan’s strong protest over ceasefire violations by Indian occupation forces along the Line of Control (LoC) a day earlier. Due to indiscriminate and unprovoked firing by Indian occupation forces in Hotspring and Jandrot sectors of the LoC on Dec 22, 50-year-old Khadeeja embraced shahadat, and 16-year-old Samar, …

Dubai will start inoculating people with the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech for free from Wednesday, the emirate’s government said, joining Saudi Arabia which last week became the first Arab country to begin using this vaccine. The move comes after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain earlier this month rolled out a vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical …