International

MOSCOW: Belarusian police detained hundreds of people who took to the streets in mass demonstrations on Sunday chanting “I’m going out”, the last known written words of an anti-government protester who died last week. A witness in the capital Minsk said police had used tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the crowds demonstrating against President Alexander Lukashenko. …

ADDIS ABABA: The leader of the Tigray region of Ethiopia on Sunday claimed responsibility for rocket strikes targeting the airport in neighbouring Eritrea’s capital, a move that ratcheted up fears of a wider conflict in the Horn of Africa region. Diplomats said that multiple rockets had struck the capital, Asmara, landing near the airport, though communications restrictions in Tigray and …

NICOSIA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday he favours a permanent division of Cyprus into two states, during a visit to the breakaway Turkish-held north decried as a “provocation” by the internationally recognised Greek-speaking south. The comments marked a further setback to hopes for an eventual reunification of the Mediterranean island which is split between EU member the …

MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Sunday that India was conspiring to damage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project by creating unrest in the country. Talking to the media here, he said Pakistan had solid proof that India was trying to create law and order situation in the country and for the purpose it had given Rs80 billion …

The Foreign Office (FO) on Monday rejected a statement by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs denying the “irrefutable evidence” provided by Islamabad regarding India’s sponsorship of terrorism in the country. “Fully exposed, India has typically resorted to sophistry, obfuscation and re-fabrication. Bland denials and regurgitation of an old litany of charges, however, will not change facts,” a statement by …

NEW DELHI: India on Saturday summoned the Charge d’Affaires of the Pakistan High Commission to register a strong protest over alleged heavy shelling by Pakistani forces on multiple sectors along the Line of Control (LoC) on Friday that left at least nine people dead, local reports said. They quoted a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India …

ADDIS ABABA: Leaders of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray on Saturday claimed rocket attacks on two airports in a nearby region and threatened to strike neighbouring Eritrea, raising tensions that the escalating conflict could spread across national borders. The attacks — and threats of more — fuelled concern that a conflict Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed vowed would be quick and contained …

WASHINGTON: Gliding over significant challenges still to come, President Donald Trump on Friday offered a rosy update on the race for a vaccine for the resurgent coronavirus as he delivered his first public remarks since his defeat by President-elect Joe Biden. He still did not concede the election. Trump spoke from the Rose Garden as the nation sets records for …

Hundreds of millions of Indians in north India woke up on Sunday to toxic air following Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, after many revellers defied bans on using firecrackers to celebrate. The capital New Delhi was blanketed with a thick haze, with the average pollution level over nine times what is considered safe by the World Health Organisation (WHO). …

Israel has pushed on with plans to build a new Jewish settler neighbourhood in east Jerusalem, a watchdog group said on Sunday, warning such efforts were being stepped up before United States President Donald Trump leaves office. The Trump administration has broken with decades of bipartisan US practice by not opposing Jewish settlement activity in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the …