International

US Supreme Court Justice and liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday, opening a crucial vacancy on the high court expected to set off a pitched political battle at the peak of the presidential campaign. Affectionately known as the ‘Notorious RBG,’ the 87-year-old Ginsburg was the oldest of nine Supreme Court justices. She died after a fight with pancreatic …

Taiwan’s air force scrambled jets for a second consecutive day on Saturday as multiple Chinese aircraft approached the island and crossed the sensitive midline of the Taiwan Strait, with the island’s government urging Beijing to “pull back from the edge”. Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said 19 Chinese aircraft were involved, one more than in the previous day, with some crossing the Taiwan …

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to establish 18 markets along Pak-Afghan and Pak-Iran borders with a view to boosting trade with the two countries and curbing the menace of smuggling. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday. He also gave the nod to a plan for setting up three border markets as …

COPENHAGEN: The World Health Organisation on Thursday warned of “alarming rates of transmission” of Covid-19 across Europe and cautioned against shortening quarantine periods as countries in the region scrambled to find ways to reduce infections without resorting to new lockdowns. The WHO’s regional director for Europe Hans Kluge said a September surge — Europe set a new record last week, …

WASHINGTON: A group of wealthy nations representing 13 percent of the global population have already bought up more than half of the promised doses of future Covid-19 vaccines, according to a report by Oxfam on Wednesday. The non-governmental organisation analysed deals struck by pharmaceuticals and vaccine producers for the five leading vaccine candidates currently in late-stage trials, based on data …

SRINAGAR: Hundreds of angry residents clashed with security personnel on Thursday in the main city of occupied Kashmir after a firefight left three suspected fighters and a young woman dead, police and witnesses said. Police and federal paramilitary forces surrounded the Batamaloo neighbourhood of Srinagar after midnight following a tip-off that some fighters were hiding inside a house, triggering an …

WASHINGTON: The United States hopes to move forward with naming Qatar as a major non-Nato ally, a status that provides foreign nations with benefits in defence trade and security cooperation, a senior official said on Thursday. “We’re going to move ahead, we hope, with designating Qatar a major non-Nato ally,” Timothy Lenderking, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for …

WASHINGTON: FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned that Russia is interfering in the US presidential elections with a steady stream of misinformation aimed at Democrat Joe Biden as well as sapping Americans’ confidence in the election process, Christopher Wray, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, told the Democratic-led House of Representatives’ Homeland Security committee on Wednesday. Moscow …

Apple will launch its first online store in India next week, the Silicon Valley giant said on Friday, hoping to cash in on the country’s festive season and grow its tiny share of the booming market. The company is a small player in India, where sales of its smartphones lag those of South Korean rival Samsung, with the iPhone maker …

US President Donald Trump’s administration posted controversial recommendations on coronavirus testing to the US health agency’s website against its objections, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The guidelines, which said testing was not necessary for people who were exposed to Covid-19 but not displaying symptoms, were criticised when they were issued last month. That is because healthcare experts at the time were …