International

JERUSALEM: An Israeli delegation visited Sudan on Wednesday to discuss normalising relations following the Jewish state’s US-brokered deals with UAE and Bahrain, according to sources in Khartoum and Jerusalem. The one-day return trip has heightened speculation Israel could soon strike a peace deal with the Arab-led African country with which it is technically at war. President Donald Trump has pushed …

US President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden offered sharply contrasting views on the still-raging coronavirus pandemic at Thursday’s final presidential debate, seeking to persuade the few remaining undecided voters 12 days before the November 3 election. Trump, a Republican, adopted a more restrained tone than he did during the chaotic first presidential debate in September, when he repeatedly …

The New Yorker has suspended reporter Jeffrey Toobin for masturbating on a Zoom video chat between members of the New Yorker and WNYC radio last week. Toobin says he did not realize his video was on. “I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers,” Toobin told Motherboard. “I believed I was not visible …

KUNDUZ: At least 25 Afghan security force personnel were killed in an ambush blamed on the Taliban, officials said on Wednesday, as spiralling violence imperils ongoing peace talks. The ambush came despite Taliban assurances to Washington last week that they would reduce bloodshed. Security forces were attacked overnight on Tuesday in Takhar province and fighting was ongoing, said Jawad Hejri, …

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump spent years cultivating business projects in China, where he maintained a previously unknown bank account, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, as the US president attempts to portray election rival Joe Biden as weaker on Beijing. Trump has spent recent days promoting a murky claim that Biden’s son Hunter sold access to his father in Ukraine and China when …

LAGOS: Nigeria’s biggest city Lagos and several states were under curfew on Wednesday as unrest rooted in anti-police protests broke out again following a day of violence, including the shooting of civilians by security forces. Fires burned across Lagos and residents reported hearing gunfire despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s appeal for “understanding and calm”. Armed police tried to enforce a round-the-clock …

WASHINGTON: After a four-year journey, Nasa’s robotic spacecraft Osiris-Rex briefly touched down on asteroid Bennu’s boulder-strewn surface on Tuesday to collect rock and dust samples in a precision operation 200 million miles (330 million kilometres) from Earth. The so-called “Touch-And-Go” or TAG maneuver was managed by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado, where at 6:12pm an announcer said: “Touchdown declared. …

US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday that Russia and Iran have both tried to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. Ratcliffe made the announcements at a hastily arranged news conference that also included FBI Director Chris Wray. The announcement two weeks before the election showed the level of alarm among top US officials that foreign actors were …

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Indonesia next week, his first trip to the country since its leadership rejected a US proposal to host its spy planes. Pompeo will address an Islamic youth group conference on religion and civilisation in Jakarta, Indonesia’s foreign minister Retno Marsudi said on Thursday, without providing further details of his itinerary. Earlier, Pompeo …

Government ministers on Thursday pointed to the absurdity of Indian media’s claims — being shared via their Twitter accounts — that a “civil war” had broken out in Karachi and called on the social media giant to to take notice. Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari said it was unfortunate that Twitter was “deliberately ignoring” Indian media’s fake news on …