International

Chadwick Boseman, who played Black American icons Jackie Robinson and James Brown with searing intensity before inspiring audiences worldwide as the regal Black Panther in Marvel’s blockbuster movie franchise, died Friday of cancer. He was 43. Boseman died at his home in the Los Angeles area with his wife and family by his side, his publicist Nicki Fioravante told The Associated Press. …

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Navy and Britain’s Royal Navy have conducted exercise White Star 2020 in the North Arabian Sea and Passage Exercise in the Gulf of Aden. In a statement issued here on Friday, Pakistan Navy said that in exercise White Star 2020 in North Arabian Sea, PN Ships Zulfiquar and Dehshat, PN Aviation fixed and rotary aircraft and PAF …

MOSCOW: Russia has released previously classified footage of the world’s largest nuclear explosion, caused when the Soviet Union detonated the so-called Tsar Bomba almost 60 years ago. The hydrogen bomb, which carried the force of 50 million tons of conventional explosives, was detonated in a test in October 1961, 4,000 metres over the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago above the Arctic …

PARIS: Masks became compulsory outdoors all over Paris on Friday as France joined a growing global battle against new virus outbreaks, while Germany warned the crisis will be “more difficult” in the autumn and winter. There has been a surge of infections in many countries as well as a rising global death toll, which now stands at more than 832,000. …

KHALDEH: A deadly battle between Lebanese Sunnis and Shias overnight prompted warnings of more violence as the country is pushed to breaking point by a financial meltdown and political tensions. Two people — a 13-year-old Lebanese Sunni boy and a Syrian man — were killed in the Khaldeh area south of the capital in the shootout on Thursday night. Machine …

HONG KONG: A dozen people fleeing Hong Kong on a speedboat, including an activist arrested under the draconian new national security law, have been captured by China, police in the city said on Friday. The boat was intercepted by the coastguard, police said, with local media saying it was en route to Taiwan, a self-ruled island that regularly offers sanctuary …

JERUSALEM: An Israeli-American delegation will fly on the first commercial flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates on Monday after a landmark deal between the countries, officials said on Friday. “An official Israeli delegation will go to Abu Dhabi on a direct El Al flight for the first time ever,” a spokesman for Israel’s national carrier said, noting the …

JERUSALEM: Israeli aircraft and tanks struck Hamas facilities in Gaza on Friday and militants fired half a dozen rockets towards southern Israel, its military said, as mediators struggled to work for calm along the volatile frontier. There were no reports of casualties on either side. The United Nations’ Middle East envoy urged Israel and Gaza militants to halt the violence. …

NEW DELHI: Delhi police are guilty of “grave human rights violations” during communal riots in the Indian capital earlier this year, and were even “active participants” in the violence, Amnesty Interna­tional said on Friday. The worst unrest in years between India’s majority Hindus and minority Muslims killed around 50 people, most of them Muslims, over several days of running battles in the …

ISTANBUL: A Turkish lawyer seeking a fair trial after being charged with membership of a terrorist organisation has died in an Istanbul hospital on the 238th day of her hunger strike. Friends said Ebru Timtik weighed just 30 kilograms at the time of her death late Thursday, which has sparked condemnation from opposition parties in Turkey as well as from …