International

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 …

Facing a nation-wide moment fraught with racial turmoil and a deadly pandemic, United States President Donald Trump accepted his party’s renomination on a massive White House South Lawn stage on Thursday night, boasting of helping African Americans and defying his own administration’s pandemic guidelines to address a tightly packed, largely maskless crowd. As troubles churned outside the gates, Trump painted an optimistic …

TEHRAN: Iran agreed on Wednesday to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the access of its inspectors to two of its alleged nuclear sites, as the head of the agency ended his first visit to the Islamic Republic. The announcement came only hours after Iran’s arch foe the United States suffered a humiliating defeat when the United Nations blocked …

The World Health Organization declared on Tuesday that Africa was free of the wild poliovirus after decades of campaigning to eradicate it. An independent body Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) confirmed it in a WHO-hosted event that the last case was reported four years ago in the WHO’s Africa region comprising 47 countries. Nigeria is the last country of African …

After previously encouraging people without Covid-19 symptoms to get tested if they have been exposed to someone diagnosed with the virus, US health authorities have abruptly reversed their position without a clear explanation. The changes in guidance were quietly made to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website on Monday amid US media reports of political interference from …