International

NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi will contest from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala as his second seat, the Congress party announced on Sunday. Meanwhile, his sister Priyanka Gandhi has dropped casual hints that she is prepared to fight the elections from Varanasi if the party so desired. Mr Gandhi was named the candidate from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh …

JERUSALEM: Israel reopened its crossings with the blockaded Gaza Strip on Sunday after having kept them closed for nearly a week following a rare long-distance rocket strikefrom the Palestinian enclave, an official said. The Erez crossing for people and the Kerem Shalom crossing for goods reopened on Sunday morning, a spokeswoman for COGAT, the defence ministry unit that oversees the crossings, …

KIEV: A comedian with no political experience was the top vote-getter in Ukraine’s presidential election on Sunday, an exit poll predicted, but said he fell well short of the absolute majority needed to win outright in the first round. The poll said incumbent President Petro Poroshenko was in a distant second place, closely followed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. …

WASHINGTON: US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, while recognising Pakistan’s neutrality in the Afghan peace process, has urged all Afghans to app­roach the forthcoming elections and the ongoing talks with the Taliban with equal seriousness. “Enter negotiations as if there were no elections, united as a country, and do elections as if there were no negotiations,” he wrote in a tweet, …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in municipal elections but the opposition’s success in key cities dealt a significant blow to his party’s dominance. The ruling party lost the capital Ankara and the race for Istanbul mayor was still too close to call early on Monday. Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated Erdogan on “another important victory” in the Turkish …

Srinagar: Another Indian soldier committed suicide by shooting himself dead in Srinagar on Sunday morning, according to Kashmir Media Service (KMS). The soldier was  the second Indian official  who committed suicide in less than twenty-four hours in Occupied Kashmir. The  soldier was identified as Ramphul Meena and he was associated with Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). A police officer said that …

Flash floods caused by heavy rains have killed at least 35 people in Afghanistan, washing away houses and cutting off access to remote villages across parts of the country, officials said Saturday. Heavy flooding that started early Friday killed at least 12 people in the northern province of Faryab and 10 people in the western province of Herat, said Hashmat …

PARIS: French “yellow vest” demonstrators on Saturday staged their 20th week of anti-government protests despite hotspot bans and a plea from bank chiefs to end violence against branches. The interior ministry said there were fewer protesters than a week earlier, estimating them at 5,600 for the country as a whole by mid-afternoon, a drop of almost 3,000 people. Police were …

BRATISLAVA: Slovakia voted on Saturday in an election dominated by calls for change, with an anti-corruption activist likely to be chosen as its first female president a year after a journalist’s murder sparked mass anti-government protests. An environmental lawyer with no experience in political office, Zuzana Caputova is on course to win the run-off against ruling party’s candidate and EU …

BARCELONA: Five people were injured and seven arrested on Saturday as members of Spain’s far-right Vox party demonstrating in Barcelona against Catalan independence clashed with separatist activists there, police said. The violence came amid rising tension in the run-up to parliamentary elections next month and the continuing trial of 12 Catalan leaders for their part in the failed 2017 independence …