International

ISLAMABAD: As winter sets in, the World Food Programme (WFP) in Afghanistan has warned that it is critically underfunded and won’t be able to continue its support for families arriving from Pak­istan with nothing but a few basic morsels. WFP Afghanistan Country Director Hsiao-Wei Lee said in a statement that WFP was forced to cut 10 million people from its …

LONDON: Amazon workers walked out on strike at multiple locations across Europe on Friday in protests against the US e-commerce giant’s working practices on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. “Make Amazon Pay”, a campaign coordinated by the UNI Global Union, said strikes and protests would take place in more than 30 countries from Black Friday — …

SANTIAGO: The world’s largest iceberg is on the move for the first time in more than three decades, scientists said on Friday. At almost 4,000 square kilometres, the Antarctic iceberg, A23a, is roughly three times the size of New York City. Since calving off West Antarctica’s Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in 1986, the iceberg, which once hosted a Soviet research station, …

BERLIN: With the power out, the water off, medical supplies short and hundreds of injured and sheltering Palestinians crowding the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Ahmed Abunada was faced with impossible choices. “Who do I let die, this woman or that man?… I do not have the time to do reconstructive surgery on this child, I will have to amputate,” …

BRUSSELS: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that rising violence by extremists in the Israeli-occupied West Bank had to stop. Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has increased since the Oct 7 Hamas raid on Israel. “We must prevent violence from spreading, and therefore a peaceful co-existence is only possible with the …

PESHAWAR: For the first time since the start of the repatriation of undocumented Afghans early this month, not a single “illegal alien” was sent home via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday as Afghan authorities linked the acceptance of deportations with the verification of their status by the Afghan consulate-general here. Official sources in the Afghan consulate general told Dawn that the deportation condition …

GAZA: After weeks of death and despair, there were celebrations in parts of Gaza as 39 Palestinians, who were freed from Israeli prisons on Friday, returned to their loved ones on the first day of a hard-fought truce that has brought a pause to Israeli hostilities for the time being. Under the terms of the four-day truce, 50 women and …

BENGALURU: India’s government on Friday warned social media firms including Facebook and YouTube to repeatedly remind users that local laws prohibit them from posting deepfakes and content that spreads obscenity or misinformation, two sources said. The warning was conveyed by deputy IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a closed-door meeting where he said many companies had not updated their usage terms …

KARACHI: Setting the tone for their election strategy, five major political parties joined hands on Friday with a pledge to bring an end to the “15-year rule of corruption and nepotism in Sindh”, in a thinly veiled reference to the Pakistan Peoples Party that had ruled the province for 15 consecutive years until August. The resolve came from the Muttahida …

FRANKFURT: Germany on Thursday said raids were underway in four regions on the homes of members and supporters of alleged Hamas and another Palestinian organisation which are banned in the country. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement that they are carrying out action “by banning Hamas and Samidoun in Germany”. The statement added Germany will not tolerate any …