International

TEHRAN: Iranian autho­rities urged young schoolchildren and many civil servants in the capital Tehran to stay at home on Wednesday due to a spike in air pollution levels. “One-third of the employees of all executive bodies will work remotely on Wednesday due to the accumulation of pollutants,” the official IRNA news agency reported, citing a government committee tasked with monitoring pollution. It …

LONDON: Members of the UK House of Commons are likely to vote on Wednesday on an amendment brought by the Scottish National Party on an immediate ceasefire and halt to fighting in Gaza. The motion was moved last week by the Scottish National Party, which said it intends to seek a vote calling on the UK government to “join the …

WASHINGTON: More than 400 Biden administration employees have sent an open letter to the US President, demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza while more than 10,000 carnation stems were laid on the steps of the Capitol Hill, each representing a civilian life lost since Oct 7. The open letter by the Biden administration employees reflects a significant call for the …

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army claimed on Tuesday it had captured Gaza’s parliament building and other government institutions run by Hamas in Gaza City, as its forces deepened their offensive in the besieged Pales­tinian enclave. Military units “took over the Hamas parliam­ent, the government buil­ding, the Hamas police headquarters and an engineering faculty that served as an institute for the production …

At least 30 people were killed in Indian-occupied Kashmir on Wednesday when a passenger bus skidded off a mountainous road and plunged into a deep gorge, police said. The accident took place on a remote road in the Doda area, about 200 kilometres (124 miles) southeast of the region’s capital Srinagar. “Thirty passengers have died in the accident, caused by …

PARIS: Last year the brightest flash of light ever seen in the night sky disturbed Earth’s upper atmosphere in a way that has never before detected before, researchers said on Tuesday. A massive burst of gamma rays from an enormous cosmic explosion aro­und two billion light years away arrived at Earth on Oct 9, 2022, lighting up telescopes around the …

ISLAMABAD: The Tal­iban’s acting commerce minister met Pakistan’s foreign minister in Islamabad this week, an Afghan embassy statement said on Tuesday, discussing trade and how the thousands of Afghan citizens Pakistan is expelling could take cash and other assets back to their homeland. The visit takes place less than a week after Pakistan said that its move to expel hundreds of thousands …

BERLIN: Greta Thun­berg came under fire on Monday over her pro-Palestinian stance in Ger­many, where the local chapter of climate movement Fridays for Future had distanced itself from her views on the Gaza crisis. Thunberg, wearing the Palestinian black and white scarf, had urged “ceasefire now” at a climate protest on Sunday in Amsterdam. She was interrupted by a man …

DHAKA: The US ambassador to Bangladesh has sought meetings with leaders of the country’s three major parties, the embassy said on Monday, as Washington seeks to break a political impasse ahead of elections. Dhaka is set to hold a general election in January, but the main opposition, the Bangladesh Natio­nalist Party (BNP), and its allies have said they will boycott …

BEIRUT: Journalists in southern Lebanon said they were targeted on Monday in Israeli strikes, which Al Jazeera network said lightly wounded its photographer. A local mayor and Lebanese state media corroborated the journalists’ account of the cross-border incident, which came exactly a month after deadly strikes blamed on Israel hit a press group near Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon. Around a dozen …