International

DUBAI: Iran’s foreign ministry summoned a senior Polish diplomat to protest at Poland jointly hosting a global summit with the United States focused on the Middle East, particularly Iran, state news agency IRNAreported on Sunday. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said the summit — to be held in Warsaw on Feb 13-14 — would focus on stability and …

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump avoided directly answering when asked whether he currently is or has ever worked for Russia after a published report said law enforcement officials, concerned about his behaviour after he fired FBI Director James Comey in 2017, had begun investigating that possibility. Trump said it was the “most insulting” question he’d ever been asked. The New York Times report on Friday cited …

KABUL: International rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged major donors to impose sanctions on Afghanistan’s newly appointed acting defence minister over alleged war crimes and human rights abuses. President Ashraf Ghani’s decision last month to appoint the fiercely anti-Taliban Asadullah Khalid prompted an outcry from human rights organisations which accuse him of being involved in assassinations, torture and …

NEW DELHI: India and five Central Asian countries along with Afghanistan on Sunday condemned terrorism in all its manifestations and agreed to cooperate in countering the menace to global peace, Press Trust of Indiasaid. This was part of a joint statement issued at the end of the first-ever meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue which also saw the participation of Afghanistan …

WASHINGTON: A bill seeking to remove Pakistan from a list of America’s major non-Nato allies has been introduced in the US Congress, even though the Trump administration enhances its contacts with Islamabad in its pursuit of a peaceful end to the Afghan war. The resolution — introduced by Congressman Andy Biggs who, like the Trump administration, is a Republican — …

PARIS: Two French firefighters and a Spanish citizen died and nearly people 50 were injured in a gas explosion that gutted the ground floor of a building in a central Paris shopping district on Saturday, authorities said. The accident occurred with central Paris under security lockdown for a ninth consecutive Saturday of “yellow vest” protests. Large parts of the capital …

GWADAR: Saudi Minister for Petroleum and Energy Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz said on Saturday that his country’s crown prince would visit Pakistan in February to sign an agreement with Pakistan on setting up an oil refinery in Gwadar at a cost of $10 billion. The Saudi minister said this after arriving here along with a delegation to inspect the site …

WASHINGTON: When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, no US ambassador was there to welcome him. The post has been vacant for nine months. The Republican donor President Donald Trump chose for the job, John Rakolta Jr., hasn’t been approved by the Senate. Trump has frequently accused Senate Democrats of using the …

HERAT: Gunmen stormed a police station in western Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least five people and wounding two others, officials said, in the latest violence targeting the war-torn country’s beleaguered security forces. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the raid in the provincial capital of Herat, near the Iranian border, but the Taliban have been relentless in …

NEW YORK: The FBI opened a probe into President Donald Trump for possible obstruction of justice after he fired FBI Director James Comey, counterintelligence agents were investigating why Trump was acting in ways that seemed to benefit Russia, according to a source familiar with the matter, The New York Times reported. As the FBI opened the Trump probe in the hectic …