International

PARIS; Police cleared 300 migrants from a makeshift refugee camp by Porte de la Chapelle in northern Paris early on Tuesday, and took them to official shelters elsewhere in the city. The migrants had been living in tents under a bridge next to the “Peripherique” ring road that circles the city’s 20 districts, and consented to being moved. The refugees, …

WASHINGTON: Advances in US–Taliban peace talks offer cause for cautious optimism, says an American expert of Afghan affairs while another argues that the talks only show Washington’s eagerness to exit Afghanistan gracefully. Most of the experts, including several former US ambassadors to the Pak-Afghan region, agree that — a framework drafted in Doha, Qatar, last week — is a significant …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Russia on Tuesday agreed to continue coordinating their positions on efforts for peace in Afghanistan. The understanding was reached during Russian Special Representative on Afghanistan Ambassador Zamir Kabulov’s meetings with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua. Mr Kabulov was in Islamabad for consultations on regional political situation and the Afghan peace process. Take …

WASHINGTON: The five-week government shutdown subtracted $11 billion from the US economy, about twice the amount President Donald Trump sought to fund a border wall, an independent congressional body said on Monday. However, all but $3bn, or 0.02 per cent of GDP, will eventually be recovered as the government resumes operations, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said in a report. …

CARACAS: Venezuela’s self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido has called for two new protests, in an effort to push the military to turn against leader Nicolas Maduro as Pope Francis warned on Monday of a possible “bloodbath” in the crisis-wracked South American country. In a video posted on Twit­ter, the 35-year-old opposition leader Guaido annou­nced a two-hour strike on Wednesday “to demand …

NEW DELHI: The UK government on Monday exp­r­e­s­­­­sed regret after media rep­orts emerged that Ind­ia’s national flag was burnt during a demonstration by separatist groups outside the India High Commission in London on Republic Day, The Indian Express said quoting Press Trust of India (PTI). “We are disappointed that anyone would choose to burn the Indian flag on any day, let alone the …

LONDON: Bosses at top supermarkets and food chains on Monday urged British lawmakers to avoid a no-deal Brexit or risk reducing the availability of many products. On the eve of parliament’s vote on unlocking the Brexit impasse, 10 food chiefs plus industry body the British Retail Consortium (BRC) called on MPs to work “urgently to find a solution that avoids …

Pakistan has made a slight improvement in the ‘Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2018’released by the Transparency International on Tuesday, with score of 33 out of 100 — one point better than the one in 2017. The country’s ranking of 117 out of 180 countries, however, remains as it was in 2017. On the release of the 2018 Index, Chairman of Transparency International …

BRUMADINHO: Grief over the hundreds of Brazilians feared killed in last week’s mining disaster has quickly hardened into anger as victims’ families and politicians say iron ore miner Vale SA and regulators have learned nothing from the recent past. By Monday, firefighters in the state of Minas Gerais had confirmed 60 people dead in Friday’s disaster, in which a tailings dam …

The United States and the Afghan Taliban have drafted the framework of a deal which could pave the way for peace talks with Kabul, Washington’s main negotiator was quoted as saying on Monday, but major hurdles including a ceasefire and a withdrawal of foreign forces remain. The comments by special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to the New York Times are the clearest signal …