International

DAVOS: Russia should not unleash an oil price war against the United States but rather stick with output cuts even at the cost of losing market share in the medium term, one of the main Russian architects of a production pact with Opec said. Since 2017, Russia and Opec have cut oil production jointly for the first time in an …

BEIJING: About a dozen Chinese labour activists and university students have either gone missing or been detained by police this week, sources said, amid a deepening crackdown on activists seeking improved rights for factory workers. A loose but active coalition of workers, activists and students across China has since July 2018 faced off against police, with dozens detained over their …

Embattled Renault boss Carlos Ghosn has resigned, France’s economy minister said on Thursday ahead of a board meeting at which the French carmaker is to appoint his successors. A senior director from the firm “received last night the letter of resignation from Carlos Ghosn”, who remains detained in Japan, Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told AFP. The Renault board is …

Australia on Thursday demanded China handle the case of detained author Yang Hengjun “transparently and fairly,” amid a growing row about the fate of the Chinese-Australian. Yang — a novelist, democracy advocate and former Chinese diplomat — was detained shortly after he made a rare return to China from the United States (US) last week. Friend and colleague Chongyi Feng told AFP he believes …

Microsoft’s Bing search engine was inaccessible in China on Thursday, with social media users fearing it could be the latest foreign website to be blocked by censors. Attempts to open cn.bing.com has resulted in an error message for users since Wednesday, taking away the most prominent foreign search engine available in China. “We’ve confirmed that Bing is currently inaccessible in …

KABUL: The Taliban “mastermind” behind an attack which left 65 dead has been killed in an airstrike, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said on Wednesday — a claim the insurgents deny. Monday’s violence was the latest high-casualty assault on Afghan forces, who experts say are continuing to suffer “unsustainable” losses since Nato withdrew combat forces from the country in 2014. Militants detonated …

BERLIN: Applications for asylum in Germany dropped steeply last year, hard-line Interior Minister Horst Seehofer reported on Wednesday, saying the issue had become less politically explosive as a result. Seehofer said the official 2018 figures showed Germany had received some 185,000 appeals for asylum — a 16-per-cent decline from the previous year, far below the heights seen at the peak …

NEW DELHI: India’s Priyanka Gandhi officially entered politics on Wednesday ahead of a looming national election, joining the opposition campaign in a crucial state where the party her family founded hopes to unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Priyanka — whose father, grandmother and great-grandfather were all prime ministers — was appointed Congress party chief in the east of Uttar Pradesh, …

  WASHINGTON: US Senator Lindsey Graham, who visited Islamabad this week, is believed to have discussed with Pakistani leaders a proposal for a free trade agreement (FTA) in return for Islamabad’s assistance in ending the Afghan war, official sources told Dawn. At a news briefing in Islamabad on Sunday, Senator Graham also urged US President Donald Trump to meet Prime Minister Imran …

At least 65 people were killed in a Taliban-claimed attack on an Afghan intelligence base, sources said on Tuesday, in the latest high-casualty attack on beleaguered Afghan forces. The new toll from Monday’s Taliban-claimed attack in central Wardak province is far higher than earlier figures of 12 dead, and comes after a day of confusion, with officials giving conflicting casualty numbers …