International

LONDON: Former British prime minister John Major urged Theresa May on Saturday to drop her “red lines” on Brexit or allow parliament to find a way forward to avoid a damaging no-deal departure from the European Union in March. Major said he compromised on key decisions on the Northern Irish peace process and the first Gulf War while prime minister …

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he had “an incredible” meeting with North Korea’s nuclear envoy Kim Yong Chol and the two sides had made “a lot of progress.” The White House announced after Friday’s talks that Trump would hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February but will maintain economic sanctions …

KABUL: A former warlord accused of historic war crimes entered Afghanistan’s presidential race on Saturday in a new challenge to President Ashraf Ghani who allowed him to return from exile two decades he was forced out by the Taliban. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose fighters killed thousands in Kabul during the bloody civil war of the 1990s, has remained a divisive figure …

Gunmen in Thailand’s deep south shot dead two Buddhist monks and wounded two others inside a temple, police said on Saturday, capping a week of deadly violence as the prime minister vowed to “punish” those responsible. Black-clad assailants carrying rifles crept into Rattanaupap temple in Narathiwat province near Malaysia’s border on Friday evening and started firing, local superintendent Pakdi Preechachon …

DUBLIN: In a vault under the streets of Dublin a pot of gold owned by anxious investors is growing every day Britain edges closer to leaving the EU without a deal. “They’re worried about a significant devaluation in sterling if there’s a hard Brexit,” said Seamus Fahy. Fahy is co-founder of Merrion Vaults, a gold brokerage and safe deposit facility …

Forensic experts attempted to separate and count charred heaps of corpses in central Mexico on Saturday after a massive fireball erupted at an illegal pipeline tap, killing at least 66 people. More than 85 other people on Saturday were listed as missing as relatives of the deceased and onlookers gathered around the scene of carnage. Just a few feet from …

WASHINGTON: The space agencies of the United States and China are in touch and coordinating efforts on Moon exploration, Nasa said on Friday as it navigates a strict legal framework aimed at preventing technology transfer to China. “With the required approval from Congress, Nasa has been in discussions with China to explore the possibility of observing a signature of the …

NAYPYITAW: Myanmars army has killed 13 rebel fighters in the western Rakhine state, a military spokesman said on Friday, as government troops battle to contain a new insurgency in the troubled region. Fighting between security forces and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group seeking greater autonomy for Rakhine, has forced some 5,000 civilians to flee their homes since early …

BEIRUT: An explosion outside an office belonging to an Al Qaeda-linked group in Syria’s northwest on Friday killed at least 11 people and wounded several others, opposition activists said. The blast comes a week after members of the Al Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee, or HTS, took over control of wide parts of Idlib province and …

JAIPUR: At least 40 people have died and more than 1,000 have tested positive for swine flu since the beginning of this year in a western Indian state popular with foreigners, authorities said on Friday. Last year around 1,100 people died and 15,000 were infected across India by the highly contagious A H1N1 virus that spreads from human-to-human. Cases spike …