International

THIRUVANAN-THAPURAM: Twin arson and bomb attacks rocked southern India on Saturday, continuing a violent backlash that followed the entry of two women into a Hindu temple that forbids female devotees. The Sabarimala temple in Kerala state has been at the centre of a prolonged showdown between religious hardliners and authorities since September, when India’s top court overturned a ban on …

KARACHI: The stock market started on a firm footing in the first week of the new year with the benchmark KSE-100 index claiming gains of 380 points (0.13 per cent) and settle at 37,548. There was slight effect of fresh January buying while the positive trend that followed two earlier weeks of sluggish performance was underpinned mainly by the massive …

MOSCOW: Russia demanded an explanation from the United States on Saturday over the arrest of one of its nationals, amid tensions between the two countries after Moscow held a US citizen for alleged espionage. FBI agents arrested Dmitry Makarenko on Dec 29 on Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Western Pacific. A federal …

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump is in the “process of evaluating” whether to withdraw some troops from Afghanistan, says Vice President Mike Pence while stressing the need to reconsider America’s involvement in “never-ending wars”. “The president has been very clear about that. And now, I think, the president is in the process of evaluating options about what has been an …

Two days of violent protests in south India sparked by two women entering one of Hinduism’s holiest temples have seen more than 750 people arrested, police said, as they braced for more trouble on Friday. The Sabarimala temple in Kerala state has been at the centre of a prolonged showdown between Hindu devotees and women activists over access to the shrine. As …

Investigators in Poland on Saturday blamed a gas leak in a heating system at an “Escape Room” for a fire that killed five teenage girls and injured a man. The bodies of the 15-year-old victims were found on Friday in Koszalin, in northern Poland, after firefighters extinguished a blaze in an adjacent room. Prosecutors said that carbon monoxide inhalation was …

YANGON: Thirteen pol­ice­men were killed and nine injured in early morning at­­tacks on Friday on police out­­­­posts in Myanmar’s Ra­­khine state by the insurgent Arakan Army, state media reported. The Arakan Army is a rebel group seeking autonomy for Rakhine state from Myanmar’s central government. It has no links with the Arakan Rohingya Salva­tion Army, a Muslim insurgent group whose …

PARIS: France will tigh­ten security at its northern ports and increase surveillance along beaches to counter the rise in migrants trying to cross the English Chan­­nel to reach Britain, its interior minister said on Friday. More than 500 mig­rants, mostly Iranian, tried to cross the narrow stretch of water, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, during 2018, …

LONDON: Teenage girls are twice as likely as boys to show depressive symptoms linked to social media use — mainly due to online harassment and disturbed sleep, as well as poor body image and lower self-esteem, researchers said on Friday. In a study analysing data from nearly 11,000 young people in Britain, researchers found that 14-year-old girls were heavier users …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have finalised the terms and conditions of a support package of about $6.2 billion expected to be announced by Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during his visit to the country starting on Sunday (Jan 6) to help Islamabad address its balance of payments challenge. The package involves $3.2bn worth of oil …