International

WASHINGTON: On May 4, 2022, Nasa’s InSight lander detected the largest quake yet recorded on Mars, one with a 4.7 magnitude — fairly modest by Earth standards but strong for our planetary neighbour. Given Mars lacks the geological process called plate tectonics that generates earthquakes on our planet, scientists suspected a meteorite impact had caused this marsquake. But a search …

BEIRUT: Thousands rallied across the Arab and Muslim world on Wednesday to protest the deaths of hundreds of people by an Israeli attack on a Gaza hospital. The strike provoked outrage and condemnation from around the world, with protests on the streets of Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkiye, Yemen and the Occupied West Bank. “Death to America, death to …

ZAPORIZHZHIA/MOSCOW: Russian overnight strikes on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions killed at least six people on Wednesday morning, Ukrainian officials said. Five were killed in a missile strike that hit a residential building in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, the local governor said, and one in a strike on a town just outside the city of Dnipro, Ukraine’s internal affairs …

BRUSSELS: The leaders of Belgium and Sweden and the European Union’s chief executive promised on Wednesday to tighten border security and step up repatriations after a failed asylum seeker from Tunisia shot dead two Swedish football fans in Brussels. They spoke after paying tribute to the victims of Monday’s attack in the Belgian capital, home to the EU institutions, and …

PARIS: Airports across France were evacuated on Wednesday after emailed “threats of attack”, a police source said, the latest in a series of similar alerts. The evacuations at Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse and Beauvais airport near Paris would allow authorities to “clear up any doubts” whether the threats are real, the source said. A spokeswoman for Strasbourg airport in …

CAIRO: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Wednesday that Egyptians in their millions would reject the forced displacement of Palestinians into Sinai, adding it would set a precedent for “the displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank into Jordan”. The border between Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip is the site of the only crossing from the Palestinian …

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan urged the United Nations on Wednesday to arrange an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and hold a General Assembly debate on the situation after the United States vetoed a resolution that called for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Israeli attacks on the Palestinian territory. Other Muslim nations also supported the demand for a debate in the General Assembly where no …

AMSTERDAM: As the situation in Gaza worsens, regulators and analysts say a wave of online disinformation risks further inflaming passions in an electronic fog of war. An Israeli strike at a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds of Palestinians on Tuesday is the latest focus of the surge of activity as supporters of both sides bolster their own side’s narrative and cast doubts …

BEIRUT: While Arab and Muslim nations on Wednesday squarely blamed Israel for the bombing of the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza that left over 470 Palestinians dead and demanded Tel Aviv’s accountability for the massacre, US President Joe Biden chose to deliver full backing to Israel by promising more aid to the country at the end of his one-day visit. …

DUBAI: Islamic countries should impose an oil embargo and other sanctions on Israel and expel all Israeli ambassadors, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Wednesday. “The foreign minister calls for an immediate and complete embargo on Israel by Islamic countries, including oil sanctions, in addition to expelling Israeli ambassadors if relations with the Zionist regime have been established,” the …