International

WASHINGTON: The US government and its partners have ultimately evacuated approximately 124,000 individuals, including 6,000 US citizens, in the weeks prior to suspending operations at the Kabul embassy on August 31, 2021, says an official report released on Thursday. The report, prepared by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the US State Department, listed US government personnel, private US …

GAZA CITY: Israel reopened crossing points with Gaza Strip on Thursday, allowing thousands of Palestinian workers to get to their jobs in Israel and the occupied West Bank, after nearly two weeks of closure prompted by protests along the border. Around 18,000 Gazans have permits from Israeli authorities to work outside the blockaded enclave, providing an injection of cash amounting …

ROTTERDAM: A gunman dressed in combat gear and wearing a bulletproof vest went on a shooting rampage at a house and a hospital in Rotterdam on Thursday, killing a 14-year-old girl, her mother and a teacher. Dutch police said they were still investigating the motive for the twin attacks by the 32-year-old man, who also set fire to the hospital …

Pakistan and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have concluded the final round of negotiations and inked a preliminary deal on a free trade agreement (FTA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, it emerged on Friday. Pakistan and the GCC finalised the FTA on Thursday after the final round of talks was held from September 26-28, 2023 at the GCC headquarters in Riyadh, …

YEREVAN: Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh on Thursday agreed to dissolve their government by the end of the year and become a full part of Azerbaijan in the wake of Baku’s lightning offensive. The dramatic announcement came moments after it became clear that more than half of the rebel region’s population had fled the advancing Azerbaijani forces. It drew the …

India’s foreign minister on Friday said he spoke to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan about Canadian allegations on New Delhi’s possible involvement in the June killing of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada. Ties between the two countries have been strained after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told parliament earlier this month …

Libya’s prosecutor general has ordered the arrest of four more officials, bringing to 12 the number held as part of an inquiry into this month’s flood that killed thousands. Flooding caused by hurricane-strength Storm Daniel tore through eastern Libya on September 10, leaving at least 3,893 people dead and thousands more missing. The seaside city of Derna was the worst-hit in …

PARIS: For the first time, scientists have observed antimatter particles — the mysterious twins of the visible matter all around us — falling downwards due to the effect of gravity, Europe’s physics lab CERN announced on Wednesday. The experiment was hailed as “huge milestone”, though most physicists anticipated the result, and it had been predicted by Einstein’s 1915 theory of …

STRASBOURG: The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Wednesday began hearing a case brought by six Portuguese youths against 32 nations for not doing enough to stop global warming, the latest bid to secure climate justice through the courts. “The case concerns… the impact of climate change,” said Siofra O’Leary, president of the Strasbourg-based court’s 17-judge Grand Chamber, “resulting …

SEOUL: US soldier Travis King is in American custody after leaving North Korea, where he had been held since running across the border from the South in July, the White House said on Wednesday. North Korea’s state news agency had made a surprise announcement just hours earlier that Pyongyang had decided to expel King, who crossed over during a sightseeing …