International

JERUSALEM: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Friday the death toll given by the health ministry in Gaza had proved to be “credible”, referring to a US statement that raised doubts about figures given by the Palestinian groupo. “In the past, the five, six cycles of conflict in Gaza Strip, these figures were considered as credible and no …

The suspect in a mass shooting that killed 18 people in the US state of Maine has been found dead, the state’s governor said on Friday, ending a two-day manhunt that mobilised hundreds of law enforcement agents and set jittery residents of the northeastern state on edge. Robert Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his body was discovered …

Iranian teenager Armita Garawand died on Saturday a month after falling into a coma following a disputed incident on Tehran’s metro, local media said. “Armita Garawand, a student in Tehran, died an hour ago after intensive medical treatment and 28 days of hospitalisation in intensive care,” reported the Borna news agency affiliated with the youth ministry. The 16-year-old ethnic Kurd was hospitalised in Tehran …

GAZA: Social media and the internet, the last means of communication the people of the besieged Gaza Strip had with the outside world, was severed on Friday as broadband and mobile phone services were cut off. The disconnection of the Palestinian enclave meant that — as the bombing of Gaza entered its 21st day — fresh photos, videos and other …

MADRID: Over 200,000 minors are estimated to have been sexually abused in Spain by the Roman Catholic clergy since 1940, according to an independent commission report published on Friday. The report did not give specific figures but said a poll of over 8,000 people found that 0.6 per cent of Spain’s adult population of around 39 million people said they …

BAGHDAD: Influential religious leader Moqtada Sadr called on the Iraqi government on Friday to close the American embassy in Baghdad because of Washington’s “unconditional support” for Israeli aggression on Palestinian people. “If the government and parliament do not respond, we will take a different position that we will announce later,” the cleric, who often criticises the government, warned on X, …

By: Raja Zahid Akhtar Khanzada California, USA: In the US state of California, the renowned Pakistani singer, Atif Aslam, graced the audience with the melodies of Ustad Nusrat Ali’s ghazal, “ Soichta hoon kay wooh keetnay masoosm thay “ ( leaving everyone pondering the innocence of the past and the transformations of the present.) During his performance, a fan in …

WASHINGTON: China’s top diplomat opens talks on Thursday in Washington as President Xi Jinping decides whether to visit the United States next month to take up the slew of rifts between the world’s two largest economies. President Joe Biden has invited Xi to San Francisco to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit but he has also stood firm …

BELO HORIZONTE: Scientists in Brazil, the world’s second-biggest consumer of cocaine, have announced the development of an innovative new treatment for addiction to the drug and its powerful derivative crack: a vaccine. Dubbed “Calixcoca,” the test vaccine, which has shown promising results in trials on animals, triggers an immune response that blocks cocaine and crack from reaching the brain, which …

ACAPULCO: Hurri–cane Otis killed at least 27 people as it lashed Mexico’s beach resort city of Acapulco as a scale-topping category 5 storm, officials said on Thursday, in what residents called a “total disaster.” The storm crashed into Acapulco with furious winds of 165 miles (270 kilometres) per hour, largely cutting off communications and road links with the region. President …