International

The Threads app launched by Instagram as a rival to Twitter has signed up more than 100 million users in less than five days, data tracking websites said on Monday, smashing the record of AI tool ChatGPT for the fastest-growing consumer app. While ChatGPT took two months to hit the 100 million user mark and video-sharing app TikTok took nine months, Instagram …

Six people were killed and one wounded in an attack at a kindergarten in southern China’s Guangdong province on Monday, a spokeswoman for the city government said. “The victims include one teacher, two parents and three students,” she said. She did not offer details about the identities or ages of the victims, nor the weapon used in the attack, which …

Washington and Beijing should communicate “directly” on concerns about specific economic practices, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Saturday, urging greater cooperation between the world’s two biggest economies despite fraught ties. Yellen is on a four-day trip to Beijing as the United States seeks to cool tensions and stress areas of collaboration between the two countries. In a meeting …

A BBC presenter has been accused of paying a minor for explicitly sexual photographs. The alleged victim’s mother told The Sun that the money, amounting to over £35,000 was used to fund drug addiction, destroyed her child’s life. Broadcaster Rylan Clark tweeted on Saturday to clarify that he was not the presenter in question. Neither the individual nor the teenager has been identified.     …

BRUSSELS: The European Com­m­i­s­sion has proposed extending Pakistan’s GSP+ status — which is set to expire at the end of this year — for another four years as a contingency measure. The EU has decided to introduce fresh legislation to continue the scheme for another 10 years, but there seems to be a deadlock between the EU Council, which wants …

LONDON/OTTAWA: Traditio­nal allies of the United States have opposed the Biden administration’s decision to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine. Canada and the UK, considered to be some of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters, are also against the decision. “Canada is against the use of cluster munitions that Washington has promised to give Ukraine for its counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces,” Ottawa …

SEOUL: Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Seoul on Saturday during a visit to South Korea by the head of the UN nuclear watchdog aimed at calming fears over Japan’s plan to discharge treated radioactive water from its tsunami-hit Fukushima plant. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in the capital on Friday …

BERLIN: German police on Saturday fired tear gas and used water cannon to quell unrest at a controversial Eritrean music festival in the town of Giessen and 22 officers were injured. “Twenty-two police were injured, mainly in incidents of stone throwing,” regional police said on Twitter. About a thousand police were deployed in this town of 80,000 residents north of …

All six people aboard a small jet died when the aircraft crashed and burned in a field near an airport near Los Angeles on Saturday, local and federal authorities said. The aircraft, a Cessna C550 business jet, was travelling from Las Vegas and crashed near French Valley Airport in Riverside County, about 137 kilometres south of Los Angeles, at around …

More than a dozen people were killed in northern India over the last two days as heavy rainfall continued to lash parts of the country, Indian media reported on Sunday. NDTV reported that the Indian Metrological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy to extremely heavy rain for New Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Punjab and occupied Kashmir. The report said that …