International

ISLAMABAD: The UN human rights body has expressed concern over the treatment of Ahmadis in Pakistan and sought a reply from the government by the end of this month to allegations that the community does not enjoy the freedoms and rights granted by international law to all individuals regardless of their religion, caste, creed or colour. The concern was expressed …

SINGAPORE: Asia’s top security meeting opened on Friday, with intensifying competition between the United States and China expected to dominate a weekend of high-level speeches, backroom military dealings and delicate diplomacy. On the sidelines of the three-day Shangri-La Dialogue, which attracts senior military officers, diplomats, arm manufacturers and security analysts from around the globe in Singapore, US Defense Secretary Lloyd …

At least 261 people have died in India’s worst rail accident in over two decades, officials said on Saturday, after a passenger train went off the tracks and hit another one in the east of the country. One train in Friday’s accident also hit a freight train parked nearby in the district of Balasore in Odisha state, leaving a tangled …

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Saturday he was deeply concerned by China’s unwillingness to engage on military crisis management, warning that talks are key to avoiding conflict. The relationship between the United States and China is at its lowest point in decades, as they remain deeply divided over everything from the sovereignty of Taiwan to espionage …

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to be sworn in on Saturday as head of state after winning a historic runoff election to extend his two-decade rule for another five years as Turkey’s economic woes worsen. Among several other world leaders, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also landed in the capital Ankara a day earlier to attend Erdogan’s inauguration in the …

Iran’s navy commander said his country and Saudi Arabia, as well as three other Gulf states, plan to form a naval alliance that will also include India and Pakistan, Iranian media reported on Saturday. “The countries of the region have today realized that only cooperation with each other brings security to the area,” Iran’s navy commander Shahram Irani was quoted …

GENEVA: The World Meteorological Organisation voted on Thursday for Argentina’s Celeste Saulo to become its first woman leader and steer the WMO’s critical global role in tracking climate change. Saulo, a WMO vice-president who has headed Argentina’s weather service since 2014, won a landslide vote at the UN climate and weather agency’s congress in Geneva. The WMO’s role in climate …

WASHINGTON: Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist jailed in the US for 86 years for allegedly attacking American soldiers in Afghanistan, had a third meeting with her sister at a prison hospital in Texas on Thursday. “Please think of Fowzia Siddiqui and Aafia today! After the tainted joy of their reunion after 20yrs today they must say goodbye at least for …

KHARTOUM: The US announced sanctions on Thursday on Sudanese leaders it blamed for the collapse of US and Saudi-brokered ceasefire efforts after shelling and air strikes killed 18 civilians at a Khartoum market. “We are following through by levying economic sanctions, imposing visa restrictions against actors who are perpetuating the violence,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a …

NEW DELHI: India’s interior minister on Thursday demanded people in a restive north-eastern state surrender guns following deadly inter-ethnic fighting during which rival forces raided police stations and seized assault rifles. Home Minister Amit Shah, speaking to reporters on a visit to Manipur’s state capital Imphal, warned of “stringent charges” for those who failed to hand in their weapons before …