International

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar on Monday announced the reopening of their respective diplomatic missions, six years after the Gulf rivals severed ties during a regional blockade that sent tensions soaring. The two resource-rich monarchies restored official relations in January 2021 after the end of the nearly four-year diplomatic and transport blockade that isolated tiny Qatar. “The UAE and the …

Israel said on Monday that hoped-for direct flights to Saudi Arabia for the Haj pilgrimage would not happen this year, and played down any prospects of an imminent US-mediated normalisation of relations with Riyadh. Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia gave its quiet assent to Gulf neighbours United Arab Emirates and Bahrain forging ties with Israel in 2020. But it has held off on …

BAGHDAD: Iraq unveiled on Sunday a 2,800-year-old stone tablet returned by Italy, as the war-ravaged country works to recover from abroad antiquities looted from its territory. The tablet — whose text is written in cuneiform, the Babylonian alphabet — bears the insignia of Shalmaneser III, the Assyrian king who ruled the region of Nimrod, in present-day northern Iraq, from 858 …

LONDON: Senior British minister Michael Gove on Sunday described a video showing a party at the ruling Conservative Party’s headquarters during a lockdown in 2020 as “terrible”, as Covid rule-breaking gatherings continue to hang over the government. The video was published by the Mirror newspaper just days after a parliamentary committee ruled that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson had wilfully misled lawmakers …

GENEVA: The Swiss, feeling the impact of global warming on their rapidly melting glaciers, on Sunday backed a new climate bill aimed at steering their country towards carbon neutrality by 2050. Near-final results showed almost 59 per cent of voters supporting the new law, which will require Switzerland to slash its dependence on imported oil and gas, scaling up the …

BANGKOK: Thailand’s caretaker government hosted the foreign minister of Myanmar’s ruling junta at informal regional peace talks on Sunday, as key Southeast Asian counterparts stayed away from the meeting that has drawn sharp criticism. Only Cambodia has so far officially confirmed it intended to attend the talks. Myanmar’s generals have been barred for nearly two years from senior-level meetings of …

Chinese President Xi Jinping said the United States and China had “made progress” on a number of issues on Monday as he hosted US State Secretary Antony Blinken for talks in Beijing. Blinken’s visit is the highest-level trip by a US official to China in nearly five years with ties severely strained between the world’s two largest economies. Xi, China’s …

At least 54 people died in a district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh over the last few days, the Times of India newspaper reported on Monday, as authorities probed if the loss of lives was due to the heat wave in the region. Another 45 people died in neighbouring Bihar state, local newspapers reported. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a …

LONDON: The number of people arriving in the UK in small boats has reached over 10,000 since the start of the year, UK government figures showed on Sunday. The provisional total covering the period up to Saturday stands at 10,139, according to data released by the interior ministry, the Home Office. The figure is down by over 1,000 on that …

A cyclone which tore through southern Brazil has killed at least 13 people and forced thousands from their homes, authorities said on Sunday. Torrential rain and strong winds on Thursday and Friday caused damage in dozens of towns in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, including its capital Porto Alegre — the latest in a string of weather-related disasters …