International

ABOARD PLANE: The Vatican is involved in a peace mission to try to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Pope Francis said on Sunday, declining to give further details. “I am willing to do everything that has to be done. There is a mission in course now, but it is not yet public. When it is public, I will …

Another 93 Pakistani nationals evacuated from Sudan — where clashes and fighting have killed hundreds and left thousands stranded —arrived at the Islamabad International Airport on Monday morning, the Foreign Office (FO) said.     Following their arrival, state-run Radio Pakistan reported that “636 stranded Pakistanis have returned home via Jeddah on five special flights till date”. It quoted the foreign office as …

There is just something about left-handers that pleases the eye. For some reason, the southpaws seem to wield the cricket bat with a natural style and panache that most right-handers not named Babar Azam or Hashim Amla just do not possess. Without knowing anything else about two batsmen, you can safely assume that a left-hander will be more aesthetically pleasing …

TOKYO: The abortion pill will become available in Japan for the first time after the health ministry approved the drug used to terminate early-stage pregnancy. Abortion is legal in Japan up to 22 weeks but consent is usually required from a spouse or partner, and until now a surgical procedure had been the only option. The ministry said in a …

TEHRAN: An Iranian cleric was stabbed on Saturday during an apparent road rage incident in Qom, state media said, days after the fatal shooting of a leading cleric. After crashing and injuring two pedestrians, the driver jumped out of his car and attacked “one of the victims who was a cleric” with a knife, Qom police chief Amir Mokh­tari said, …

PARIS: Armed robbers raided the Bulgari luxury jewellery boutique in the swanky Place Vendome in central Paris in broad daylight on Saturday, making off with an estimated several million euros’ worth of items, police and prosecutors said. Three people who arrived on two motorbikes entered the store in the popular tourist district at around 1:45pm local time, a police source …

ISLAMABAD: South Asia is one of the regions most at risk due to extreme heat but the majority of its urban areas are ill-equipped to deal with the phenomenon, which is increasing in frequency, severity and complexity due to climate change. This was stated in a new World Bank report which said that the region, home to a quarter of the world’s …

HOUSTON: In the latest mass shooting to hit the United States, a gunman shot dead five Hondurans including an eight-year-old child at a house in Texas, officials said on Saturday. Investigators believe the gunman had been firing his AR-15-style gun in a neighbouring yard when the victims asked him to stop, as they were trying to get a baby to …

Eleven people died and nine were hospitalised after a gas leak in Ludhiana in the northern Indian state of Punjab, a state lawmaker said on Sunday. A team from the National Disaster Response Force was at the site along with a team of experts to determine the cause and source of the leak, said Rajinder Pal Kaur Chhina, a member …

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s political crisis echoed in the US House of Representatives on Friday night when a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee highlighted the need for the United States to side with democracy and not with the leaders more pliable to Washington. On Saturday, Congressman Brad Sherman, a record 13th-time member of the House from California and an influential …