International

TEHRAN: Iran’s army on Tuesday unveiled its first underground base for fighter jets designed to withstand possible strikes by US bunker-busting bombs, state media reported. The base — named Oghab 44 (“Eagle” in Persian) — can accommodate “all types of fighter jets and bombers, in addition to drones”, the official news agency IRNA said, released images and videos from inside the base. …

SANLIURFA: In the Turkish city of Sanliurfa, survivors of the massive quake that has wreaked death, destruction and havoc on the region face an invisible but powerful threat — hunger. As the morning sun illuminates the sky, Sanliurfa’s cracked streets look empty. The mercury is only just above freezing, but it feels much colder. Like their neighbours in the other …

WASHINGTON: New York police on Tuesday arrested a 38-year-old man for allegedly shooting a Pakistani American police officer earlier this week. The officer, Adeed Fayaz, 26, is fighting for his life in a New York hospital. “Detectives took the subject wanted for the shooting of an officer into custody. Charges are pending at this time,” the New York Police Department …

A Pakis­tani-American police officer, who was shot last week during a suspected robbery in New York City, succumbed to his injuries today, a senior official of the New York Police Department said on Wednesday. The officer, Adeed Fayaz, 26, was admitted to a New York hospital soon after he was attacked by the suspected robber during an alleged mugging attempt. The police …

Afghanistan’s Taliban administration will send around $165,000 in aid to Turkiye and Syria to help the response to a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck this week, according to a foreign ministry statement. Afghanistan is in the grips of a severe economic and humanitarian crisis and is itself the location of one of the United Nation’s largest humanitarian aid programs. The Taliban took …

ISLAMABAD: Saudi diplomats’ departure from Kabul amid security concerns has sparked fears that at least three other countries were also planning to close their embassies in Afghanistan, though Taliban and other officials have dismissed such reports. An Afghan Taliban official has confirmed to Dawn that Saudi Arabia has withdrawn its staff, but said the Saudis “have told us that they have withdrawn …

The death toll from a massive earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria rose above 11,200 on Wednesday as rescuers raced to save survivors trapped under debris in the winter cold. Officials and medics said 8,574 people had died in Turkiye and 2,662 in Syria from Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the total to 11,236. Nearly 50,000 people were also injured in Turkiye and …

LONDON: An alleged member of the Islamic State (IS) group’s “Bea­tles” kidnap-and-murder cell will face trial in the UK this month on terrorism charges, a judge said on Monday. Aine Davis is accused of belonging to the notorious group of hostage-takers, who grew up and were radicalised in London. Active in Syria from 2012 to 2015, they were allegedly involved …

BEIJING: As China and the United States tussle over what Washington says was a Chinese surveillance balloon over US territory, dozens of Chinese documents point to surging interest in using balloon technology for military purposes. China’s foreign ministry has repeatedly described the balloon the drifted over the United States as an errant scientific craft, but Chinese military researchers have recently …

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s top court ruled on Monday that transgender people can change the sex marked on their identification cards (IDs) without undergoing surgery, making it a landmark victory for LGBTQ community. Under the outgoing policy, Hong Kong’s ID cards display the sex assigned to a person at birth and for changing sex the person medically transitions with a …