International

YANGON: A firebrand monk dubbed the “Buddhist bin Laden” for his role in stirring up religious hatred in Myanmar received a national award on Tuesday, with the junta saluting his work in the country. Wirathu, who received the moniker from Time magazine in 2013 following deadly communal riots, was awarded the title of “Thiri Pyanchi” on Tuesday, the military’s information team said. …

SEOUL: South Korea’s first-ever lunar orbiter Danuri has sent black-and-white photos of the Moon’s surface and Earth, the national space centre said on Tuesday. Danuri — a portmanteau of the Korean words for “Moon” and “enjoy” — was launched on a SpaceX rocket from the United States in August 2022 and entered lunar orbit last month. Its images — taken …

VILLIERS BEL: Thousands of Kurds from across Europe travelled to the Paris suburbs on Tuesday for the politically charged funeral of three of their own killed in a December attack in the French capital. Buses were chartered to bring people from across France and some neighbouring countries to the ceremony in Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, local sources said. Tears and …

WASHINGTON: Kevin McCarthy, the Republican candidate for speakership of the US House of Representatives, failed on Tuesday to secure a majority after hard-right lawmakers refused to vote for him. The first vote leaves the race for the top job in the House wide open, although the Republican Party takes control of the chamber. The Republican leadership immediately launched efforts to …

Global health officials tried to determine the facts of China’s raging Covid-19 outbreak and how to prevent a further spread as the government’s mouthpiece newspaper on Wednesday rallied citizens for a “final victory” over the virus. China’s axing of its stringent virus curbs last month has unleashed Covid on a 1.4 billion population that has little natural immunity having been …

The United States has thrown its weight behind the counter-terrorism decisions taken by the National Security Committee (NSC) in its recent meeting, saying “Pakistan has a right to defend itself from terrorism”. The statement from US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price comes two days after the NSC — the highest civil-military forum for decisions on matters pertaining to national security — …

CAIRO: Egypt announced on Monday the recovery of a sarcophagus lid dating back nearly 2,700 years that it said had been smuggled out and put on display at a museum in the United States. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry announced the recovery of the artefact, known as the “Green Sarcophagus”, during a televised press conference on Monday. He said it …

VATICAN CITY: A steady stream of tens of thousands of people filed into St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday to pay their respects to former Pope Benedict XVI, whose body was laying in state without any papal paraphernalia ahead of his funeral this week. Benedict, a hero to conservative Catholics who yearned for a return to a more traditional Church, died …

BRUSSELS: The European Parliament on Monday announced its chief, Roberta Metsola, had launched “an urgent procedure” to lift the immunity of two MEPs amid a corruption scandal linked to Qatar. The parliament did not give the lawmakers’ names but said it was in response to an investigation by Belgian law enforcement into the graft allegations. Sources briefed on the Belgian …

SAN FRANCISCO: The latest leaps in artificial intelligence in everything from cars, robots to appliances will be on full display at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opening on Thursday in Las Vegas. Forced by the pandemic to go virtual in 2021 and hybrid last year, tens of thousands of show-goers are hoping for a return to packed halls and …