International

MOGADISHU: Nine people, including senior regional officials, were killed in twin car bombings claimed by Al Shabaab in central Somalia on Monday, police said, as the government escalates an offensive against the Islamists. Two cars packed with explosives were detonated minutes apart outside local government offices in Beledweyne, a city at the heart of recent offensives against the Al Qaeda-linked …

France has entered an eighth wave of the Covid-19 virus, as the winter season approaches, said a leading French health official. “Yes, we are in this eighth wave,” said Brigitte Autran, who is a member of the government’s vaccination strategic board. “All the indicators are on the up,” added Autran. France’s Covid-19 figures published on Monday showed that the seven-day …

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis, who has often said people should limit their use of cellphones and give preference to personal communication, granted a private audience on Monday to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook. Cook, head of the $2.4 trillion company whose iPhone has revolutionised personal communication, was on the pope’s daily audience list. As is customary, the Vatican did not …

BIRMINGHAM: Britain’s under-fire finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng on Monday vowed to press on with his controversial economic reform plans, despite announcing a dramatic U-turn on a controversial tax cut for high earners. The proposed cut was part of a debt-driven economic package that has bombed with the markets, the electorate and much of the ruling Conservative party. The abrupt reversal …

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of Defence Lloyd J. Austin will host an enhanced honour cordon on Tuesday for Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa when he arrives at the Pentagon for an official meeting. The pooled press will be given access to the event, although there will be no briefing. An enhanced honour cordon is reserved for the …

RIO DE JANEIRO: After an inconclusive first round of presidential elections, Braz­ilians woke up on Monday to another month of uncertainty in a deeply polarized political environment and with renewed fears of unrest. Seeking to make a spectacular comeback, ex-president and frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 76, failed to garner the 50 percent of votes plus one needed to …

MALANG: Dozens of Indonesian police were placed under investigation on Monday over a stampede at a soccer match that killed 125 people, as authorities sought to determine what caused one of the world’s deadliest stadium disasters and who was to blame. Nine police were stripped of their positions and the local police chief transferred, police spokesperson Dedi Prasetyo said, adding that 28 …

India has lost contact with its Mars orbiter, eight years after the low-cost probe made it the first Asian nation with a spacecraft circling the red planet, its space agency said. Although “designed for a life-span of six months as a technology demonstrator, the Mars Orbiter Mission has lived for about eight years in the Martian orbit with a gamut of significant …

Elite Indonesian police officers were under investigation on Tuesday over a stadium stampede that killed 125 people including dozens of children in one of the deadliest disasters in football history. As public anger grew over the tragedy, police moved to punish those responsible for the crush in the city of Malang that witnesses say started when officers fired tear gas into packed …

Former US president Donald Trump sued CNN for defamation on Monday, seeking $475 million in punitive damages and claiming the network had carried out a “campaign of libel and slander” against him. Trump claims in his lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that CNN had used its considerable influence as a leading news organisation to defeat him politically. CNN declined to …