International

MOSCOW: Moscow belie­ves Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will “officially” offer at an upcoming meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Kazakhstan to mediate negotiations with Ukraine, a Kremlin aide said on Wednesday. “The Turks are offering their mediation. If any talks take place, then most likely they will be on their territory: in Istanbul or Ankara,” Kremlin foreign policy …

WASHINGTON: The United States has imposed visa restrictions against Taliban officials and other individuals ‘responsible for repressing Afghan women and girls’, hoping to persuade the regime to reconsider its repressive policies. “Today I am announcing a visa restriction policy … to restrict the issuance of visas for current or former Taliban members, members of non-state security groups, and other individuals …

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s administration said on Wednesday it would prioritise winning a competition with China, seeing it as the only global rival to the United States, even as it also works to constrain a “dangerous” Russia. Releasing a national security strategy delayed by the Ukraine war, the White House said the 2020s would be a “decisive decade for America …

Russian missiles have pounded more than 40 Ukrainian cities and towns over the past 24 hours, as Nato allies meeting in Brussels unveiled plans on Thursday to jointly beef up Europe’s air defences with Patriot and other missile systems. “We are living in threatening, dangerous times,” said German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht at a signing ceremony where Germany and more than a …

NABLUS: An Israeli soldier was shot dead on Tuesday near a settlement in the occupied West Bank in an attack claimed by Palestinian militants, the second deadly assault on armed forces within days. The killing is the latest as violence surges in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli army said the soldier was killed when “two assailants arrived in a vehicle …

ISLAMABAD: The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), in its 2022 State of Climate Services report released on Tuesday, says the supply of electricity from clean energy sources must be doubled within the next eight years to limit the global temperature increase. Focusing on energy, the multi-agency report emphasised that “otherwise, there is a risk that climate change, more extreme weather and …

Actress Angela Lansbury, who became a household name through her role as a writer-detective in ‘Murder, She Wrote’, died on Tuesday, her family announced. She was 96. The British-born star, who found fame and fortune as one of television’s most memorable characters, was also a hugely successful and decorated stage and film actress. “The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are …

WASHINGTON: While Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman met with Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa during his visit to Washington last week, the civilian government in Pakistan remains the principal “interlocutor” in bilateral ties, the US State Department said on Tuesday. At a news briefing in Washington, spokesperson Ned Price also dismissed rumors about misappropriation of flood relief funds, …

BEIRUT: Lebanon and Israel have reached a historic agreement demarcarting a disputed maritime border between them following years of US-mediated negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said on Tuesday. The deal would mark a significant compromise between states with a history of war and hostility, opening the way for offshore energy exploration and easing a source of recent tensions. “This …

BERLIN: World powers said on Tuesday after talks on Ukraine with President Volodymyr Zelensky that they would hold Russian leader Vladimir Putin responsible for recent widespread aerial strikes on cities including Kyiv. “We condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms and recall that indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilian populations constitute a war crime,” the G7 said in a statement …