International

Hurricane Ian strengthened into a Category 3 storm on Tuesday, the United States National Hurricane Centre said, as Cuba and Florida — both in the storm’s likely path — ramped up preparations to deal with high winds and potential flooding. About 50,000 people in Cuba’s western Pinar del Rio province moved to safer locations, 6,000 of them to state-run shelters …

WASHINGTON: Pakistan and the United States will hold ministerial-level talks in Washington on Monday (today), indicating willingness on part of both sides to resume institutionalised engagement after a long absence. Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari reached Washington on Sunday on a three-day visit during which he will hold in person talks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He will also have …

ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates agreed on Sunday to supply natural gas and diesel to Germany as part of an “energy security” deal to replace Russian supplies. Emirati industry minister Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber called it a “landmark new agreement” that “reinforces the rapidly growing energy partnership between the UAE and Germany”, at a signing attended by German Chancellor …

BEIJING: Prominent Chinese commentator Hu Xijin said on Sunday that as China ponders its Covid-19 policies, epidemic experts need to speak out and China ought to conduct comprehensive research and make any studies transparent to the public. Hu’s unusual call on Chinese social media for candour and transparency earned him 34,000 likes on the popular Twitter-like microblog Weibo, as well …

ROME: Italians voted on Sunday on whether to usher in the country’s first government led by the far-right since World War II, bringing eurosceptic populists to the heart of Europe. The Brothers of Italy party, headed by one-time Mussolini supporter Giorgia Meloni, has led opinion polls and looks set to take office in a coalition with the far-right League and …

MANILA: Super Typhoon Noru slammed into the Philippines on Sunday, battering the heavily populated main island of Luzon with strong winds and heavy rain that have forced thousands of people to flee their homes. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometres an hour as it charged towards the archipelago nation after an unprecedented “explosive intensification”, the state …

SEOUL: North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday, Seoul’s military said, just days after a US aircraft carrier arrived for joint drills with the South in a show of force against Pyongyang. With talks long-stalled, nuclear-armed North Korea has doubled down on its banned weapons programmes, even revamping its laws earlier this month to declare itself an “irreversible” nuclear …

TEHRAN: Iran summoned the British and Norwegian ambassadors over what it said was interference and hostile media coverage of nationwide unrest triggered by the death of a woman detained by morality police, the semi-official ISNA news agency said on Sunday. Demonstrations which broke out more than a week ago at the funeral of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, have spread across the country …

Rescue workers recovered seven more bodies on Monday after a boat carrying religious pilgrims capsized in Bangladesh, taking the death toll to 32 with scores still missing, police said. The small boat packed with mostly women and children on their way to a popular temple flipped over on Sunday in a river as onlookers screamed in horror from the shore. …

At least 13 people were dead, including seven children, in a shooting at a school in the city of Izhevsk in central Russia, investigators said on Monday, as the toll climbed from nine victims reported previously. The attack was the latest in a series of school shootings that have shaken Russia in recent years and came with the country on …