International

The warring sides in Ethiopia announced on Wednesday an agreement to silence their guns after two years of devastating conflict that have claimed thousands of lives and left millions needing aid in Africa’s second most populous country. The surprise deal between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and Tigrayan rebels was unveiled after little over a week of negotiations led by …

India’s Gujarat state on Wednesday mourned the death of 135 people from a bridge collapse on the weekend, with the national flag at half-mast in government buildings and public functions, receptions and entertainment programmes cancelled. Rescue workers would continue their search for any unaccounted persons for a fourth day, a government control room said, though local officials said on Tuesday that only …

WASHINGTON: The United States will continue to act unilaterally to address emergent terrorist threats from Afghanistan, the US State Department has warned. The warning followed news reports that Al Qaeda, the Islamic State militant group — which the US refers to as ISIS — and other terrorist groups have been reactivated in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover and were gradually …

WASHINGTON: An international team of astronomers on Monday announced the discovery of a large asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Earth, creating a small chance far in the future of a catastrophic collision. The 1.5 kilometre (0.9 mile) wide asteroid, named 2022 AP7, was discovered in area notoriously difficult to spot objects due to the glare from the Sun. It …

TOKYO: Tokyo began issuing partnership certificates to same-sex couples who live and work in the capital on Tuesday, a long-awaited move in a country without marriage equality. The certificates allow LGBTQ partners to be treated as married couples for a range of public services in areas such as housing, medicine and welfare. More than 200 smaller local authorities in Japan …

DOHA: Unpaid wages dominate a growing number of complaints by migrant workers in Qatar, the UN labour agency said on Tuesday, 19 days from the start of the football World Cup. The International Labour Organisation said the number of worker complaints more than doubled in a year to 34,425 with the launch of a new online platform, in a report …

JERUSALEM: Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was within reach of a governing majority and of making a political comeback, initial projections showed after Israel’s elections on Tuesday, but the tally could shift as official results come in. The margins appeared razor thin, as expected in the bitterly divided nation holding its fifth election in less than four years, but the …

OTTAWA: Canada will boost its immigration targets, hoping to welcome a record number of newcomers in order to address a worker shortage in the country, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced on Tuesday. “Canada needs more people,” Fraser told a news conference. A large chunk of the population is heading into retirement, according to recently released census data, with one in …

A North Korean ballistic missile landed less than 60 kilometres off South Korea’s coast on Wednesday, the first time an apparent test had landed near the South’s waters, prompting South Korea to issue rare air raid warnings and launch missiles in protest. The missile landed outside of South Korea’s territorial waters, but south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a …

ISLAMABAD: An official of the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has alleged that the former management of the medical commission approved provisional recognition of over a dozen medical and dental colleges in violation of rules. The colleges were allowed to admit students without any inspection and fulfilment of basic criteria, the official claimed. “I am trying to bring this to the …