International

NEW DELHI: For three months Qatar has detained eight former Indian navy officers, and New Delhi says it is trying to get them released, reports said on Saturday. The New Indian Express said the former naval officers were ‘mysteriously’ detained in Doha. “All of them were working for a firm called Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy and were reportedly engaged in conducting …

GENEVA: A woman was seriously injured when she got out of her car with the engine still on, only for it to run her over three times, Swiss police said on Friday. The 45-year-old had stepped out of her car in a residential area in St Gallen, in north-eastern Switzerland, likely in order to get something out of the boot. …

ROME: A group of activists threw pea soup at a Vincent Van Gogh masterpiece, The Sower, on Friday in a protest they warned would continue until more attention was paid to climate change. The 1888 painting by the Dutch artist depicting a farmer sowing his land under a dominating sun, was exhibited behind glass and remained undamaged. Climate activists from …

SEOUL: South Korea said it scrambled warplanes in response to 180 North Korean military flights near the countries’ shared border on Friday, and Pyongyang again demanded that the United States and South Korea halt “provocative” air exercises. The North Korean mano­euvres follow the firing of more than 80 rounds of artillery overnight and the launch of multiple missiles into the …

The UK’s government, specially the Home Office, which has been under fire over its treatment of asylum seekers over the past weeks, saw a fresh wave of censure on Friday after a minister said it was “a bit of a cheek” for migrants to complain about conditions at an overcrowded asylum processing centre. The Manston centre in Kent has been …

MOSCOW: Russia pushed ahead on Friday with a civilian pullout from Ukraine’s Kherson region amid a mounting counter-offensive, with President Vladimir Putin saying residents must be “removed” from danger zones. The Russian army said “more than 5,000 civilians” were being led across the Dnipro River every day, showing footage of soldiers directing lines of cars onto flotillas crossing over to …

WASHINGTON: “Enough is enough, this has to stop,” said Waheeda Mani, a PhD in environmental sciences from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Cha­m­­paign. She was one of around 50 people gathered at a market near Washington, known as ‘mini-Pakistan’, on Thursday night to protest against the assassination attempt on PTI chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan. Dr Mani said she was not …

NEW DELHI: A rightwing Hindu leader was shot dead in Amritsar on Friday and its impact was expected in faraway Gujarat, where state polls are scheduled to be held next month. Sudhir Suri, who headed an outfit called the Shiv Sena, had police protection but the attacker was successful in landing at least two shots that killed him. East Punjab …

NEW DELHI: Smog hit “hazardous” levels in New Delhi on Thursday as smoke from thousands of crop fires in northern India combined with other pollutants to create a noxious grey cocktail enveloping the megacity. Levels of the most dangerous particles — PM2.5, so tiny they can enter the bloodstream — were 588 per cubic metre early on Thursday morning, according …

PARIS: Iranians staged fresh protest actions on Thursday in defiance of a crackdown by the authorities as an 18-year-old became the latest teenager killed in clashes in the northwest. Iran has for over six weeks been gripped by protests sparked by the death on Sept 16 of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the “morality police”. The leadership under Ayatollah …