International

WASHINGTON: Prime Minis­ter Shahbaz Sharif, along with four members of his cabinet and other senior officials, is expected in New York on September 19 to attend the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, UN sources told Dawn. The prime minister is scheduled to address the General Assembly on September 23 and is expected to return to Pakistan the same …

HEMET: Firefighters battling a growing blaze outside Los Angeles were bracing Friday for mudslides and flooding as a storm barrels into burn areas. The remnants of a hurricane that hit Mexico could also bring strong winds that could further fan the Fairview fire, prompting wider evacuation orders. The 24,000-acre fire, which erupted on Monday at the midpoint of a ferocious …

MUMBAI: Rice loading has stopped at Indian ports and nearly one million tonnes of grain are trapped there as buyers refuse to pay the government’s new 20 per cent export levy on top of the agreed contract price, five exporters told Reuters on Friday. India banned exports of broken rice and imposed a 20pc duty on exports of various other types on …

ISLAMABAD: The United States’ Cen­tral Command, in support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has begun airlifting life-saving humanitarian supplies to support people and communities affected by floods in Pakistan. The supplies include nearly $2.2 million worth of essential life support resources, including food preparation and shelter materials, which will be delivered over the course of the coming …

LONDON: Ceremonial gun salutes, the tolling of bells across churches and a crush of humanity — these were the scenes across the country, especially outside the royal palaces, as her subjects mourned Queen Elizabeth the II. The monarch, who ruled the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for 70 years, had breathed her last, and the country was …

VIENNA: A blackout caused by fresh shelling near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has compromised the site’s safety, the UN atomic watchdog warned on Friday, adding the plant’s operator is considering shutting down the sole remaining reactor. “Shelling has caused a complete blackout in Energodar (town) and compromised the safe operation of the nearby Zaporizhzhia (plant),” International Atomic Energy Agency …

WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and its minister, accusing them of being tied to a disruptive July cyberattack on Albania and engaging in other cyber activities against the United States and its allies. The move comes after Albania severed diplomatic relations with Iran on Wednesday for the same incident, ordering Iranian diplomats …

LONDON: Britain’s King Charles paid a heartfelt tribute on Friday to his late mother Queen Elizabeth, vowing to serve with “loyalty, respect and love” as she had done for more than seven decades. In his first address to the nation, Charles thanked the queen for her devotion to her family and to those for whom she was monarch. Elizabeth, Britain’s …

SEOUL: North Korea has passed a law allowing it to carry out a preventive nuclear strike and declaring its status as a nuclear-armed state “irreversible”, Pyongyang’s official media said Friday. The announcement comes at a time of crumbling ties between the North and South, with Pyongyang blaming Seoul for the outbreak of Covid-19 in its territory and conducting a record …

Ukrainian officials shared photos on Saturday showing troops raising the nation’s flag over the main railway city that has supplied Russian forces in northeastern Ukraine, as a collapse in Russia’s frontline threatened to turn into a rout. A Reuters journalist inside a vast area recaptured in recent days by the advancing Ukrainian forces saw Ukrainian police patrolling towns and boxes of ammunition …