International

A fire that started at an electric scooter showroom in India killed at least eight people and injured 11, police said on Tuesday, in what is the deadliest such incident involving electric vehicles in the country. A spate of electric scooter fires this year has alarmed the government, which is keen to promote use of such two-wheelers in its fight …

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will be travelling to Samarkand, Uzbekistan later this week to attend the annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Council of Heads of State (CHS), where climate change will be on the agenda. Unprecedented rains and flashfloods have affected around 33 million people across Pakistan, caused economic losses estimated at $30 billion and resulted in …

Armenia appealed to world leaders for help on Tuesday, saying that Azerbaijani forces were trying to advance onto its territory amid violence along the arch foes’ shared border. Fighting erupted overnight along the volatile border between the Caucasus neighbours, leaving troops dead on both sides, defence ministries in Baku and Yerevan said, without giving the number of casualties. The escalation …

LONDON: In his first foreign trip in more than two years since the start of Covid-19, Chinese President Xi Jinping will reach Kazakhstan on Wednesday and meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, according to Kazakhstan and the Kremlin. While Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri …

EDINBURGH: Thousands of mourners thronged the route for the final journey of Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday as her coffin arrived in Edinburgh from the Scottish retreat where she died. Huge crowds packed the streets of Scotland’s capital as the hearse bearing Britain’s longest-serving monarch completed the first leg of a sombre odyssey that will culminate with her state funeral …

LOS ANGELES: Califo­rnia’s latest wildfire has spread rapidly in the US state’s central mountains, just as firefighters were bringing a big blaze south of Los Angeles under control, authorities said on Sunday. The Mosquito Fire has now swept through an area of more than 41,000 acres (16,600 hectares) in the Sierra Nevada range northeast of San Francisco in just four …

TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid arrived in Germany on Sunday in his latest diplomatic effort to persuade Western powers to ditch their tattered nuclear deal with the Jewish state’s arch nemesis Iran. Israel has long opposed a revival of the 2015 accord, which has been moribund since then US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and reimposed …

India said on Sunday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take part in a regional summit in Uzbekistan that according to Russia will see face-to-face talks between President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation comprising China, Russia, four Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — India and Pakistan is …

NEW DELHI: An Indian farmer was in a critical condition on Sunday after slicing off his tongue as a sacrificial offering at a Hindu temple, police said. The 40-year-old’s act of self-mutilation with a pocket knife triggered panic among crowds at the popular temple in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. Investigating officer Abhilash Tiwari said the man …

JOHANNESBURG: At least three people were killed and dozens injured after a mine dam burst and sparked flooding that swept away houses and cars in central South Africa, officials said on Sunday. Television footage showed a river of mud and water flowing away from the mine and into a nearby residential area. It covered roads and swept houses away in …