International

WEST BEACH: An increasingly high-stakes standoff between Donald Trump and federal investigators lands in court on Thursday, after days of headline-grabbing revelations surrounding highly classified documents seized by the FBI from the former president’s Florida home. Trump’s lawyers are asking that an outside party — a “special master” — be named to reassess the government’s screening of sensitive documents to …

Bankrupt Sri Lanka’s deposed former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to end his self-imposed exile in Thailand and return home on Saturday, a top defence official told AFP. The 73-year-old fled the island under military guard in July after a huge crowd stormed his official residence, following months of angry public protests blaming him for the island nation’s unprecedented economic crisis. He issued his resignation …

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned the country’s first home-built aircraft carrier on Friday, underlining his government’s efforts to boost domestic production to supply a military deployed on two contentious borders. After 17 years of construction and tests, Modi commissioned the INS Vikrant — the navy’s second operational aircraft carrier and the largest warship ever built in India — at …

PARIS: Rich carbon polluters should feel “moral pressure” to help fund climate-vulnerable nations wracked by weather extremes such as Pakistan, which is responsible for less than 0.5pc of global emissions, diplomats and scientists said on Wednesday. “This is not a freak accident,” said Nabeel Munir, Pakistan’s ambassador to Seoul and chair of the largest negotiating bloc of developing nations at …

Riyadh: Two Pakistani citizens were among eight people arrested by Saudi authorities in a raid on a warehouse resulting in the record seizure of 46 million amphetamine pills that were reportedly smuggled in a shipment of flour. The Saudi state-run SPA news agency reported that the security forces tracked the shipment as it arrived at the Riyadh Dry Port and was moved …

WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department said on Tuesday it had evidence that classified documents were deliberately concealed from the Federal Bureau of Investigation when it tried to retrieve them in June from former president Donald Trump’s Florida estate, prompting its unprecedented search of his home. In a 54-page filing, prosecutors laid out their evidence of obstruction of justice, alleging publicly …

THE HAGUE: A year into the Taliban’s rule, war crimes prosecutors in The Hague have urged judges to rule promptly on their request to resume investigations into atrocities in Afghanistan and warn that crimes are continuing, court documents showed. The International Crim­inal Court’s Afghanistan investigation has been on hold for more than two years. In March 2020 the previous Afghan …

LUBMIN/ZAPORIZHZHIA: Rus­s­­­ian energy giant Gazprom suspended gas deliveries to Germany on a major pipeline on Wednesday, the latest in a series of supply halts that have fuelled an energy crisis in Europe. Gazprom said supplies via Nord Stream 1 were “completely stopped” for “preventative work” at a compressor unit, shortly after European gas network operator ENTSOG announced that deliveries had …

BAGHDAD: Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr may have declared his “definitive retirement” from politics this week, but the violence that erupted after his announcement points to murkier intentions, analysts believe. “Sadr is looking to become the most powerful political player in Iraq,” Renad Mansour of British think tank Chatham House said. “That is his agenda, and part of achieving that requires …

BALI: Group of 20 climate talks in Bali ended without a joint communique on Wednesday despite host Indonesia warning the world’s leading economies they must act together to combat a warming planet or risk plunging into “uncharted territory”. The one-day meeting on the resort island concluded with Indonesia’s environment chief saying G20 chair Jakarta would only issue a summary of …