International

One person was killed and rescue crews were searching for nine others after a small plane crashed along the coast of the US state of Washington on Sunday, the coast guard said. The US Coast Guard said it received a report of the crash around 3:11pm and dispatched helicopters and boats to scour the area. Local search and rescue officials …

Turkey’s official inflation rate barely changed on Monday in a sign that a year-long crisis that has seen prices soar by 80 per cent may finally be starting to ease. The TUIK state statistics agency said that consumer prices rose by 80.2pc in August from a year earlier. The figure was fractionally higher than the 79.6pc reported in July and …

Two people were killed and 11 injured after a suicide bomber detonated explosives near the entrance of the Russian Embassy in Kabul, police said on Monday, adding that the attacker was shot dead by armed guards as he approached the gate. “The suicide attacker before reaching the target, was recognised and shot by Russian embassy [Taliban] guards … there is …

BERLIN: Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmygal on Sunday voiced hopes that Germany would become a leading player helping Kyiv to build up its air defences, as he sought more heavy weapons for Kyiv from Berlin. Shmygal is the first high-level Ukrainian official to visit Germany in months, in a sign of eased tensions between Kyiv and Berlin after a rocky …

Sri Lanka’s ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was provided on Saturday with an official residence and security by the government after he returned to the country he had fled in July during economic unrest, two senior officials said. Rajapaksa fled in the early hours of July 13 after massive protests engulfed Colombo and demonstrators enraged with the economic devastation stormed his official residence and office. …

ISLAMABAD: As relief efforts in flood-hit areas pick up pace, more countries, international agencies, charities and private corporations have pledged aid for the people who have been displaced. The Chinese government has announced providing additional flood relief items worth RMB 300 million. In a tweet, China International Development Cooperation Agency Chairman Luo Zhaohui said, “At this difficult time when Pakistan …

KYIV: Stepping up an energy war between Russia and the West, Moscow has announced it will keep its main gas pipeline to Germany shut and G7 countries said they planned a price cap on Russian oil exports. The standoff over Russian gas and oil exports is a fallout from President Vladimir Putin’s six-month invasion of Ukraine, underscoring the deep rift …

WASHINGTON: The US State Department has appr­oved a potential $1.1 billion sale of military equipment to Taiwan, including 60 anti-ship missiles and 100 air-to-air missiles, with China threatening to take counter measures. The Pentagon announced the package on Friday in the wake of China’s aggressive military drills around Taiwan following a visit to the island last month by US House …

DOHA: Qatar will permit ticketed fans to buy alcoholic beer at World Cup soccer matches starting three hours before kickoff and for one hour after the final whistle, but not during the match, a source with knowledge of plans for the tournament said. Budweiser, a major World Cup sponsor with exclusive rights to sell beer at the tournament, will serve …

UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has named former Kyrgyzstan president Roza Otunbayeva as the UN’s new special representative for Afghanistan, his office said. Otunbayeva became interim president of Kyrgyzstan in April 2010 after a bloody uprising forced then-leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev into exile. She relinquished power the following year after new elections were organised. A former parliamentarian and …