International

ISTANBUL: At least 32 people were killed and dozens were injured in two separate road accidents in Turkiye on Saturday, each in places where collisions took place earlier in the day, local media reported. A first crash involving a bus and an ambulance killed 16 people and injured 21 more on a motorway in Gaziantep province, while at least 16 …

ISTANBUL/MOSCOW: Russian fertilisers and agricultural products must be able reach world markets “unimpeded” or a global food crisis could strike as early as next year, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday. “It is important that all governments and the private sector cooperate to bring them to market,” he said from the Joint Coordination Center (JCC). The JCC oversees …

Floods and landslides triggered by intense monsoon rains killed at least 50 people in northern and eastern India over the last three days, officials said on Sunday. The rains overwhelmed hundreds of villages, sweeping away houses and leaving residents stranded as rescue crews have been racing to evacuate survivors. Earlier this month, the federal weather office had predicted that India …

The daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue who advocates Russia absorbing Ukraine was killed in a suspected car bomb attack outside Moscow on Saturday evening, Russian state investigators said on Sunday. Darya Dugina, daughter of prominent ideologue Alexander Dugin, was killed after a suspected explosive device detonated on the Toyota Land Cruiser she was travelling in, investigators from the Moscow …

Pakistan on Sunday firmly rejected the “recent spate of false terrorism-related assertions” by India, stating that some “detached” purported incidents were being presented as a “so-called terror plot”. In a statement, Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad referred to recent incidents reported by the Indian media. “In order to build on this orchestrated ‘terrorism’ narrative against Pakistan, a section of …

WASHINGTON: The US support for Pakistan’s economic growth and the assurance that the United States “stands by Pakistan in hard times” are the two key points that both sides highlighted in this week’s public statements on bilateral relations. In return, Pakistan indicated that it would support US moves in the United Nations aimed at diplomatically isolating Russia for invading Ukraine. …

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s deposed former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is seeking to return home from his exile in Thailand and has asked his successor to guarantee his safety, his party said on Friday. Rajapaksa fled the island last month after a huge crowd stormed his house, capping months of white-hot public anger over the island nation’s unprecedented economic crisis. The 73-year-old …

DUSHANBE: A $1.2 billion Western-backed project to build a power line between Central Asia and South Asia has been stalled by turmoil in Afghanistan, a project official said on Friday. The CASA-1000 project aims to allow Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, former Soviet republics with an extensive network of hydroelectric power plants, to sell excess energy to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the …

LONDON: Public transport workers in London held fresh strikes on Friday over pay and conditions, cutting services on almost all underground and overground rail lines that link up the UK capital. The latest walkout comes during a summer of industrial action across Britain, with workers in various sectors pushing for pay rises in line with decades-high inflation and the soaring …

WASHINGTON: The US Defence Department announced on Friday a $775 million package of defence equipment and ammunition for Ukraine, including various types of missiles, artillery and mine-clearing systems. The package includes more precision-guided missiles for the Himars systems that have permitted Ukrainian forces to strike Russian command centres and munitions depots far behind the front lines, and more anti-armour weapons, …