International

A senior official in Russian-annexed Crimea accused Ukraine on Sunday of carrying out a drone attack ahead of planned celebrations to mark Navy Day, injuring five and forcing the cancellation of festivities. The accusation comes hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to oversee Navy Day celebrations in his hometown of St Petersburg and approve Russia’s naval doctrine as …

KYIV: Ukrainian officials on Saturday denounced a call by Russia’s embassy in Britain for fighters from the Azov regiment to face a “humiliating” execution. The Russian tweet came as Moscow and Kyiv traded blame over a strike on a jail holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian-controlled territory that killed around 50 people, reportedly including members of the Azov regiment. …

Sri Lanka’s new president Ranil Wickremesinghe has formally invited MPs to join an all-party unity government to revive the bankrupt economy by undertaking painful reforms, his office said on Sunday. Wickremesinghe took office earlier this month after public anger over the island nation’s worst economic crisis forced his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and quit. In a meeting on Saturday with …

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi starts a tour of four Asian countries on Sunday, her office said, without mentioning Taiwan amid intense speculation she might visit the self-ruled island claimed by China. “Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a Congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific region, including visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan,” her office said in a …

DUBAI: Dubai’s red-hot property market surged in the first half of the year as investors piled in, with Russians among the top five buyers as the emirate benefits from an influx of wealth in the wake of Western sanctions. The first half saw residential real estate transaction volumes up 60 per cent with an 85pc rise in the value of …

GENEVA: Israel on Friday accused members of a UN commission investigating abuses in Israel and the Palestinian territories of making and defending anti-Semitic comments, demanding they resign and disband the commission. “It is time to disband this commission,” Israel’s ambassador in Geneva, Meirav Eilon Shahar, wrote in a letter to the president of the UN Human Rights Council that was …

SAN FRANCISCO: Instagram will pause features that users have campaigned against and complained make the social network too much like TikTok, according to a report in the Platformer tech newsletter. Celebrity sisters Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner were some of the most vocal users to have posted messages on social media this week calling for the company to “make Instagram Instagram again” …

WASHINGTON: The head of Pakistan’s military has reached out to Washington to request help in securing an early disbursement of funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), media reports and officials said on Friday. In a dispatch from New York, Nikkei Asia reported that “dwindling foreign reserves” have sparked “a scramble in Islamabad to avoid a default.” Gen Bajwa’s phone call to US …

KYIV: Russia has accused Kyiv forces of striking a jail in Olenivka in the separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine, where Russian defence ministry said 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and 75 wounded. Russia said the jail in Donetsk had been targeted overnight with US-made HIMARS rocket systems. The Russian army on Friday accused Kyiv forces of striking a jail holding …

DUBAI: At least seven people have been killed in the United Arab Emirates after unseasonable downpours triggered flash flooding in eastern districts of the normally parched Gulf state, authorities said. “We regret to announce that six people of Asian nationalities have been found dead as a result of the floods,” the interior ministry’s chief of central operations, Ali al-Tunaiji, said. …