International

TOKYO: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Monday for international inspectors to be given access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after Ukraine and Russia traded accusations over the shelling of Europe’s largest atomic plant at the weekend. “Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing,” Guterres told a news conference in Japan, where he attended the Hiroshima Peace Memorial …

NEW DELHI: India is seeking to restrict Chinese companies from its sub-$150 phone market in a bid to revive the prospects of domestic players, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing unidentified sources. The move would be a blow to Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, according to the report. The plans coincide with rising concerns in India about Chinese brands undercutting local smartphone makers, …

MOSCOW: Russia told the United States on Monday it would not allow its weapons to be inspected under the START nuclear arms control treaty for the time being because of travel restrictions imposed by Washington and its allies. Inspection conditions proposed by Washington created “unilateral advantages for the United States and effectively deprive the Russian Federation of the right to …

VIENNA: The European Union submitted a “final text” at talks to salvage a 2015 deal aimed at reining in Iran’s nuclear ambitions and Tehran said on Monday it was reviewing the proposals. Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran and Russia, as well as the United States indirectly, resumed talks on Thursday in Vienna, months after they had stalled. The European Union has submitted …

Muneeb Ur Rehman Ahmad, 38, was working on an assignment from the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya to oversee boys between seven to 15 years of age at Bait-ul-Ikram Mosque, Dallas. By: Raja Zahid A Khanzada TEXAS: Muneeb-Ur-Rehman, a former leader of Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya in Texas, America, has been sent to prison for six and a half years on a string of child sexual-abuse offences …

SOWETO: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicked off a three-nation African trip on Sunday paying tribute to the Soweto Uprising, a student protest whose tragic ending galvanised the world against the apartheid regime. His visit comes as Washington scales up diplomacy to counter Russian influence on the continent and follows hot on the heels of an extensive tour of …

US President Joe Biden has said that he is “angered and saddened” by the “horrific” killings of four Muslim men in the New Mexico city of Albuquerque, adding that “these hateful attacks have no place in America”. “While we await a full investigation, my prayers are with the victims’ families, and my administration stands strongly with the Muslim community,” he …

BEIJING: Over 80,000 tourists are stranded in a resort city popularly known as “China’s Hawaii” after a Covid flare-up led authorities to impose strict travel restrictions. Tourism hotspot Sanya is a city of more than a million people on the southern island of Hainan, where 483 Covid cases were reported on Sunday. All flights out of the city were cancelled …

Israel and Palestinian fighters have agreed to a truce in Gaza from Sunday evening as mediated by Cairo, sources said, after a weekend-long pounding of Palestinian targets by Israel triggered longer-range rocket attacks against its cities. An Egyptian security source said Israel had agreed to the proposal, while a Palestinian official familiar with Egyptian efforts said the ceasefire would go …

ISLAMABAD: The Fore­ign Office on Sunday categorically rejected the ludicrous comments and fallacious claims made by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) regarding a statement of the Organi­sation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In a statement distributed in the UN headquarters on Friday, the OIC reiterated its earlier calls for implementing UNSC resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, which recognise the …