International

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. …

COLOMBO: The World Bank on Friday said it would not offer new funding to Sri Lanka unless the bankrupt island nation carried out “deep structural reforms” to stabilise its crashing economy. Sri Lanka has suffered an unprecedented downturn with its 22 million people enduring months of food and fuel shortages, rolling blackouts and rampant inflation. The South Asian nation defaulted …

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has identified Pakistan as one of the partners the United States has been working with to persuade the Taliban to let girls go back to school. On Thursday, Secretary Blinken launched the US-Af­ghan Consultative Mecha­nism (USACM), which would enable Afghan citizens to communicate directly with American policymakers. Addressing the launching ceremony, the top …

Thousands of supporters of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr stormed Baghdad’s fortified government zone on Saturday for the second time in a week, escalating a political stand-off that is hitting ordinary Iraqis hardest. Protesters rallied by Sadr and his social-political Sadrist Movement tore down concrete barriers and entered the Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign missions, heading for Iraq’s …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani and Ind­ian foreign ministers on Friday toge­ther attended the Shanghai Coopera­tion Org­anisation’s (SCO) Council of For­eign Ministers’ meeting and events on its margins, but avoided handshakes. The SCO meeting was the first multilateral event where Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and S. Jaishankar came together since the former became the foreign minister after the change of government in Pakistan in April. …

DHAKA: Bangladesh has launched a corruption probe into Nobel peace laureate and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus over accusations of embezzlement at a telecoms firm he chairs, the country’s graft watchdog said on Thursday. Yunus, 82, has been feted internationally for his efforts to eradicate poverty but his reputation at home has been tarnished by a labour dispute and a long-running …

BEIJING: Asia’s wealthiest woman lost more than half her fortune over the past year as China’s real estate sector was rocked by a cash crunch, a billionaire index showed on Thursday. Yang Huiyan, a majority shareholder in Chinese property giant Country Garden, saw her net worth plunge by more than 52 percent to $11.3 billion from $23.7 billion a year …

SAINTE BEAUPRE: Participants at Pope Francis’ Mass in Canada on Thursday unfurled a banner asking him to formally rescind edicts from the 15th century in which the papacy justified taking indigenous land. The large banner protesting the doctrine of discovery was unfurled near the front row facing the congregation as the pope was starting Mass in a cathedral outside Quebec …

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country was “ready to mobilise” its nuclear deterrent in any future military clash with the United States and South Korea, state media said on Thursday. Washington and Seoul have repeatedly warned that Pyongyang is preparing to carry out its seventh nuclear test — a move that the United States has warned …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China on Thursday emphasised the need for stability in Afghanistan as Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari met his counterpart in the Taliban administration, Amir Khan Muttaqi, for the first time. “The two sides agreed that peace and stability in Afghanistan was vital for regional development and prosperity,” Foreign Office said in a statement on the meeting between FM …