International

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden’s symptoms from Covid have improved, his doctor said on Friday, one day after he tested positive for the virus as a highly contagious sub-variant drove a new wave of cases in the United States. A letter released from the White House physician, Kevin O’Connor, said the President ran a slight temperature of 37.4 C on …

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan security forces demolished the main anti-government protest camp in the capital on Friday, evicting activists in a pre-dawn assault that raised international concern for dissent under the crisis-wracked country’s new pro-Western president. Troops and police Special Task Force commandos wielding batons and armed with automatic assault rifles charged on people blockading the sea-front Presid­ential Secretariat in Colombo. …

COPENHAGEN: The World Health Organisation’s European office said on Friday the heatwave baking Europe has caused over 1,700 deaths on the Iberian peninsula alone, calling for joint action to tackle climate change. “Heat kills. Over the past decades, hundreds of thousands of people have died as a result of extreme heat during extended heatwaves, often with simultaneous wildfires,” WHO regional …

TEHRAN: Iran and Saudi Arabia are ready to move reconciliation talks to a higher level, more than a year after they began and six years after the two rivals severed relations, Iran’s foreign minister said on Thursday. Since April last year Iraq has hosted five rounds of talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which support opposing sides in various conflicts …

Flooding in southern Iran has killed at least 17 people and left six others missing following heavy rainfall in the largely arid country, state media reported on Saturday. “Around 5pm yesterday, heavy rains in the towns of Ij and Roodbal in the central parts of Estehban County led to flooding,” Yousef Kargar, governor of the county in Fars province, was …

Lawmakers chose India’s first president from the country’s tribal communities on Thursday, which could boost the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party among marginalised groups ahead of the 2024 general election. Droupadi Murmu, a 64-year-old teacher turned politician, will be the second woman to hold the largely ceremonial role as head of the republic when she takes office on …

WASHINGTON: “It’s pai­n­ful to walk away from someone you once loved. But it is even more painful to love someone who is careless with your heart,” 29-year-old Pakistani-Ame­rican Sania Khan wrote in one of her last social media posts. Earlier this week, her estranged husband Raheel Ahmed, 36, arrived at her home in a Chicago suburb, shot her dead and …

WASHINGTON: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi told US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Thursday that Pakistan views the United States as an ‘important partner in its efforts to revive” the country’s ailing economy. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Deputy Secretary Sherman noted the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and Pakistan …

ASPEN: Russia’s military is likely to start an operational pause of some kind in Ukraine in the coming weeks, giving Kyiv a key opportunity to strike back, Britain’s spy chief said on Thursday. Richard Moore, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) known as MI6, also estimated that about 15,000 Russian troops had been killed so far in its war …

NEW DELHI: Indian investigators on Thursday summoned Sonia Gandhi, president of the opposition Congress party, for questioning on money laundering accusations that her allies have blamed on an abuse of government power. The 75-year-old has been a driving influence in her once-dominant party since the 1991 assassination of her husband, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and heir to a political …