International

World powers on Sunday agreed to ban gold exports from Russia, in new concerted action to cut off Moscow’s financial lifeline as G7 leaders met in southern Germany to lock down new support for Ukraine. US President Joe Biden and his counterparts from the world’s most industrialised nations are gathering at Elmau Castle in the Bavarian Alps before they continue …

Explosions rocked a residential neighbourhood in Kyiv Sunday morning as G7 leaders gathered in Germany to discuss their backing of Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, with a crucial Nato meeting set to follow in days. The first attack on the capital in nearly three weeks was intended to “intimidate Ukrainians… at the approach of the Nato summit”, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko …

The US Supreme Court on Friday took the dramatic step of overturning the landmark 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling that recognised a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion and legalised it nationwide, handing a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who want to limit or ban the procedure. The court, in a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative majority, …

LONDON: Boris Johnson’s Conservatives lost two parliamentary seats on Friday, a new blow to Britain’s prime minister who then lost a close ally with the surprise resignation of his party’s chairman and faced renewed calls to quit. In Rwanda for a meeting of Commonwealth nations, Johnson was defiant, pledging to listen to voters’ concerns and do more to tackle a …

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said on Friday it had transferred an Afghan detainee who was held at Guantanamo Bay for 15 years, a move that comes after a court ruled the United States had no legal justification to hold him. Opened under Republican President George Bush, the Guantanamo Bay prison had its population peak at about 800 inmates. President Barack Obama, …

KYIV: Ukrainian forces prepared on Friday to retreat from the strategic city of Severodonetsk after weeks of fierce fighting, a setback that could pave the way for Russia to seize a larger swath of eastern Ukraine. The announcement came shortly after the European Union granted Ukraine candidate status in a show of support for the former Soviet republic. Russia has …

TEHRAN: Iranian police arrested several teenage girls for not wearing headscarves at a skateboarding event in the southern city of Shiraz on Friday, along with some of the event’s organisers. A number of girls “removed their hijab at the end of the sports event without observing the religious considerations and legal norms”, state news agency IRNA quoted Shiraz police chief Faraj Shojaee …

FOR many, after-work drinks are a common way of relaxing after a busy week. But one worker in Japan could be nursing a protracted hangover after he lost a USB memory stick following a night out with colleagues, according to a BBC News report. Why? It contained the personal details of nearly half a million people. The unnamed man placed the memory …

GENEVA: The United Nations said on Friday that 3.5 million children in Bangladesh urgently needed safe drinking water following this month’s devastating floods. Unicef, the UN children’s agency, said it needed $2.5 million quickly in order to fund its emergency response. Relentless downpours last week inundated vast stretches of Bangladesh’s northeast, with troops deployed to evacuate households cut off from …

GAYAN: Aid trickled to devastated villages in remote parts of Afghanistan on Friday but thousands of people remain without food, shelter and water three days after the country’s deadliest earthquake in decades. Wednesday’s 5.9-magnitude quake struck hardest in the rugged east along the border with Pakistan while people slept, killing more than 1,000 and leaving thousands homeless. Entire villages have been …