International

BALI: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Bali on Thursday to discuss Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine ahead of a G20 ministerial meeting overshadowed by the war. The pair were pictured holding a bilateral meeting on the Indonesian resort island as the world’s top economies gather to discuss the most pressing global issues on Friday, with …

Huge crowds of pilgrims started praying on Saudi Arabia’s Mount Arafat early on Friday, the high point of the biggest Haj pilgrimage since the pandemic forced drastic cuts in numbers for two years in a row. The worshippers, capped at one million including 850,000 from abroad chosen by lottery, spent the night at camps in the valley of Mina, seven kilometres from …

As many as a dozen candidates were on Friday eyeing up replacing Boris Johnson as British prime minister who is quitting after his Conservative Party turned on him, as opponents said they wanted him out of Downing Street immediately. Johnson said on Thursday that he would step down as Conservative leader and British premier following resignations by more than 50 government ministers, and many …

Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe, the country’s longest-serving leader, was pronounced dead on Friday afternoon, the hospital treating him confirmed, after he was shot at a campaign event. “Shinzo Abe was transported to (the hospital) at 12:20pm. He was in a state of cardiac arrest upon arrival. Resuscitation was administered. However, unfortunately he died at 5:03pm,” said Hidetada Fukushima, …

More than 900 firefighters backed by aircraft were deployed on Friday to battle a massive blaze in France’s southern Gard region that burned 600 hectares (1,500 acres) overnight. “This fire is far from being done, there are fronts in hard-to-reach areas that we haven’t tackled and that are advancing freely,” said Eric Agrinier, a senior member of the fire service. …

India’s aviation regulator has issued a warning notice to airline SpiceJet after a review of recent incidents — including an aircraft’s emergency landing at Karachi airport — showed “poor internal safety oversight and inadequate maintenance actions” by the airline. The airliner carrying 132 passengers and 12 crew members from Delhi had on Tuesday made an unexpected landing at Jinnah International Airport Karachi …

SAN FRANCISCO: Leaders of the US Senate Intelli­gence Committee on Tuesday called for a probe into whether Chinese officials are getting access to data about US users of video-snippet sharing sensation TikTok. In a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairwoman Lina Khan, the senators urged her to scrutinise how well TikTok safeguards private data. “We write in response to …

SHANGHAI: A hacker has claimed to have procured a trove of personal information from the Shanghai police on one billion Chin­ese citizens, which tech experts say, if true, would be one of the biggest data breaches in history. The anonymous internet user, identified as “ChinaDan”, posted on hacker forum Breach Forums last week offering to sell the more than 23 …

BRUSSELS: The Euro­pean Parliament on Wednesday backed EU rules labelling investments in gas and nuclear power plants as climate-friendly, throwing out an attempt to block the law that has exposed deep rifts between countries over how to fight climate change. The vote paves the way for the European Union proposal to pass into law, unless 20 of the bloc’s 27 …

SLOVIANSK: The evacuation of civilians from Sloviansk continued on Wednesday as Russian troops pressed towards the eastern Ukrainian city in their campaign to control the Donbas region, as Ireland’s prime minister visited Kyiv. Sloviansk has been subjected to heavy bombardment in recent days as the invading Russian forces push westwards. “Twenty years of work; everything is lost. No more income, …