International

TOKYO: Asteroid dust collected by a Japanese space probe contains organic material that shows some of the building blocks of life on Earth may have been formed in space, scientists said on Friday. Pristine material from the asteroid Ryugu was brought back to Earth in 2020 after a six-year mission to the celestial body around 300 million kilometres away. But …

LOS ANGELES: The United States unveiled on Friday a long list of measures to confront the migration crisis as President Joe Biden and fellow leaders prepared to issue a joint declaration thrashed out at a fractious Summit of the Americas. The White House touted a series of actions agreed by countries across the hemisphere and Spain, including programmes to take …

ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of problems being faced by Afghan citizens and plug in loopholes of illegal immigration, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has approved a new visa policy for Afghan nationals going abroad via Pakistan. Talking to Dawn, the head of PM’s Strategic Reforms Initiatives, Salman Sufi said that under the new policy a transit visa of 30 days would be issued …

SINGAPORE: Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned a security summit on Friday that “Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow”. Officials in the United States have been saying since Russia’s action against Ukraine that they believe China is closely monitoring how the invasion progresses to assess its own plans when it comes to Taiwan. Kishida told the Shangri-La Dialogue security …

DAMASCUS: All flights to and from Syria’s capital were halted on Friday, the government said, after Israeli air strikes wounded one civilian and damaged an airport runway. Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbour, targeting government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and fighters from Lebanon’s …

Beijing’s recent outbreak of Covid-19 that has been linked to bars in the capital is “explosive” in nature, widespread in scope and complex, a Beijing government spokesman said in a briefing on Saturday. The capital has reported 46 new local Covid cases on Saturday as of 3pm local time, health official Liu Xiaofeng said at the same briefing. Of a …

WASHINGTON: The US announced on Friday that Covid-19 tests would no longer be required for international travellers arriving by air, a major step in the country’s gradual lifting of pandemic restrictions. White House Assistant Press Secretary Kevin Munoz confirmed the news on Twitter, with US media saying the measure would end this weekend after strong lobbying from the travel industry. …

Indian police shot dead two protesters and arrested more than 130 others during street rallies sparked by a ruling party official’s remarks about Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), authorities told AFP on Saturday. There have been widespread protests in the Muslim world since last week, when Nupur Sharma, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party party made offensive remarks about the …

SINGAPORE: Beijing will “not hesitate to start a war” if Taiwan declares independence, China’s defence minister warned his US counterpart on Friday, the latest salvo between the superpowers over the island. The warning from Wei Fenghe came as he held his first face-to-face meeting with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in …

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has urged the UN General Assembly not to be silent on the offensive remarks made by BJP officials in India last week, warning that silence on such issues could be mistaken for complicity. Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari called UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid on Friday and apprised him of the derogatory remarks made by two senior …