International

SEOUL: South Korea and the United States fired eight ballistic missiles on Monday in response to North Korean weapons tests the previous day, Seoul’s military said. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the allies launched the ground-to-ground Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) at targets in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, in the early morning. The …

TUNIS: Tunisian judges launched a week-long strike on Monday in protest at President Kais Saied’s “interference” in the judiciary, days after he sacked 57 of their colleagues. Saied — who suspended parliament in a power grab last July — issued a new decree last week extending his control over the judiciary, his latest move against the only democratic system to …

NEW DELHI: Russia’s Sberbank has yet to process the first payment from Indian Potash Ltd (IPL) under a deal set up before the Ukraine war to enable IPL to pay for Belarusian potash using rupees rather than dollars, according to a letter seen by Reuters and two sources familiar with the issue. The faltering pre-war payment deal bodes ill for …

DOHA: Qatar plans to re-install a sculpture immortalising French-Algerian soccer player Zinedine Zidane’s head butt during the 2006 World Cup final, which had been removed in 2013 amid a domestic backlash, the head of Qatar Museums said on Monday. The 5-metre bronze work called Coup de Tete was removed days after its unveiling after people in the conservative Muslim country …

PARIS: Negotiators from almost 200 countries met in Germany on Monday for climate talks tasked with reigniting momentum on tackling global warming, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine overshadows the threat from rising emissions. The conference will set the stage for a fresh round of major United Nations talks later this year in Egypt. It will also be a chance to …

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, in her maiden visit to Pakistan on Tuesday, called on the international community to “give a loud and clear message” to the Afghan Taliban that they were “heading in the wrong direction”. At a media conference in Islamabad alongside her Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the German diplomat warned of the humanitarian crisis brewing in …

BANGKOK: Fifty-nine Rohingya people have been discovered on a Thai island, saying they were abandoned by traffickers en route to Malaysia, a senior police officer said on Sunday. The group — among them five children — were found on Koh Dong island in the southern Satun province on Saturday, said lieutenant general Surachet Hakpan. Each year, thousands of the mostly …

BEIRUT: The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces would coordinate with Syrian government troops to fend off any Turkish invasion of the north, the SDF commander said on Sunday, adding Damascus should use its air defence systems against Turkish planes. Ankara has vowed a new offensive on swathes of northern Syria controlled by the SDF, a Kurdish-led alliance that is spearheaded by …

BEIRUT: Lebanon war­ned Israel on Sunday against any “aggressive action” in disputed waters where both states hope to develop offshore energy, after a ship arrived off the coast to produce gas for Israel. President Michel Aoun said any activity in the disputed area would amount to an act of aggression and a provocation, after the arrival of the natural gas …

WASHINGTON: Mass shootings in Philadelphia and Chattanooga, Tennessee, left at least six people dead and over 25 others wounded, police said on Sunday in the latest cases of gun violence after recent massacres in Texas, New York and Oklahoma. Multiple shooters opened fire in Philadelphia’s busy South Street, an area with many bars and restaurants, around midnight on Saturday. Two …