International

MUMBAI: Indian former media executive Indrani Mukerjea walked out of a Mumbai jail on bail on Friday, nearly seven years after being arrested for allegedly murdering her daughter. The sensational case, centred on Indrani and then-husband Peter Mukerjea — a former chief executive of then-Fox-owned broadcaster Star India — received breathless news coverage following their arrests. Indrani is accused along with her …

LONDON: British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak became on Friday the first high-profile British politician to make the Sunday Times Rich List, weeks after his family’s tax arrangements attracted controversy and amid a cost-of-living crisis. Sunak and his Indian wife Akshata Murty, whose father co-founded the IT behemoth Infosys, made the annual list for the first time with their joint 730 million ($911 …

RIYADH: An unlikely royal joined a Saudi delegation to the UAE this week, and readers of the kingdom’s political landscape are viewing the move as a message of family unity from its de facto ruler after fractious years spent building his power base. Prince Abdulaziz bin Ahmed is the eldest son of Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, the detained brother of …

KYIV: Ukraine on Friday ordered its last troops holed up in Mariupol’s besieged Azovstal steelworks to lay down their arms after nearly three months of desperate resistance against a ferocious Russian assault. Russia’s flattening of the strategic port city has drawn multiple accusations of war crimes, including a deadly attack on a maternity ward, and Ukraine has begun a reckoning …

PYEONGTAEK: US President Joe Biden arrived in South Korea on Friday, his first Asia trip as US leader, aiming to cement ties with regional security allies despite growing fears of a North Korean nuclear test. Biden wants the trip to boost a years-long US pivot to Asia, where rising Chinese commercial and military power is undercutting Washington’s dominance. He received …

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is scheduled to arrive in China on Saturday (today) on a two-day visit on the invitation of State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. According to an official statement of the Foreign Office, the minister of state for foreign affairs and senior officials would be part of the foreign minister’s delegation. During the visit, the …

ISLAMABAD: Four key climate change indicators — greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification — set new records in 2021, according to the ‘State of the Global Climate’ report. This is yet another clear sign that human activities are causing planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean, and in the atmosphere, with harmful and long-lasting …

BAGHDAD: An embarrassing slip of the tongue by former US president George W. Bush may have drawn laughter from his American audience, but it raised the ire of Iraqis. In a speech on Wednesday evening in Dallas about Russia’s war on Ukraine, Bush called the invasion of Iraq, which he himself ordered, “unjustified and brutal”— before quickly correcting himself. The …

SEOUL: North Korea is poised to conduct a nuclear test, Seoul said on Thursday, as the United States warned it could come as President Joe Biden visits South Korea this week. The visits to Seoul, followed by Tokyo, are being touted as proof that Washington is seeking to cement its years-long pivot to Asia, where rising Chinese commercial and military …

KABUL/GENEVA: Former Afghan warlords and exiled politicians announced the creation of a High Council of National Resistance against the Taliban on Thursday, calling on the Islamists to form a more inclusive government or risk civil war. Since the Taliban surged back to power on the heels of a hasty withdrawal of US troops last year, there have been only limited …