International

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday vowed to add new momentum to ties with China and promised better security for Chinese living in Pakistan. In a virtual meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the Foreign Office said, Mr Bhutto-Zardari “underscored his determination to inject fresh momentum in the bilateral strategic cooperative partnership and add new avenues to practical …

PESHAWAR: The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has extended a ceasefire with the government of Pakistan in order to hold peace talks, AFP quoted two sources in the militant group as saying on Wednesday. Since the Afghan Taliban surged back to power last year, TTP attacks on Pakistan soil saw an uptick. Sources said that a TTP ceasefire, agreed for the …

MIAMI: A passenger without flying experience landed a small plane at a Florida airport after the pilot was rendered “incoherent” by a medical emergency, US media reported on Wednesday. The unwitting pilot, the only passenger on the single-engine Cessna 208, relied on air traffic control to guide his landing at Palm Beach Inter­national Airport, some 68 miles (110 kilometres) north …

PARIS: All heatwaves today bear the unmistakable and measurable fingerprint of global warming, top experts on quantifying the impact of climate change on extreme weather said on Wednesday. Burning fossil fuels and destroying forests have released enough greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to also boost the frequency and intensity of many floods, droughts, wildfires and tropical storms, they detailed in …

WASHINGTON: Democrats in the US Senate were due to lead a vote on Wednesday to codify the right to abortion into federal law in a bid to pin down Republicans on the deeply divisive issue ahead of crucial midterm elections, even though they expect the measure to fail. The move comes amid a political firestorm ignited by a leaked draft …

BERLIN: EU-wide guidance on requiring masks for air travel will be lifted from next week, the bloc’s aviation safety agency said on Wednesday, as the pandemic eases in Europe. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said that under the new guidelines developed with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), masks were no longer considered essential for …

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa pledged on Wednesday to give up most of his executive powers but stopped short of yielding to demands for his resignation over the country’s economic crisis. The 72-year-old, in his first address to the nation since the start of a month-long protest campaign calling on him to quit, said he will announce a …

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday voiced support for South Korea’s new president’s outreach to North Korea and reiterated that it was ready to talk to Pyongyang on rising tensions. President Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative expected to take a harder line on the North, in his inaugural address on Tuesday called on his neighbor’s leaders to give up nuclear weapons …

WASHINGTON: Pakistan and the United States completed their security level talks in Washington on Wednesday, days before a scheduled meeting between their foreign policy chiefs is scheduled to be held in New York. Inter-Services Intellig­e­n­­ce Director-General (DG ISI) Lt-Gen Nadeem Anjum spent three days in Washington this week, meeting senior security officials, including US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and …

An Indian couple are taking their son to court demanding that he and his wife produce either a grandchild within a year or cough up almost $650,000. Sanjeev and Sadhana Prasad say that they exhausted their savings raising and educating their pilot son and paying for a lavish wedding. Now they want payback. “My son has been married for six …