International

SHANGHAI: Shanghai will launch a phased lockdown to curb an Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 outbreak that has hit China with its highest caseloads since the early days of the pandemic, the city government said on Sunday. China’s biggest city will lock down its eastern half from Monday until Friday, officials said, followed by a similar lockdown of its western side beginning on …

MADRID: Thousands of people marched though Madrid on Sunday to protest against abortion, as Spain’s leftist government prepares a law to guarantee access to the procedure at public hospitals. Carrying signs that read “Abortion is not right” and chanting “More respect for life”, demonstrators walked through the centre of the Spanish capital to Cibeles square in central Madrid where a …

LAHORE: Afghanistan has collected 10,700 tonnes of wheat from India so far, using Pakistan’s territory through Lahore’s Wagah border. The remaining 39,300 tonnes are likely to be collected by Afghanistan under humanitarian assistance by the end of next month, according to official sources. “Five convoys of Afghan trucks collected wheat consignments at Attari from Indian authorities and returned to Afghanistan …

KYIV: France’s President Emma­nuel Macron warned on Sunday against a verbal “escalation” of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, after US President Joe Biden branded Vladimir Putin a “butcher” who “cannot remain in power”. The Kremlin had reacted in fury over Biden’s comments which it said narrows the window for bilateral relations, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine now into a second month. …

KYIV: Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are to sit down for a fresh round of talks next week in an attempt to end the war in Ukraine that the UN estimates has killed at least 1,100 civilians and sent more than 3.8 million fleeing to other countries. Kyiv said the negotiations would start on Monday in Turkey, while Russia’s lead negotiator …

KABUL: Women’s rights activists pledged on Sunday to launch a wave of protests across Afghanistan if the Taliban fail to reopen girls’ secondary schools within a week. Thousands of secondary school girls had flocked to classes on Wednesday after the hardline Islamists reopened their institutions for the first time since seizing power last August. But officials ordered the schools shut again just …

Millions of workers began a nationwide two-day strike across India on Monday to express their anger at the government’s economic policies and to back demands for improved rights for industrial workers, employees and farmers. About a dozen of the country’s labour unions that have organised the strike want the government to provide universal social security cover for workers in the …

The US expects the Taliban to reverse its decision to keep girls out of Afghan schools “in coming days”, US special envoy Thomas West said on Saturday. The US called off talks with the Taliban administration on the sidelines of the Doha Forum in response to the ban announced on Wednesday. West, who led talks with the Taliban, told the …

A Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen unleashed a barrage of airstrikes on the capital and a strategic Red Sea city, officials said on Saturday. At least eight people were killed. The overnight airstrikes on Sanaa and Hodeida both held by the Houthis came a day after the rebels attacked an oil depot in the Saudi city of Jeddah, their …

KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers refused to allow dozens of women to board several flights, including some overseas, because they were traveling without a male guardian, two Afghan airline officials said on Saturday, whereas dozens of girls demonstrated in the Afghan capital demanding the right to go to school. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions …