International

HASAKEH: US-backed Kurdish forces on Sunday said they had defeated all fighters of the militant Islamic State group left inside the Syrian jail that the jihadists stormed 10 days ago sparking battles that left over 330 dead. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the end of its mopping-up campaign inside the prison “after ending the last pockets in which …

KHARTOUM: Sudanese security forces killed a protester on Sunday as they cracked down on thousands marching for civilian rule, medics said, taking the number killed since last year’s military coup to at least 79. More than three months after the October 25 takeover led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in the troubled northeast African country, defiant mass rallies demanding a …

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan and Iran have shown unforgettable generosity in hosting millions of Afghans, says UN Secretary General António Guterres while reminding the rest of the world to come forward and help Afghanistan. “I will never forget the generosity of countries like Pakistan and Iran, which — for decades — have hosted millions of Afghans in need,” the UN chief …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan have decided to establish a national-level coordination mechanism for enhancing facilitation at border crossing points. The two sides have also pledged to initiate barter trade for which modalities will be worked out soon. The official announcements were made on Sunday when National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf concluded his two-day visit to Kabul where he met …

UNITED NATIONS: UN experts said in a new report that nearly 2,000 children recruited by Yemen’s Houthi rebels died on the battlefield between January 2020 and May 2021, and the Iranian-backed rebels continue to hold camps and courses encouraging youngsters to fight. In the report to the UN Security Council circulated, the experts said they investigated some summer camps in …

DUBAI: Israel’s figurehead president met the powerful crown prince of Abu Dhabi on Sunday on the first official visit to the United Arab Emirates by the country’s head of state, the latest sign of deepening ties between the two nations as tensions rise in the region. The UAE and Israel normalised relations in the fall of 2020, part of a series of …

The United Arab Emirates said on Monday it had intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi movement as the UAE hosted Israel’s President Isaac Herzog in a first such visit. Washington condemned the assault, the third on US-allied UAE within the last two weeks, including a deadly strike on the capital Abu Dhabi on Jan 17, in an escalation of the …

Afghanistan’s public universities, closed since the Taliban seized power in August, will reopen in February, the Taliban acting higher education minister said on Sunday, without specifying whether female students would be able to return. Universities in warmer provinces will reopen from Feb 2, while those in colder areas would reopen on Feb 26, the minister, Shaikh Abdul Baqi Haqqani, told a news …

A United Nations report seen Sunday says the Taliban and its allies allegedly killed more than 100 former Afghan government members, security personnel and people who worked with international forces. The report, an advance copy of which was seen by AFP, describes severe curtailing of human rights by Afghanistan’s new fundamentalist rulers. In addition to the political killings, women’s rights and …

OTTAWA: Trucks rolled into Canada’s capital Ottawa on Saturday to stage what police say will be a massive protest against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Covid-19 vaccine mandates in front of parliament on a frigid winter day. The so-called “Freedom Convoy” — coming from east and west — started out as a rally against a vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers, but …