International

SAADA: More than 100 people were killed or wounded in an air strike on a prison and at least three children died in a separate bombardment as Yemen’s long-running conflict suffered a dramatic escalation of violence on Friday. The Houthi rebels released gruesome video footage showing bodies in the rubble and mangled corpses from the prison attack, which levelled buildings …

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 jolted southwestern Japan early on Saturday morning, injuring 13 people, the authorities and local media said. No tsunami warning was issued after the quake struck with an epicentre 45 kilometres deep at 1:08am off the coast of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. The quake …

The Taliban’s first official talks with the West on European soil since seizing power in Afghanistan will help to “transform the atmosphere of war” after a two-decade insurgency against North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces, the group’s top spokesperson told AFP on Saturday. The group stormed back to power in August as US and foreign troops began their final withdrawal from the country following a …

LONDON: British police said on Thursday they have arrested two people in connection with a hostage-taking at a synagogue in Texas. Counter Terrorism Police North West said one man was arrested on Thursday in Birmingham, central England, and another in the northern English city of Manchester. They are being held for questioning and have not yet been charged. The force said it …

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he withdrew his troops from Afghanistan because it’s not possible to unify the war-torn country under one single government. At a White House news conference, Mr Biden also said that the United States was “spending a billion dollars a week in Afghanistan for 20 years” and could not afford to do …

MUNICH: Former pope Benedict XVI knowingly failed to take action to stop four priests accused of child sex abuse in Munich in the 1980s, according to a damning independent report published on Thursday that risks shattering the ex-pontiff’s reputation. Benedict — who was the archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982 — has “strictly” denied any responsibility, said …

BERLIN: The United States and its allies on Thursday warned Moscow of grave consequences if “any” of the tens of thousands of troops massed on the border were to cross the border into Ukraine. Following talks with Germany, France and Britain, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken underlined that Russia “cannot match” Western power’s resoluteness. In a show of that …

BERLIN: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and European allies insisted it was still possible to revive the Iran nuclear deal but said “time is running out”, after talks in Berlin on Thursday. Blinken told reporters that negotiators working in Vienna to salvage the 2015 accord with Tehran had seen “modest progress in the last couple weeks” but were taking …

LONDON: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday dismissed new allegations that his aides had tried to “blackmail” and threaten Conservative rebels, in a potentially criminal twist to Downing Street’s “partygate” scandal. Senior Tory William Wragg disclosed the alleged intimidation campaign as Downing Street battles to shore up Johnson against calls from within the party for his resignation. “The intimidation …

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has urged the United Nations to brace itself for the revival of major-powers rivalry, new and old conflicts and a new arms race. Pakistan underlined these issues at the UN General Ass­e­mbly’s (UNGA) first meeting of the new year where the assembly’s president Abdulla Shahid briefed delegates on his priorities for the resumed part of the 76th …