International

The Golden Globe Awards, Hollywood’s so-called biggest party that regularly drew 18 million television viewers, was reduced to a live-blog Sunday night for its 79th edition. The embattled Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) proceeded with its film awards Sunday night without a telecast, nominees, a red carpet, a host, press or even a livestream. Instead, members of the HFPA and …

WASHINGTON: Funding by the United States and other nations and the Taliban regime’s relations with Pakistan will shape Afghanistan’s future, say two recent reports by a US federal institution. In these reports, the Washington-based US Institute of Peace (USIP) reminds the United States and its allies that humanitarian aid alone cannot prevent an economic collapse in Afghanistan. USIP released the …

BRASILIA: At least seven people died and nine were seriously injured when a wall of rock collapsed on top of motor boats below a waterfall in southeastern Brazil on Saturday, the fire department said. A tower of rocks suddenly broke away from the canyon wall and came crashing down on several leisure boats, sending out a huge wave over the …

ALMATY: Kazakhstan’s former intelligence chief has been arrested on suspicion of treason, the state security agency said on Saturday, as the former Soviet republic cracks down on a wave of unrest and starts to assign blame. The detention of Karim Massimov was announced by the National Security Committee which he headed until he was fired by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on …

KANO: Gunmen known in northwest Nigeria as “bandits” killed at least 140 people in multiple raids this week, four residents told AFP on Saturday, but there was no official confirmation. Clashes between herders and farmers over access to land has plagued northwest and central Nigeria for years, with some groups evolving into criminal gangs who now terrorise local communities. “We …

PARIS: Egyptian-Palestinian activist Ramy Shaath arrived in France on Saturday following almost two-and-a-half years of detention in Egypt, after his family said he had to renounce his Egyptian nationality. The 48-year-old was a figure of the 2011 uprising in Egypt and the coordinator of the Egyptian chapter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. A correspondent saw the …

TIRANA: Albanian police intervened on Saturday to move away protesters who broke into the headquarters of the country’s main opposition party in an internal squabble over the party’s leadership. Police used a water cannon truck and tear gas, and scores of officers pushed away hundreds of protesters who had stormed the ground floor of the centre-right Democratic Party’s headquarters. They …

RIYADH: Saudi authorities have released a princess and her daughter who had been held without charge for nearly three years in the capital, a human rights group said on Saturday. Basma bint Saud, 57, a royal family member long seen as a proponent of women’s rights and a constitutional monarchy, has been detained since March 2019, and in April 2020 …

KABUL: The Taliban’s foreign minister visited Iran on Saturday to discuss Afghan refugees and a growing economic crisis, in the first such trip to the neighbouring country since the Islamists seized power. Iran, like other nations, has so far not recognised the new government formed by the Taliban after it took power amid a hasty withdrawal by US-led foreign forces …

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Sri Lanka on Sunday seeking to advance China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, as the island nation looked to Beijing for help as it tries to rescue itself from a foreign currency and debt crisis. Wang arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday from the Maldives on the last leg of a multi-city trip …