International

In a first for the southern Indian state of Telangana, two men celebrated their same-sex union with a wedding ceremony on Saturday. Abhay Dange and Supriya Chakraborty wore white tuxes, exchanged rings on a lavish marquee in what they called a promising ceremony and called each other soul mates, reported local media. While India struck down a colonial-era law that …

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 30,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Malaysia on Sunday as the country battles some of its worst flooding in years. The tropical Southeast Asian nation often sees stormy monsoon seasons towards the end of the year, with flooding regularly prompting mass evacuations. Downpours since Friday have caused rivers to overflow, submerging many urban areas …

RUKLA: German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht on Sunday said Russia cannot “dictate” to Nato on regional security, as tensions soar between Moscow and Western capitals over the conflict in Ukraine. She spoke during a visit to Lithuania, which along with its Baltic neighbours Estonia and Latvia is worried about security after Russia deployed tens of thousands of troops near its …

MADRID: Spain’s Catholic Church is to open an investigation into alleged sex abuse of hundreds of children by members of the clergy dating back 80 years that the newspaper El Pais has uncovered, the daily said on Sunday. The investigation will look into allegations of abuse against 251 priests and some lay people from religious institutions that the paper has uncovered, El Pais said. …

ISLAMABAD: Sunday proved to be a busy day for Prime Minister Imran Khan as he made a speech at a conference of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and then met on its sidelines foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Malaysia besides secretary general of the OIC, where he stressed the need for tackling problems confronting the member states both individually as …

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations joined Pakistan on Sunday in appealing to the world to help prevent Afghanistan’s economic collapse as 39 US lawmakers also backed the call. In a message to the 17th Extraordinary Session of the OIC foreign ministers, Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths reminded the world that “now is the time” to save Afghanistan from …

Turkey’s troubled lira shed a further five per cent against the dollar on Monday after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cited Muslim teachings to justify not raising interest rates to stabilise the currency. Erdogan has pushed the central bank to sharply lower borrowing costs despite the annual rate of inflation soaring to more than 20pc. Economists believe the policy could see consumer price …

BARCELONA: Thousands of Catalans took to the streets of Barcelona on Saturday to protest against a court decision that mandates that 25pc of all school subjects be taught in Spanish, reducing the still predominant use of the local Catalan language in classrooms. Demonstrators say this would threaten their cherished educational system, which has helped bring Catalan back to common use …

SURIGAO CITY: More than 30 people were killed in the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, official figures showed on Saturday, with a charity reporting “alarming” destruction on islands that bore the brunt of the storm. Hundreds of thousands fled their homes and beachfront resorts as Typhoon Rai ravaged the southern and central regions of the archipelago, knocking out communications …

BERLIN: German Economic Affairs Minister Robert Habeck warned in an interview published on Saturday of “severe consequences” for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany if Moscow attacked Ukraine. The Baltic Sea pipeline is set to double supplies of cheap natural gas from Russia to Germany, which the European Union’s top economy says is needed to help …