International

Saudi Arabia’s sports fans will be allowed to attend full-capacity events at all stadiums and other sports facilities starting on Sunday, the country’s ministry of sports announced in a statement on Saturday. Stadiums and other sports facilities will limit entry to fans who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine approved by the kingdom, the ministry said. On Friday, …

For the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began, worshippers prayed shoulder-to-shoulder in the holy mosques of Makkah and Madina in Saudi Arabia. The Imam at Masjid Al Haram instructed worshippers to “straighten [the] rows and close the gaps” during Fajr prayer, tweeted Haramain Sharifain. Major restrictions and precautionary measures have been lifted as the Grand Mosque returned to full …

The World Trade Organization (WTO) said Friday its member nations had again failed to agree to suspend intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, with some countries doubting a deal could be reached unless certain delegations make “real compromises”. South Africa and India have called for intellectual property rights to be temporarily lifted for coronavirus vaccines during the pandemic in order …

SRINAGAR: Clashes bet­ween fighters and Indian forces as well as street killings left six more dead in occupied Kashmir on Saturday, officials said, as the disputed Himalayan region battles a worsening wave of violence. At least 28 people, including nine civilians, have been gunned down in the past two weeks as a decades-old armed rebellion has intensified in the disputed …

LONDON: The fatal stabbing of British lawmaker David Amess was a terrorist incident, police said on Satur­day, as MPs pressed for tougher security in the wake of the second killing of a UK politician while meeting constituents in just over five years. Veteran Conservative MP David Amess, 69, was talking to voters at a church in the small town of Leigh-on-Sea east …

ISTANBUL: Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday vowed continuity in Germany’s relations with Turkey that included both cooperation and criticism of Ankara as she paid her final visit to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Merkel and Erdogan developed complex but close relations over the German chancellor’s 16-year term that navigated the perils of Turkey’s tumultuous ties with the West. Their personal bond …

MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday recorded 1,000 deaths over 24 hours for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with the country’s jab drive at a standstill and few restrictions in place. An official government tally showed 1,002 deaths and 33,208 new infections, setting a high for both fatalities and cases for the third day in a row. …

UPPER DARBY: A woman was raped by a stranger on a commuter train in suburban Phila­delphia in the presence of other riders who a police official said should have done something. Superintendent Timothy Bern­hardt of the Upper Darby Police Department said officers were called to the 69th Street terminal around 10pm on Wednesday after the assault on the westbound train …

STOCKHOLM: Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on Saturday said upcoming climate talks in Glasgow, billed as humanity’s last chance to avoid catastrophic global warming, were unlikely to “lead to big changes”. Thunberg, whose Fridays for Future movement has inspired massive street protests around the world, said activists needed to keep on “pushing” for real change. “As it is now, this COP …

BANDAR BEGAWAN: Myanmar’s junta chief will be excluded from an upcoming ASEAN summit, the group said on Saturday, a rare rebuke as concerns rise over the military government’s commitment to defusing a bloody crisis. Foreign ministers from the Associ­a­tion of Southeast Asian Nations agreed at an emergency meeting late on Fri­day that a “non-political representative” for Myanmar would be invited …