International

DUSHANBE: Pakistan and Tajikistan on Friday signed several agreements and memorandums of agreement for cooperation in diverse areas, including trade, investment, banking, tourism, and information and broadcasting. Prime Minister Imran Khan and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon witnessed the signing of agreement papers at a ceremony held at the Qasr-i-Millat here, which followed a one-to-one meeting between the two leaders and …

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has asked Pakistan to accept the new influx of refugees from Afghanistan, suggesting that if these refugees are sent back due to the lack of documentation, they may be at risk. He said these refugees might be from minorities or they might have other issues. Speaking at a news conference …

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund’s executive board is reviewing a report prepared for the World Bank that found IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva in her previous senior role at the World Bank pressured staff to change data to favour China, the IMF said on Friday. Georgieva has said she disagrees “fundamentally with the findings and interpretations” of the independent report, prepared …

OKLAHOMA CITY: President Joe Biden tried to hammer out the world’s next steps against rapidly worsening climate change in a private, virtual session with a small group of other global leaders on Friday, and announced a new US-European pledge to cut climate-wrecking methane leaks. Ever-grimmer findings from scientists this year that the world is nearing the point where the level …

DUSHANBE: While asking the Afghan Taliban to yield power to a ‘more inclusive government’, leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) remin­ded the West in general and the United States in particular that it was their responsibility to help avert a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan after ending their 20-year presence in the country last month. The fate of Afghanistan dominated …

WASHINGTON: A drone strike in Kabul last month killed as many as 10 civilians, including seven children, the US military said on Friday, apologising for what it said was a tragic mistake. The Pentagon had said the Aug 29 strike targeted a suicide bomber of the militant Islamic State group who posed an imminent threat to US-led troops at the …

Girls were excluded from returning to secondary school in Afghanistan on Saturday, after the country’s new Taliban rulers ordered only boys and male teachers back to the classroom. The group ousted the US-backed government last month, promising a softer brand of rule than their repressive reign in the 1990s, when women were mostly banned from education and work. But the diktat from the education …

India has told China that their bilateral relations will only develop when both countries pull their troops back from a confrontation on their disputed Himalayan border, the Indian foreign minister said. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar discussed the possibility of both sides when he met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of a regional conference in Dushanbe on Thursday. “Discussed disengagement …

CAPE CANAVERAL: A billionaire e-commerce executive and three less-wealthy private citizens chosen to join him blasted off from Florida on Wednesday aboard a SpaceX rocket ship and soared into orbit, the first all-civilian crew ever to circle the Earth from space. The quartet of amateur astronauts, led by the American founder and chief executive of financial services firm Shift4 Payments …

Chinese astronauts returned to earth on Friday after completing the country’s longest-ever crewed mission, the latest landmark in Beijing’s drive to become a major space power. The capsule carrying the three astronauts was suspended on a parachute and landed in the Gobi desert at 1:35pm local time (05:35 GMT). The crew of the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft were in “good health” after …