International

JOHANNESBURG: The mayor of Johannesburg was killed in a car accident as he returned from campaigning with South Africa’s president on Saturday, just over a month after being elected, his office said in a statement. Jolidee Matongo, 46, was returning from a voter registration drive in Soweto township ahead of local elections when the accident happened. “It is hard to …

PALU: The bodies of Indonesia’s most wanted militant with ties to the militant Islamic State group and a follower, who were killed in a jungle shootout with security forces, were evacuated early on Sunday to a police hospital for further investigation, police said. The military earlier said the militants killed late on Saturday were Ali Kalora, leader of the East …

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s political elite began selecting a powerful committee on Sunday which will choose the city’s next leader and nearly half the legislature under a new “patriots only” system imposed by Beijing. The first poll under that new system — carrying the slogan “Patriots rule Hong Kong” — took place on Sunday as members of the city’s ruling …

UNITED NATIONS: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi arrives in New York on Monday (today) for the 76 session of the UN General Assembly during which Pakistan will join the United Nations in urging the world to prevent an economic collapse in Afghanistan. “The situation in Afghanistan is unpredictable,” said UN Secretary General António Guterres in an interview to UN News. “Because …

PARIS: US President Joe Biden has requested early talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, France said on Sunday, in an apparent effort to mend fences after a row over a submarines contract sparked rare tensions between the allies. The announcement came after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison rejected French accusations that Canberra had lied about plans to cancel the contract …

Right-wing radio host and television presenter Glenn Beck, whose charity organisation has been assisting with evacuations from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, lauded Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday for his support to the cause and help in getting people — including Afghan female footballers — out of the war-torn country. In a statement on Twitter, Beck said that he would share the …

MOSCOW: Russians voted on Sunday in the final stretch of a three-day parliamentary election that the ruling party is expected to win after a sweeping crackdown that crushed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s movement and barred opponents from running. The expected win by the ruling United Russia party will be used by the Kremlin as proof of support for President Vladimir …

A student opened fire at a university campus in central Russia on Monday killing at least eight people, investigators said, in the second mass shooting at an education facility this year. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said several people were also injured in the attack at Perm State University and that the suspect had been wounded while being …

The Afghan Taliban’s effective ban on women working sank in on Monday, sparking rage over the dramatic loss of rights after millions of female teachers and girls were barred from secondary school education. After pledging a softer version of their brutal and repressive regime of the 1990s, the group is tightening its control of women’s freedoms one month after seizing power. “I may as …

WASHINGTON: Hundreds of police officers were patrolling around the US Capitol on Saturday, ahead of a rally by supporters of the people who breached the building on Jan 6 trying to overturn former President Donald Trump’s election defeat. A black eight-foot-high (2.44 m) fence which surrounded the white-domed building for about six months after the attack is back, 100 National Guard troops …