International

BANGKOK: A Thai police chief at the centre of a manhunt over accusations he tortured and suffocated a drug suspect to death surrendered on Thursday. Thai police raided the Bangkok mansion of 41-year-old Thitisan Utthanaphon — nicknamed ‘Joe Ferrari’ — on Wednesday and found 13 luxury cars, local media reported. National Police confirmed during a late night press conference on …

WASHINGTON: US inte­lligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus, but believe China’s leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic, according to results released on Friday of a review ordered by President Joe Biden. According to an unclassified summary, four members of the intelligence community say with “low confidence” that the …

DHAKA: At least 19 people were killed and dozens remain missing as a boat packed with passengers and a sand-laden cargo ship collided on Friday in a lake in eastern Bangladesh, officials said. The boat was reportedly carrying some 60 passengers when the incident occurred on a lake in the town of Bijoynagar, local government administrator Hayat-ud-Doula Khan said. The …

The US military has said that it carried out a drone strike on Saturday at an ISIS- Khorasan (ISIS-K) group in eastern Afghanistan, killing a “planner” of this week’s terrorist attack at the Kabul airport. “US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner,” Captain Bill Urban, spokesperson for the US Central Command, said in a …

RAWALPINDI: Angela Ageler, US Charge d’ Affairs to Pakistan, called on General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), at GHQ, on Friday. During the meeting, matters of mutual interest, regional security and recent situation in Afghanistan were discussed in detail. The army chief said that Pakistan has no favourites in Afghanistan and its sole aim is to …

WASHINGTON: The United States will continue to be a “very generous” donor of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people and will aim to prevent any of its assistance from passing through Taliban coffers, State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Friday. The United States is taking steps to allow humanitarian work to continue in Afghanistan despite US sanctions on the …

WASHINGTON: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday met President Joe Biden a day after a deadly bomb attack on the US Afghanistan evacuation mission forced a postponement and cast a shadow on an Israeli charm offensive. The US had an “unwavering commitment” to Israel’s security, including replenishing Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, Biden said after the two met …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has enrolled to participate in the ‘Solidarity PLUS’ clinical trial led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that will evaluate three potential drugs — artesunate, imatinib and infliximab — for the treatment of Covid-19 infections aiming to protect people from severe hospitalisation and death because of the pandemic. WHO has announced that researchers and scientists from Egypt, Iran, …

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett are set to hold their first face-to-face meeting on Friday, and Israel’s new leader intends to press Biden to give up his pursuit of reviving the Iran nuclear deal. Before arriving in Washington, Bennett made it clear the top priority of the visit to the White House was to persuade …

TOKYO: Japan has decided to halt the use of 1.63 million doses of Moderna’s Covid vaccine after reports of contamination in several vials, drugmaker Takeda and the health ministry said on Thursday. Takeda, which is in charge of sales and distribution of the Moderna shot in Japan, said it had “received reports from several vaccination centres that foreign substances have …