International

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai said she was deeply concerned about the situation in Afghanistan, particularly the safety of women and girls, and called on Monday for world leaders to take urgent action. Yousafzai said US President Joe Biden “has a lot to do” and must “take a bold step” to protect the Afghan people, adding she had been …

The Taliban declared an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join its government on Tuesday, trying to calm nerves across the tense capital city of Kabul that only the day before saw chaos at its airport as people tried to flee the Taliban rule. The comments by Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, represent the first comments on …

YOGYAKARTA: Indonesia’s most active volcano erupted on Monday with its biggest lava flow in months, sending a river of lava and searing gas clouds flowing 3.5 kilometres down its slopes on the densely populated island of Java. The rumbling sound could be heard several kilometres away as Mount Merapi erupted, sending hot ash 600 metres (nearly 2,000 feet) into the …

KABUL: Thousands of Afghans rushed onto the tarmac of Kabul’s international airport on Monday, some so desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country that they held onto an American military jet as it took off and plunged to death in chaos that killed seven people. The crowds rushing to the airport came as the Taliban enforced their rule …

WARSAW: Poland’s government said on Monday that its ambassador to Israel will remain in Poland until further notice after Israel downgraded diplomatic ties with Warsaw and strongly criticised a new Polish law that restricts the rights of Holocaust survivors to reclaim property seized by the country’s former communist regime. Meanwhile, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki defended the new legislation, saying …

Australia’s biggest city of Sydney recorded its deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday as troops and police set up roadblocks to limit the movement of people, while Melbourne faced a nightly curfew and a further two weeks of lockdown. Sydney, which is in its eighth week of lockdown, is the epicentre of Australia’s third COVID-19 wave that threatens …

BEIRUT: A fuel tank blast in Lebanon early on Sunday killed 28 people and injured nearly 80, authorities and medics said, burning a crowd clamouring for petrol in the crisis-hit country. The tragedy in the remote north overwhelmed medical facilities and heaped new misery on a nation already beset by an economic crisis and severe fuel shortages that have crippled …

DHAKA: More than two dozen Rohingya refugees were missing and feared drowned after a boat carrying them capsized in the Bay of Bengal, the United Nations and Bangladeshi police said on Sunday. The refugees were apparently trying to flee a remote Bangladeshi island. Several thousand Rohingya have been relocated to the island after previously residing in crowded camps near the …

KARACHI: The Afghan Taliban on Sunday assured the people, foreign missions, staff as well as those who worked in the Kabul administration and foreign forces that their life and property are safe and they could resume their normal activities, as the Taliban await a peaceful transfer of power to form an Afghan inclusive Islamic government. In a live interview with BBC, …

WASINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the United States will only recognise a future government in Afghanistan if it upholds basic rights of its people and keeps terrorists out of the country. Asked to comment on media reports that China was ready to recognise the Taliban as a legitimate government, Secretary Blinken said: “A future …