International

SEOUL: North and South Korea exchanged messages on Tuesday in communication channels that have been dormant for more than a year and agreed to improve ties positive steps but ones that still leave any resumption of stalled negotiations to rid the North of its nuclear weapons a long way off. Liaison officials from the Koreas had several phone conversations including …

QUETTA: Taliban, who captured the Afghan border district of Spin Boldak early this month, on Tuesday imposed new tariff and started collecting taxes on goods coming into Afghanistan or going to Pakistan, a day after Pakistan reopened the border for trade activities after a suspension of over two weeks because of the fighting between Taliban and Afghan security troops. The …

WASHINGTON: Wiping away tears, a police officer told a rapt US congressional hearing on Tuesday he believed “this is how I’m going to die” while defending the Capitol on January 6 against a rampaging mob branding him a traitor. Another recalled how he was beaten unconscious by rioters supportive of then-president Donald Trump and said he “went to hell and …

GENEVA: A new World Bank financing mechanism will allow developing countries to purchase Covid-19 vaccines collectively through the Covax facility, the scheme announced on Monday. Covax was set up to ensure 92 developing territories could access coronavirus vaccines to fight the pandemic, with the cost covered by donors. The new mechanism will allow those countries to buy additional doses on …

PARIS: Heatwaves that obliterate temperature records as in western Canada last month and Siberia last year are caused by the rapid pace, rather than the amount, of global warming, researchers said on Monday. The findings, reported in Nature Climate Change, suggest that humanity is likely to see a lot more deadly scorchers in the coming decades. “Because we are in a …

UNITED NATIONS: The banned militant group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) still has about 6,000 trained fighters on the Afghan side of the border, warns a report prepared for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The 28th report of the UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team also confirms the presence of hundreds of anti-Beijing Muslim militants close to Afghanistan’s border with China. The …

TUNIS: Street clashes erupted on Monday outside Tunisia’s army-barricaded parliament, a day after President Kais Saied ousted the prime minister and suspended the legislature, plunging the young democracy into a constitutional crisis. Saied sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and ordered parliament closed for 30 days, a move the biggest political party Ennahdha decried as a “coup”, following a day of …

BEIJING: Rancour marked the start of Monday’s talks between Beijing and the highest-level US envoy to visit under President Joe Biden’s administration, as Beijing urged Washington to stop “demonising” China while the US made a “forceful” case against China’s human rights violations. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman’s visit to the northern city of Tianjin is the first major meeting …

Forty-six Afghan soldiers, including five officers who had been provided safe passage by the Pakistan Army on Sunday, were “amicably returned” to Afghan authorities today at Nawapass, Bajaur, the Inter-Services Public Relations statement (ISPR) said in a statement. “These soldiers from the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Border Police were given safe passage into Pakistan, on their own request, by the Pakistan …

CHICO: Thousands of US firefighters are battling a blaze in California that has grown so big it is generating its own weather system, with authorities warning on Monday conditions could worsen. The flames have grown so large that they have created clouds that can cause lightning and high winds, which in turn can serve to fuel the fire, according to …