International

A statement from the Israeli military said jets struck the launch sites from which the rockets were fired, as well as an additional target used to attack Israel in the past. The military blamed the state of Lebanon for the shelling and warned against further attempts to harm Israeli civilians and Israel’s sovereignty. The overnight airstrikes in southern Lebanon were …

PARIS: Germany, France and Israel will go ahead with plans to administer Covid-19 vaccine boosters, disregarding an appeal by the World Health Organisation to hold off until more people are vaccinated around the world. The decision to press ahead with booster shots despite the WHO’s strongest statement yet highlights the huge inequities in responses to the pandemic as richer nations ramp up …

MOSCOW/DUSHANBE: Russia has increased arms and military hardware supplies to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan amid fighting in Afghanistan, Interfax news agency quoted Russian military chief of staff Valery Gerasimov as saying on Thursday. Gerasimov, who was in Tashkent to attend joint Uzbek-Russian military drills near the Afghan border, provided no details such as what arms were being supplied. Russia is also carrying out …

Pop star Rihanna’s net worth is estimated at $1.7 billion, making her the richest woman musician in the world, but her music is not the primary source of her wealth, Forbes magazine said on Wednesday. The Barbados-born singer, whose birth name is Robyn Fenty, derives an estimated $1.4 billion of her fortune from her 50% stake in the Fenty Beauty cosmetics line, Forbes reported. The …

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Security Council has convened an emergency meeting for Friday (Aug 6) to discuss rising violence in Afghanistan, a senior diplomat said here on Wednesday. The meeting was called after Afghan Foreign Minister Haneef Atmar spoke to India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in the wake of Taliban’s assault on major cities and an attack on the …

NEW DELHI: The chief minister of India’s capital ordered a judge-led inquiry on Wednesday after a nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered, sparking days of protests and renewed scrutiny of the country’s problem with sexual violence. Police have alleged that the girl was killed after she had gone to fetch water from a crematorium near her house in the …

GENEVA: The WHO called on Wednesday for a moratorium on Covid-19 vaccine booster shots as China tightened overseas travel curbs after recording its highest number of infections in months, while Tokyo reported the Olympic Games’ first cluster. The World Health Organisation said halting booster shots until at least the end of September would help ease the drastic inequity in dose …

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday wrote letters to the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary General, drawing their attention to “unlawful steps” being taken by India after the annexation of the disputed region of Kashmir to strengthen its “colonial hold” on the territory. These actions include changes to the demographic structure and electoral boundaries in the …

UNITED NATIONS: Two days after India assumed the presidency of the UN Security Council, the spokesperson for the secretary general has clarified that the UN position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute has not changed. The clarification followed a statement by India’s UN Ambassador T. S. Tirmurti that the disputed state was now an “integral” part of India. At a …

HISARONU: Roaring blazes encircled a Turkish thermal power plant on Tuesday and forced farmers to herd panicked cattle toward the sea, as wildfires that have killed eight people raged for a seventh day. The nation of 84 million has been transfixed in horror as the most destructive wildfires in generations erase pristine forests and rich farmland across swaths of Turkey’s …