International

Turkey’s foreign ministry has slammed a United States report on human trafficking that criticised Ankara for providing “operational, equipment, and financial support” to an armed militia in Syria that recruits child soldiers. In a statement late on Friday, the Turkish foreign ministry said it “completely rejects” the claim and its record is clean. The statement also accuses Washington of “double standards and …

NEW DELHI: Tens of millions of people in India were suffering on Friday under a severe heatwave that has pushed the temperature to a nine-year high in New Delhi as monsoon rains run behind schedule. Heatwaves have killed over 6,500 people in India since 2010, and scientists say climate change is making them harsher and more frequent. Daytime temperatures were …

Saudi Arabia plans to target international transit passenger traffic with its new national airline, going head-to-head with Emirates and Qatar Airways and revving up regional competition. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is pushing economic diversification to wean Saudi Arabia off oil revenues and create jobs, announced a transportation and logistics drive on Tuesday aimed at making the kingdom the fifth-biggest air …

PARIS: A total of 130 countries have agreed a global tax reform ensuring that multinationals pay their fair share wherever they operate, the OECD said on Thursday, but some EU states refused to sign up. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a statement that global companies, including US behemoths Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple would be taxed …

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s 168 million people on Thursday began a strict coronavirus lockdown while Indonesia announced emergency curbs as infections surged across parts of the Asia-Pacific. A European Union-wide coronavirus travel certificate was also set to come into force on Thursday, but concerns persisted about a resurgence of the disease as the World Health Organisation said cases in the continent were …

NEW YORK: Donald Trump’s company and its long-time finance chief were charged on Thursday in what prosecutors called a sweeping and audacious tax fraud scheme in which the executive collected more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation, including apartment rent, car payments and school tuition. The former US president himself was not charged, but prosecutors noted that he signed some …

ANKARA: Turkey on Thursday formally exited a treaty combatting femicide and domestic abuse, in a controversial move by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned by the West and rights groups. Erdogan sparked outrage in March by pulling out from the world’s first binding treaty to prevent and combat violence against women, known as the Istanbul Convention. The 2011 pact, signed by …

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday that any Covid-19 vaccines it has authorised for emergency use should be recognised by countries as they open up their borders to inoculated travellers. The move could challenge Western countries to broaden their acceptance of two apparently less effective Chinese vaccines, which the UN health agency has licensed but most European and …

BERLIN: Austrian authorities have arrested three Afghans as suspects in the rape and killing of a 13-year-old girl, a crime that has prompted strong condemnation and tough talk from the country’s leader on crimes committed by migrants. The girl’s body was found next to a tree in Vienna’s Donaustadt district on Saturday. Two Afghan youths, aged 16 and 18, were …

India became the third country to surpass 400,000 Covid-19 deaths, official data showed on Friday, as the country’s vast vaccination drive slows. The total number of Covid-19 deaths reported in the country is 400,312, according to the health ministry — behind only the US and Brazil — and nearly 30.5 million cases have been reported in total. Many experts suspect India’s actual death toll …