International

WASHINGTON: The Treasury Department has asked law enforcement authorities to investigate the disclosure of tax records cited in a media report that showed that some of America’s richest people paid little to no income taxes, US officials said on Tuesday. US media outlet ProPublica said it obtained “a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation’s …

The rocket that will send the first crew members to live on China’s new orbiting space station has been moved onto the launch pad ahead of its planned blast-off next week. The three astronauts plan to spend three months on the space station doing spacewalks, construction and maintenance work and science experiments. The main section of the Tianhe, or Heavenly …

ISLAMABAD: Government officials have privately begun confirming a secret visit to Islamabad of CIA Director William Burns and are suggesting that he was firmly told that Pakistan would not host the spy agency’s drone bases on its territory. This comes after New York Times in an article published on June 6 claimed that Mr Burns had travelled to Pakistan for meetings with Army Chief …

ISLAMABAD: The government on Tuesday condemned the premeditated murder of four Muslim family members of Pakistani origin in Canada, terming it a ‘terrorism incident’ and an ‘Islamophobic attack’. Prime Minister Imran Khan led the condemnation of the incident in the Canadian province of Ontario by describing the attack as ‘an act of terrorism’. “Saddened to learn of the killing of a …

MEXICO CITY: US Vice President Kamala Harris held talks with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday during a visit to the region aimed at tackling the “root causes” of a surge in migrant arrivals. The two leaders witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between their countries on cooperation in aid and development in Central America. “We’re …

PARIS: G7 states have found a way to include Amazon, one of the world’s biggest companies, on a list of 100 set to face higher taxes in the countries where they do business by targeting its more profitable cloud computing unit, officials close to the talks said. Some European countries had concerns that Amazon may fall out of scope of …

NEW YORK: The United Nations Security Council backed Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday for a second term, recommending that the 193-member General Assembly appoint him for another five years from Jan 1 of next year. Estonia’s UN Ambassador Sven Jrgenson, council president for this month, said the General Assembly was likely to meet to make the appointment on June …

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving a group of Muslim Americans who accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of illegally targeting them for surveillance. On Monday, the court issued a statement saying that it will look at the FBI’s use of an informant to collect information from several Los Angeles and Orange County …

WASHINGTON: The US pullout from Afghanistan is more than 50 per cent complete, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, as it approaches its Sept 11 deadline to remove troops. Since President Joe Biden ordered the departure from Afghanistan in April, the Department of Defence has withdrawn the equivalent of approximately 500 C-17 loads of material, the US military’s Central Command (Centcom) …

THE HAGUE: United Nations war crimes judges on Tuesday upheld a genocide conviction and life sentence against former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, rejecting all grounds of appeal against a lower tribunal’s verdict. Mladic, 78, led Bosnian Serb forces during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war. He was convicted in 2017 on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes including …