International

SIBLEY: An evacuation order remained in place on Monday for part of a northwest Iowa town as firefighters worked to extinguish a burning train after a weekend derailment. About 47 cars derailed on Sunday afternoon near Sibley, including several cars that were carrying hazardous materials. The resulting fire created a thick plume of black smoke but no injuries were reported. …

New Delhi: Rockets fired by Palestinians against Israel are part of a “resistance” which is supported by international law, a group of writers and artistes led by Arundhati Roy and Nayantara Sahgal has declared, The Hindu said on Monday. In a statement, the collective accused Israeli government of killing Palestinian children and blamed Israeli settlers for illegally trying to snatch Palestinian land. …

AHMEDABAD: A major cyclone packing ferocious winds and threatening a destructive storm made landfall in western India on Monday, disrupting the country’s response to its devastating Covid-19 outbreak. At least 12 people died over the weekend and on Monday in torrential rains and winds as Cyclone Tauktae, according to press reports the biggest to hit western India in 30 years, …

A 73-year-old from Pakistan who is the oldest prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre was notified on Monday that he has been approved for release after more than 16 years in custody at the US base in Cuba, his lawyer said. Saifullah Paracha, who has been held on suspicion of ties to Al Qaeda but never charged with a …

India’s total Covid-19 caseload surged past 25 million on Tuesday as a powerful cyclone complicated the health crisis in one of the states where the disease is spreading most quickly. Covid-19 tests were administered to 200,000 people evacuated from coastal districts of the western state of Gujarat before the cyclone struck late on Monday and efforts were being made to try to …

The UN Security Council was due to hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday amid a flurry of urgent diplomacy aimed at stemming Israel air strikes that have killed more than 200 Palestinians. A fireball accompanied by a plume of black smoke erupted over a Gaza building early on Tuesday after the latest Israeli strike, an AFP journalist reported. Despite growing calls for …

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Tuesday that Pakistan was establishing contacts with different countries in a bid to pressure Israel to stop attacks on Gaza which have been continuing since May 10. The foreign minister is currently on a diplomatic mission to Turkey to bring the international community’s attention to the worsening situation in Palestine. In a statement, Qureshi said …

More than 800 people have been killed by Myanmar’s security forces since a wave of protests broke out across the country after the military seized power in a coup in February, an activist group said. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army ousted Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government and detained her and officials of her National League …

FAGRADALSFJALL VOLCANO: Pandemic or no pandemic, the world will never stand still. That’s perhaps no clearer than in Iceland, where a volcano has awoken from a slumber that has lasted 6,000 years, give or take a year or two. The glow from the bubbling hot lava spewing out of the Fagradalsfjall volcano can be seen from the outskirts of Iceland’s …

JERUSALEM: Israeli medics say two people are dead and more than 150 injured in a stands collapse at a West Bank synagogue. The stands were packed with ultra-Orthodox worshippers and collapsed during prayers at the beginning of a major Jewish holiday. A spokesman for Magen David Adom told Channel 13 that paramedics had treated over 157 people for injuries and …