International

YEREVAN: Six Armen­ian soldiers were captured by Azerbaijan on Thursday, the latest in a series of escalating border incidents after last year’s war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The capture of Armenia’s soldiers comes at a delicate time for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ahead of snap elections next month. Pashinyan described the situation as “tense and explosive” and called for …

A group of Muslims, Jews and Christians joined on Thursday to lay the foundation stone for a centre that will house places of worship for each religion in a symbol of interfaith dialogue in the German capital. Days after protests in Berlin over the attacks by Israel in Gaza, and at a time when politicians are warning of rising anti-Semitism …

DUBAI: Israel’s top diplomat to the United Arab Emirates attended a ceremony in Dubai on the grounds of the Arabian Peninsula’s first permanent exhibition to commemorate the Holo­caust. Hours earlier, he’d attended an event establishing a joint venture betw­een an Israeli and Emirati company. The receptions on Wednesday were the clearest indication since a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip came …

JAKARTA: An Indonesian court sentenced on Thursday hardline Muslim cleric Rizieq Shihab to eight months in prison and fined him 20 million rupiah ($1,400) for breaching coronavirus curbs after his return last year from self-imposed exile. A livestream of the court hearing showed Rizieq, the spiritual leader of an outlawed Islamist vigilante group — the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) — …

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday denied overseeing the needless deaths of many thousands of Covid patients, after his former chief adviser alleged the government’s pandemic response was undermined by lies and incompetence. Johnson declined to say whether Dominic Cummings was telling the truth in his incendiary claims to MPs on Wednesday, but said: “Some of the commentary …

GOMA: Tens of thousands of people fled the eastern DR Congo city of Goma on Thursday, choking highways, after the local governor warned in a dawn broadcast of a possible new eruption of the volcano Mount Nyiragongo. The volcano’s monitors also pointed to a potentially catastrophic scenario — a “limnic eruption” that could smother the area with suffocating carbon dioxide. …

BEIJING: China hit out at the “dark history” of the US intelligence community on Thursday, after President Joe Biden ordered a probe into the Covid-19 origins which threatens to set the course for relations between world’s top economies. Washington is reviewing its diplomatic position with China on issues spanning trade, technological supremacy and rights, while it steps up efforts to …

Pakistan welcomes the adoption of an Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) led resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in response to “grave violations of international law and human rights” by Israel in Palestine, said a statement issued by the Foreign Office on Friday. Referring to a special UNHRC session held the previous day, the statement said the …

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi left on Friday for a three-day visit to Iraq on the invitation of his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the visit, the foreign minister will hold detailed discussions on bilateral cooperation, besides reviewing cooperation between Iraq and Pakistan in multilateral organisations, particularly the United Nations, …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday held a conversation with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi over phone and called for complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied Palestinian territories. “The prime minister called for total withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem; restitution of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people including their right to self-determination …