STEPANAKERT: Best known for its pomegranates, vodka and “jangyl” — a delicious herb bread — the self-proclaimed capital of Nagorno-Karabakh has been turned into a ghost town after days of shelling. Normally a bustling little city known for its fresh air high in the Caucusus mountains, Stepanakert is now disfigured and most of its 55,000 ethnic Armenian inhabitants have fled …

SINGAPORE: China is in talks to have its locally-produced Covid-19 vaccines assessed by the World Health Organisation, as a step towards making them available for international use, a WHO official said on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of essential workers and other groups considered at high risk in China have been given locally-developed vaccines even as clinical trials had not been …

WASHINGTON: The global economy is in “less dire” shape than it was in June but risks crashing again if governments end fiscal and monetary support too soon, fail to control the coronavirus and ignore emerging market debt problems, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Tuesday. Georgieva told an online London School of Economics event that the IMF …

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump doubled down on Tuesday on the macho image his fans adore after declaring himself cured of Covid-19 and scoffing at disastrous opinion polls only four weeks before election day against Democrat Joe Biden. “FEELING GREAT!” he tweeted, also insisting that he is “looking forward” to holding a second scheduled debate against Biden in Miami on October …

KABUL: Taliban and Afghan peace negotiators have agreed on a code of conduct to safeguard against the risk of any breakdown in talks that began last month in Qatar to bring an end to decades of war, three official sources said on Tuesday. The breakthrough was achieved with the help of US officials, as the two sides drew up 19 …

Apple scheduled a media event for October 13 amid expectations it would unveil one or more new iPhones which use ultrafast 5G wireless technology. The event comes a month after Apple disappointed some fans with a September event which unveiled new service bundles but no new smartphone. Apple, which has habitually unveiled new iPhones ahead of the holiday season, has …

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan assured the international community on Tuesday that it was committed to fighting terrorism in all its forms because it believed that a selective approach would not work. At a UN meeting on “Measures to Eliminate Interna­tional Terrorism”, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative Ambassador Munir Akram said that the US-Taliban agreement could also help eliminate terrorism. Pakistan supports the Afghan …

US President Donald Trump, still being treated for Covid-19, abruptly ended talks with Democrats on an economic aid package on Tuesday, drawing criticism from presidential rival Joe Biden that he was abandoning Americans in the midst of a pandemic. Trump is quarantining in the White House with a case of Covid, and the latest batch of opinion polls shows him significantly …

China said on Wednesday that the United States should stop its unprovoked attacks and accusations against China, accusing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of maliciously creating political confrontation and smearing Beijing. Pompeo on Tuesday visited Japan and called for deeper cooperation with Australia, India and Japan to counter China’s growing regional influence. “Pompeo has repeatedly fabricated lies about China and maliciously …

Facebook on Tuesday announced a ban on all accounts linked to the QAnon conspiracy group, as the social network tries to clamp down on misinformation ahead of the heated US presidential election. The move against QAnon at Facebook and its image-sharing platform Instagram comes as the online giant tries to avoid being used to deceive or confuse voters, as was …