India has told China that their bilateral relations will only develop when both countries pull their troops back from a confrontation on their disputed Himalayan border, the Indian foreign minister said. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar discussed the possibility of both sides when he met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of a regional conference in Dushanbe on Thursday. “Discussed disengagement …

CAPE CANAVERAL: A billionaire e-commerce executive and three less-wealthy private citizens chosen to join him blasted off from Florida on Wednesday aboard a SpaceX rocket ship and soared into orbit, the first all-civilian crew ever to circle the Earth from space. The quartet of amateur astronauts, led by the American founder and chief executive of financial services firm Shift4 Payments …

Chinese astronauts returned to earth on Friday after completing the country’s longest-ever crewed mission, the latest landmark in Beijing’s drive to become a major space power. The capsule carrying the three astronauts was suspended on a parachute and landed in the Gobi desert at 1:35pm local time (05:35 GMT). The crew of the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft were in “good health” after …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has become self-sufficient in mung bean production as the first estimate of the crop for 2021-22 records the legume output at 253,000 tonnes against the national requirement of about 180,000 tonnes. The self-sufficiency in mung bean — a major edible legume in Asia — was announced during the annual review and planning meeting for Rabi 2021-22 on Thursday. …

PARIS: Euro 2020 finalists England pushed world champions and cross-Channel rivals France out of the top three in world football body FIFA’s latest men’s rankings published on Thursday. Belgium and Brazil retain first and second spots respectively, while England make their first appearance on the podium in nine years on the back of two wins and a draw in recent …

GENEVA: A new climate change report out on Thursday shows that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will be impossible without immediate, large-scale emissions cuts, the UN chief said. The United in Science 2021 report, published by a range of UN agencies and scientific partners just weeks before the COP26 climate summit, said climate change and its impacts were …

MANILA: The United Nations children’s agency Unicef has urged education authorities to reopen schools as soon as possible in countries where millions of students are still not allowed to return to classrooms 18 months into the Covid-19 pandemic. Schools in around 17 countries remain fully closed, while those in 39 countries remain partially closed, according to a report released by …

JAKARTA: An Indonesian court ordered on Thursday President Joko Widodo and other senior government officials to improve the hazardous air quality of the capital Jakarta after finding them guilty of environmental negligence in a civil lawsuit. The citizen lawsuit was filed in 2019 against the president, the ministers of health, environment and home affairs, as well as other prominent local …

AMSTERDAM: A newly discovered Vincent van Gogh drawing that has been hidden in a private collection for more than a century went on display for the first time at an Amsterdam museum on Thursday. “Study for Worn Out”, which depicts an old man sitting in a chair, was sketched by van Gogh in November 1882 when he was just starting …

TEHRAN: An Iranian official has suggested that cryptocurrencies could be used to overcome problems related to international sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic. “We cannot remain indifferent to the phenomenon” of cryptocurrencies, Gholamreza Marhaba, spokesman of the economic commission at Iran’s parliament, said. “The transfer of money through cryptocurrencies could be a means to circumvent sanctions and ease their effects” …