BEIJING: Remnants of solidified lava brought back by a Chinese mission were 1 billion years younger than material acquired by other missions decades ago, according to an article in the journal Science, suggesting the moon cooled down later than thought. Samples brought back from US and Soviet missions were more than 2.9 billion years old. The samples acquired on China’s Chang’e-5 …

PARIS: A group of 136 countries on Friday set a minimum global tax rate of 15 per cent for big companies and sought to make it harder for them to avoid taxation in a landmark deal that US President Joe Biden said levelled the playing field. The deal aims to end a four-decade-long “race to the bottom” by setting a …

Senior Taliban officials and US representatives are to hold talks Saturday and Sunday about containing extremist groups in Afghanistan and easing the evacuation of foreign citizens and Afghans from the country, officials from both sides said. It’s the first such meeting since US forces withdrew from Afghanistan in late August, ending a 20-year military presence there, and the Taliban’s rise …

All three people whose dismembered bodies were found in a burning Fort Worth dumpster last month have now been identified. The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office this week identified Maricruz Mathis, 33, as the third victim. Officials had previously identified the bodies of David Lueras, 42 and Lauren Phillips, 34. The cause of death is listed simply as homicidal violence …

GENEVA: The UN Human Rights Council on Friday recognised access to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right, formally adding its weight to the global fight against climate change and its devastating consequences. The vote passed with overwhelming support, despite criticism in the lead-up from some countries, notably the United States and Britain. The resolution, first discussed in …

A Keller ISD band director is charged with exposing himself to multiple children, police say. Jedidiah William Maus, 35, was arrested Friday and charged with three felony counts of indecency with a child. He was being held in the Keller jail. His bail had not been set, and it was unclear whether he had an attorney. Maus was director of bands …

ISLAMABAD: A group of four distinguished individuals approached the Supreme Court on Friday with a petition that it order President Dr Arif Alvi, as well as the federal government, to convene a joint sitting of parliament for deliberations on Article 29 of the Constitution. Article 29 deals with the “principles of policy” and makes it the responsibility of every organ …

The charges of sexual assault against “Girl in the Closet” Lauren Kavanaugh — who as a child was subjected to years of abuse by her family — have been dismissed. Denton County court records show that prosecutors filed a motion Tuesday to dismiss the three counts of sexual assault of a child and that a judge closed the case the …

Facebook on Friday said users around the world again had problems accessing its services for hours due to a tweak of its system, just days after a massive outage caused in a similar fashion. “Sincere apologies to anyone who wasn’t able to access our products in the last couple of hours,” a Facebook spokesperson told AFP about 21:30 GMT. “We fixed the issue, and …