PARIS: Facebook on Monday announced plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to build the “metaverse”, a virtual reality version of the internet that the tech giant sees as the future. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been a leading voice in Silicon Valley hype around the idea of the metaverse, which would blur the lines between the physical …

A man charged with raping a woman on a commuter train just outside of the US city of Philadelphia harassed her for more than 40 minutes while multiple people held up their phones to seemingly record the assault without intervening, authorities said. More than two dozen train stops passed as the man harassed, groped and eventually raped the woman, the police chief …

ISLAMABAD: Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa reiterated Pakistan’s desire for “enduring ties” with the United States. He was talking to US Charge d’affaires to Pakistan Angela Aggeler, who called on him. The Inter-Services Public Relations, the media affairs wing of the army, said the two discussed “matters of mutual interest, current security situation in Afghanistan and bilateral cooperation in various …

Africa’s fabled eastern glaciers will vanish in two decades, 118 million poor people face imminent drought, floods or extreme heat, and climate change could also shave three per cent off continental GDP by mid-century, the UN climate agency warned on Tuesday. The latest report on the state of Africa’s climate by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), partnered with African Union agencies, paints …

KABUL: Afghanistan will kick off its first countrywide polio immunisation campaign in years next month to protect millions of unvaccinated children, the UN said on Monday. The United Nations’ health and children’s agencies said the campaign to vaccinate against the crippling and potentially fatal disease would begin on Nov 8, with full support from the Taliban leadership. “WHO and Unicef …

SRINAGAR: Indian authorities have started moving thousands of migrant workers in occupied Kashmir to safe locations overnight, while hundreds have fled the valley after a wave of targeted killings, two officials said on Monday. Kashmiri fighters have killed 11 civilians, including five migrant workers, in held Kashmir since Oct 6 despite a widespread crackdown in the heavily militarised region. “We moved thousands …

BEIJING: China on Monday denied a report it had recently launched a hypersonic missile, saying it tested a spacecraft to trial reusable technologies. The Financial Times reported that Beijing had launched a nuclear-capable missile in August that circled the Earth at low orbit before narrowly missing its target. FT sources said the hypersonic missile was carried by a Long March rocket and that the test …

MOSCOW: Russia said on Monday it was suspending its mission to Nato and closing the alliance’s offices in Moscow, as relations with the Western military bloc plunged to new depths. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov anno­unced the moves after Nato expelled several members of Moscow’s delegation to the alliance for alleged spying. “Following certain measures taken by Nato, the basic conditions for common …

YANGON: Myanmar’s junta chief on Monday announced the release of more than 5,000 people jailed for protesting against the February coup, days after a regional bloc delivered a major snub to the military regime. There has been chaos in Myanmar since the coup, with more than 1,100 civilians killed in a bloody crackdown on dissent and more than 8,000 arrested, …

The United States’ special envoy for Afghanistan is stepping down following the chaotic American withdrawal from the country, the US State Department said on Monday. Zalmay Khalilzad will leave the post this week after more than three years on the job under both the Trump and Biden administrations. He had been criticised for not pressing the Taliban hard enough in …