MOSCOW: Russia’s Supreme Court ordered on Tuesday the closure of Memorial, the country’s most prominent rights group that chronicled Stalin-era purges and symbolised post-Soviet democratisation, sparking an international outcry. The court ruling against Memorial International, the group’s central structure, caps a year that began with the jailing of President Vladimir Putin’s top critic Alexei Navalny and saw a historic crackdown …

BEIRUT: An Israeli air strike hit Syria’s Latakia port before dawn on Tuesday, sparking a fire that lit up the Mediterranean seafront in the second such attack on the key cargo hub this month, Syrian state media reported. Since the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011, Israel has routinely carried out air strikes on its strife-torn neighbour, mostly targeting …

BEIJING: Beijing on Tuesday accused the United States of irresponsible and unsafe conduct in space over two “close encounters” between the Chinese space station and satellites operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Tiangong, China’s new space station, had to manoeuvre to avoid colliding with one Starlink satellite in July and with another in October, according to a note submitted by Beijing …

BERLIN: The WHO warned on Tuesday that the Omicron coronavirus variant could lead to overwhelmed healthcare systems even though early studies suggest it sparks milder disease, as China and Germany brought back tough restrictions to stamp out new infection surges. China put hundreds of thousands more people under lockdown, while infections hit new highs across Europe and in several US …

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Hurriyat Party and other opposition groups on Tuesday slammed India’s recent move to allow non-Kashmiris to buy land, saying New Delhi had put up Jammu and Kashmir on sale. In a statement, Kashmir’s All Parties Hurriyat Conference headed by incarcerated Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said it has “strongly appealed to the international community to take cognisance …

John Madden, the Hall of Fame coach turned broadcaster whose exuberant calls combined with simple explanations provided a weekly soundtrack to National Football League (NFL) games for three decades, died on Tuesday morning, the league said. He was 85. The NFL said he died unexpectedly and did not detail a cause. Madden gained fame in a decade-long stint as the …

Apple said on Wednesday it has put the Indian plant of its main supplier “on probation” after a mass food poisoning and protests over workers’ living conditions. Some 250 women working at Foxconn’s iPhone factory in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu were treated for food poisoning this month, 159 of whom were hospitalised. This prompted demonstrations against living …

The death toll from a shooting spree across multiple locations in the US state of Colorado, which ended when the gunman was himself shot dead, has risen to five, police said on Tuesday. The trail of shooting began around 5:00pm on Monday and unfolded across at least four different locations in the cities of Denver and Lakewood, said police, who …

LARKANA: The central executive committee of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) which met in Naudero House on late Monday evening paid homage to its slain leader, Benazir Bhutto, on her 14th death anniversary, and lauded her exceptional leadership qualities. The meeting was chaired by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. It strongly opposed moves to bring those extremists, who had been involved …

ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday said the government would bring back self-exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to the country as he would never return himself, insisting that the opposition was incapable of toppling the present setup led by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). Speaking at a joint press conference with National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf after a …